History
Today’s Caterham cars have a blend of traditional styling and modern components. They can trace their lineage directly to an original 1950s-era Colin Chapman design. Chapman, a Royal Air Force pilot, studied structural engineering and went on to become one of the great innovators in motorsports design.
After the war Chapman became a highly successful race driver and then founded Lotus Engineering Ltd. in 1952. Chapman’s vision of light, powerful cars and performance suspensions guided much of his development work with the basic design philosophy of 'adding lightness'.
The Lotus 7 originally debut was at the 1957 Earl’s Court Motor Show in London.
The first Lotus 7s were priced at £1,036 including purchase tax but it cost only £536 in kit form as no purchase tax was required. It weighed only 725 lb (329 kg). Fast and responsive, the Lotus 7 was one of Chapman’s masterworks, an advanced machine that surpassed the earlier Lotus 6 as a vehicle that could perform beautifully on the track and be driven legally on the road. The 7’s basic (and much copied) design was to stand the test of time, continuing in its popularity for the ensuing 50 years.
The 7’s evolution continued when, in 1973, Caterham Cars obtained manufacturing rights from Lotus to enable Lotus to move away from 'kit cars' and produce more up-market sports cars. Caterham renamed the car the "Super 7" – an apt name, as it was becoming clear that the car’s fundamental design was nearly impossible to improve having the right balance of strength and handling with a very light weight. Caterham's original offering was the Series 4, since that was the current production car at the time of the handover from Lotus. Unfortunately Caterham suffered numerous supply problems with the Series 4 and by the middle of 1974 they had reverted to the Series 3, which was perceived to have better sales potential. The modern day Roadsports and Superlights (in "narrow-bodied chassis" form) are the direct descendants of this car and therefore of the original Lotus 7.
Read more about this topic: Caterham 7
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