Caterham Seven owners celebrate car’s 50th anniversary at Silverstone Festival
Owners of the Caterham Seven celebrated the model’s 50th anniversary in style at the Silverstone Festival.
Members of the Caterham & Lotus Seven Club drove 50 examples of the classic performance car, completing a lap of the iconic circuit.
Richard Nichol, Chairman of Caterham & Lotus Seven Club, described what the car means to him.
“I’ve been a Caterham owner for nearly 20 years now. I bought the first on my 40th birthday and my second on my 50th, so that gives you an indication of my age.
“If you are passionate about anything automotive, the Seven remains the standard for roadholding, nothing gets you closer to the road.”
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Originally launched in 1973, the Caterham Seven was based on a Lotus sportscar that was designed the aeronautical engineer Colin Chapman in 1957.
The lightweight sportscar quickly gained praise for its relatively low price and incredible levels of performance for the time.
Using a 1.6 litre Lotus Twin Cam engine, early examples could accelerate from 0 to 60mph as fast as a Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer.
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Richard added that, whilst the Caterham Seven is an incredibly small vehicle, it is still useful for his daily life.
He said: “If I tell you that we’ve been camping for 14 days with ours, me and my wife, and I’m not one to shy away from luxuries.
“They’re more practical than you would think, but I’m not going to lie it’s not the same as a BMW 5 Series Estate.”
However, despite the models old age, the Caterham Seven continues to be manufactured in Dartford and is offered in kit-form for buyers to assemble themselves.
Currently, the Caterham Seven is offered with either a 660cc turbocharged engine produced by Suzuki or a 2.0 litre Ford unit, which can be supercharged.
The company also has plans to build a fully electric version of the Seven, which Caterham claim will be capable of accelerating from 0 to 60mph in just four seconds.
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