Thursday 16th February 2012

New Caterham road car - details

Emboldened Caterham looks to expand road car range with all-new road car

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Not the new Caterham road car...

While PistonHeads was with the team during its inaugural winter testing of the Caterham CT01 F1 car Caterham MD Ansar Ali revealed that work was already underway on the new road car project.

Fans of the 7’s back-to-basics driving experience shouldn’t fret yet, as the new car “will still embody everything Caterham stands for,” admitted Ali. That means raw, fun and basic – Caterham is even considering whether to offer a CD player.

The first all-new model in the company’s history was confirmed by Ali as a two-seat sports car with a kerb weight targeted at under 1,000kg. The project will also mark a first for Caterham in that the new car’s chassis will be a monocoque ‘tub’ constructed in-house, although using what material is yet to be confirmed.

It won’t be a McLaren-rivalling carbon-fibre item due to cost, but Caterham is keeping its options open. An all-aluminium bonded chassis à la the Lotus Elise? Watch this space…

According to Ali, the new car has been “engineered primarily from the driver-out, carrying across those qualities from the 7 across to deliver an engaging experience.” Second on the firm’s target list is price. It’ll cost between £30,000 and £45,000 – a pretty wide window, but Ali was quick to point out “above £50,000 people’s expectations ramp up quickly so we want to keep it under that mark.”

The new car will first break cover in coupe guise, but an open-top variant and a third high performance model (think R500) are both on the cards – although these will come after the closed car’s scheduled production date in 2015. Thanks to the new platform’s construction, the open car won’t be hamstrung by added weight or strengthening as the coupe’s roof rails won’t bear any load.

Engine choice is not yet confirmed but Ali says he wants “front-engined, rear-wheel drive and normally aspirated. It’s what a Caterham should be.” However, the British manufacturer has not ruled out the potential of forced induction, especially after the experience of supercharging the faithful 2.0-litre Ford Duratec unit in its new SP/330.R track car.

The new car will aim to tempt drivers looking for something more raw than a Porsche Cayman or BMW Z4, but also offer traditional Caterham characteristics for existing owners looking to chop in their 7s for something with a little more refinement.

As yet, the car’s name – or number – is still undecided and is something the company is keeping tight lipped about, as is the design of the vehicle.

[Gorbyrev]

Very interested in this. I guess the key is to make it a distinctive offering to mainstream offerings. The 21 went right up against the MX-5. Caterham as the new Lotus? There is a market gap to be filled as Lotus move upmarket. Having driven a 7 top down in torrential rain more refinement shouldn't be hard though. Only time I've ever thought interior windscreen wipers should have been standard equipment! Thing is the smiles per mile of a 7 are off the scale - this car will have a lot to live up to. Good luck Ansar and Co and keep us posted!

[Krikkit]

It's all about price point and how much of an interior there is. For £40k it's got to have a few creature comforts, if not masses of equipment.

Should be very exciting though.

[chickensoup]

Wonder if chassis will be sheet moulding composites, as Alfa are also looking for their 4c

[knowley]

Excellent news - had an R300 miss it.. a lot.

[otolith]

Surely there must be some people who are willing to spend most of their 40k on running gear and don't want too much of it wasted on creature comforts? I see the idea that any 40k sportscar needs to be a direct competitor for a Boxster, I just don't agree with it.

I think this is really good news, and will ensure that people who want what Lotus have been providing with the Elise variants still have somewhere to go if Lotus reposition that car. It's still not clear exactly what kind of car the next Elise will be, however.

Personally, I bought an Elise because I couldn't live with a Caterham - if this car had been available then, it could have been in the running.

[gforceg]

I'd like to think it might be something like the Caterham take on a Z4M (or Z3M maybe).

[suffolk009]

I don't think anyone considers buying a 7 instead of another car. That's the genius of their position in the market. It's unique.

And, if they call it anything other than the Caterham 8 they're complete fools.

[RTH]

Potentially very good news, depends what expectations of production volume is ?Don't make the mistake of pricing it too high, the main reason they could not find any buyers for the 21.

[onemorelap]

There was a thread yonks ago on here called "design the next caterham" or something like that.

At the time i can remember be-moaning the fact that a lightweight no frills rwd coupe with a 2 litre or so engine didnt exist and felt that a market existed for such a car.
I suggested a re-work of the 21 but using the SV chassis as the basis and sticking a coupe roof on it. A couple of rough sketches later and it had a hint of marcos about it.

At the time the thread was run there was no real direct competitor but now there is the G40R as a direct competitor from a small volume manufacturer and the GT86 / Subaru equivalent from a main stream manufacturer (that i suspect will sell like hot cakes given the reaction on here)

By the time 2015 appears suspect there may be a few more that have jumped on the same bandwagon.

Really wish Caterham well with this but just hope it doesnt end up as unfortunately timed as the introduction of the 21.

ETA: Found the old thread now. Page 7 for the crap renderings!!

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Edited by onemorelap on Thursday 16th February 13:12

[KB_S1]

Are Lotus up for selling the Elise/Exige platform?

It doesn't seem to be fitting in with the new Lotus strategy.

[GreaseNipple]

I'd like to see a Ginetta G40R rival; nice and small for British B roads.

[GFWilliams]

Bet they build an Elise S1 type thing

[Sam_68]

KB_S1 said:

Are Lotus up for selling the Elise/Exige platform?

It doesn't seem to be fitting in with the new Lotus strategy.

The engine is at the wrong end for Caterham's strategy as outlined in the article, but other than that it does sound very much like a £35K Series 1 Elise, even down to the uncertainty over whether to provide a stereo.

Edited by Sam_68 on Thursday 16th February 12:57

[RenesisEvo]

GreaseNipple said:

I'd like to see a Ginetta G40R rival; nice and small for British B roads.

Problem is, the Ginetta is c.£25k, and whilst it may not quite have the creature comforts that Caterham are hinting at, Caterham will have to do a lot more than just add a CD player to win buyers from the Ginetta at that price.

[BuzzLightyear]

Hmm, the article states that it is the first all-new car in Caterham's history but the 21 has already been mentioned.

I've got the original 21 marketing brochure and it still appeals - will they use this as a sort of template for the new model?

[KB_S1]

Sam_68 said:

The engine is at the wrong end for Caterham's strategy as outlined in the article, but other than that it does sound very much like a £5K Series 1 Elise, even down to the uncertainty over whether to provide a stereo.

I somehow missed the front engined part in the article.

[Fury1630]

suffolk009 said:

I don't think anyone considers buying a 7 instead of another car. That's the genius of their position in the market. It's unique.

And, if they call it anything other than the Caterham 8 they're complete fools.

Surely it should be the Caterham 1?

The seven was only the seven because there were six Lotii before it, so as this is the first new car Carerham have developed .........

[Stew2000]

Because this was a hit...

[E38Ross]

gforceg said:

I'd like to think it might be something like the Caterham take on a Z4M (or Z3M maybe).

i suspect it will be far closer to an elise

[suffolk009]

Fury1630 said:

suffolk009 said:

I don't think anyone considers buying a 7 instead of another car. That's the genius of their position in the market. It's unique.

And, if they call it anything other than the Caterham 8 they're complete fools.

Surely it should be the Caterham 1?

The seven was only the seven because there were six Lotii before it, so as this is the first new car Carerham have developed .........

Well yes, I suppose that's correct. Technically. But 8 does seem to follow 7 more predictably.