So, the 620R is rather quick then...

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I was lucky enough to have this over the weekend:



Caterham's press 620R. 311bhp, 550kg (ok, 640kg with me on board), 6spd sequential box with flat upshifts, twin plate racing clutch, cut slicks.

Sweet holy mother of God it's quick. Like, utterly destroys anything I've driven before, type of quick.

I measured 0-60 in 2.9s and 0-100 in 6.6s on my iPhone App, which gives an idea of how mental it is even with the inaccuracy.

I've got deep purple bruises from squeezing in and out of the seat, but couldn't stop grinning the whole time - the performance at any time, any gear, any speed was just addictive.

Wow.

If anyone has any questions about it, feel free to ask, I've just about come down off the high now and can process my thoughts again...

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It absolutely is usable, if you're careful as it's very easy to get to licence losing speeds very easily.

The typical Caterham attributes are still there, just with extra crazy speed...

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mike150 said:

How do you feel it compares with the R500?
Are you thinking of buying?
How did you get it for a weekend??????

I would buy one but its North of 50k..............that poses a problem!

I can afford an R500d now but is the 620r really much better?

I do car reviews for a few websites, so it was a 'journo thing'. I've not driven an R500 sadly, but have driven an R300 and although similar in characteristics, it's abother level.

I've done a few hundred miles in a CSR260 as well and that's far less focused and more usable.

The main difference is the gearbox. The sequential box is just wonderful, foot to the floor, yanking back on the lever (surprisingly hard actually) , flat shifting just makes for instant gearshifts, it's addictive.

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The first time I floored it, banging through the gears from 30-100 I nearly shat myself.

It was an absolute pig to drive slowly though, really bitey clutch and a juddery diff made traffic awful. Like the 3 miles of stop-start traffic I had at Dartford 20mins after picking it up!

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GreigM said:

Does it blip the throttle on the downshifts? I am still considering one for track days, and more imprtant than flat upshifting with a sequential is blipping on the downshifts.

If you can heel and toe, yes!

Though with the tightly spaced pedals it's pretty easy.

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ExpatKiwi said:

Cheers for the write up. I'm literally days from getting my supercharged 7 (not Caterham) and living on all footage/write-ups of the 620r to tide me over. Any video ? Or would that be too incriminating ? :-)

Yeah, I did some GoPro footage of the 0-100 runs I did, but need to do some editing to make sure it's 'evidence safe' if you get me!