RE: New Caterhams Seven range confirmed

[Frankthered]

BritishRacinGrin said:

Frankthered said:

Are the numbers just power output x 2?

(Approximately.)

Power to weight ratios. Caterhams weigh about half a ton, so the P:W is about double the bhp.

This did occur to me, but as the higher powered versions weigh slightly more than half a ton, it becomes even more approximate!

[T0MMY]

Frankthered said:

This did occur to me, but as the higher powered versions weigh slightly more than half a ton, it becomes even more approximate!

Being cynical, obviously they're deliberately overestimating the power:weight ratio but on the other hand, with cars so light the effect of various options would make quite a big difference to the weight. Would they then have to muck around giving the cars slightly different names depending on what seats or wheels you had on it? Would sir like the 397.8S or the 401.3R? Assuming a nice round figure seems fair and why not round down for the sake of marketing.

The alternative of just using the actual engine output would perhaps fail to emphasise to anyone slightly naive about the laws of physics just how fast these cars are. There's probably some people out there who wouldn't appreciate the gulf in performance between a 140bhp Caterham and their 150bhp diesel Audi for example