RE: Unveiled: Caterham's Dramatic New SP/300.R

RE: Unveiled: Caterham's Dramatic New SP/300.R

Thursday 13th January 2011

Unveiled: Caterham's Dramatic New SP/300.R

First all-new model for 15 years is mid-engined sports prototype racer



Caterham has unveiled the dramatic new Caterham-Lola SP/300.R at the Autosport International show at the NEC - the first all-new model from the Dartford company for a decade and a half, and its first-ever sports prototype.

The new car - Caterham's first mid-engined offering - has been developed in conjunction with legendary chassis builder Lola Cars, and marks the debut of a new supercharged version of the familiar Ford Duratec motor.

That's expected to produce around 300bhp, with up to 330bhp available for short bursts via a 'push to pass' button. The sub-600kg kerb weight will give the car around 500bhp per tonne (excluding the driver).


Caterham reckons this should allow the SP/300.R to reach 60mph from rest in just 2.8secs, while the gearing has been developed to allow the car to hit its maximum 170mph on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit's Kemmel straight.

Only 25 SP/300.Rs will be built each year, and the finishing touches are currently being put to the car's powertrain and chassis before a one-make race series is launched for the car in 2012.

The SP/300.R will initially focus on racers and track day customers and, although a roadgoing version is being considered, motorsport is the new model's main focus as it is intended to provided the next step up for Caterham's domestic and international racing 'ladder'.


"Motorsport is not only part of the history of Caterham, it's been the lifeblood running through the character of our vehicles - race cars for the road," says Caterham MD, Ansar Ali.

"Today, racing is not only the heartbeat of the business, it's an intrinsic part of our fabric both here and abroad and the SP/300.R represents the next logical step in the development of our product offering."

Oh, and if you're a Seven fan don't worry - the evergreen roadster is still dear to Caterham's heart and will continue to be developed...

 

Caterham SP/300.R Technical Specification

Engine Supercharged Ford Duratec 2.0L
Max Power 305PS@7500rpm
Push-to-Pass Power 335PS @7800pm
Max Torque 290Nm@7500rpm
0-60mph (claimed) 2.8s
Top Speed 290kph
Wheelbase 2600mm
Overall length 4200mm
Overall width 1700mm
Height 1015mm
Downforce 450kg @ 250kph
Weight 545kg
   




 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

 

 

Author
Discussion

geeeman

Original Poster:

1,310 posts

254 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
interesting!... how much and can they really make a road going version??

Viper_Larry

4,319 posts

255 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
£60k for the track version.

Edited by Viper_Larry on Thursday 13th January 11:28

SteveS Cup

1,996 posts

159 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
It will be mega money! But looks damn impressive.

SteveS Cup

1,996 posts

159 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Viper_Larry said:
£60k for the track version.

Edited by Viper_Larry on Thursday 13th January 11:28
Not a cheap track toy then!

DonkeyApple

54,921 posts

168 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Very, very nice.

Pugsey

5,813 posts

213 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Hugely disappointing. All these rumours had me thinking an exciting new road car was in the wings.

Roadru77er

473 posts

194 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Love it! But I'll stick with my more ''mundane'' Caterham for now lol

TXWRX

312 posts

167 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
i was also hoping it would be a new direction on the road for them, looks a lot like a radical to me

edb49

1,652 posts

204 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Supercharged Duratec - probably not as good a choice as Radical's Ecoboost I reckon.

Also downforce is less than 75% of what the Radical generates, and the Radical isn't exactly good compared to other similar size sports cars.

I'm sure it's a pretty good product, and I hope they sell lots. The initial figures don't give my buyer's remorse on the Juno I got last year though smile

The Wookie

13,909 posts

227 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Looks great, but not so sure about there being an available slot in the market. There are plenty of track day and race cars about that pair up closely with this.

Have to say I was expecting a body on an existing chassis with a 300bhp Ecoboost engine, at about 50k to take on the Ginetta G50

RTH

1,057 posts

211 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Nice, but if that is the price then it will be small numbers sold.

BBS-LM

3,972 posts

223 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Pugsey said:
Hugely disappointing. All these rumours had me thinking an exciting new road car was in the wings.
Me too. I thought the idea of Caterham cars was affordable road and race cars, this looks to me like a full on race car and we all know they eat money like a government petrol TAX machine.

RobM77

35,349 posts

233 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Looks great smile

How is this different from a Lola Sports 2000 Duratec car though? They've been making those for a few years now.

GTRene

16,369 posts

223 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
looks like a serious piece of kit, especially for race/trackdays.

Twincam16

27,646 posts

257 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Not a disappointment as such, but predictable. I guess that Caterham don't see themselves as a road-biased firm after the 21 failed to make its expected impact.

Would be great to see a roadgoing version though, with raised suspension to clear speed humps so it can be enjoyed in the 'real world'.

TobesH

550 posts

206 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Excellent, love it! Play at being a Le Mans driver around Goodwood circuit :-)

Perhaps they do a '7 with this engine popped in!

zebedee

4,589 posts

277 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
Is this the same Duratec as in a 2005 Mondeo 2.0? I have never seen a single tuning option for this engine, but lots of people seem to use them tuned. Doesn't anyone specialise in tuning them, would be interested in a few more ponies!

edb49

1,652 posts

204 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
zebedee said:
Is this the same Duratec as in a 2005 Mondeo 2.0? I have never seen a single tuning option for this engine, but lots of people seem to use them tuned. Doesn't anyone specialise in tuning them, would be interested in a few more ponies!
Lots of people tune Duratecs... try here for one of them: http://www.raceco.com/

WMP

154 posts

198 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all

I am slightly dissapointed to, I was hoping for a technological advancement of the seven.

This seems to be an exercise in badge engineering, from what I can see Lola have done all the leg work and asked Caterham if they want to stick their badge on it.

Radical have been in this market for ten years plus and have really stolen a march on Caterham with successful race series throughout the world.

I wish Caterham good luck but feel this is not only too little too late but also too expensive to be a real success.

WMP

154 posts

198 months

Thursday 13th January 2011
quotequote all
zebedee said:
Is this the same Duratec as in a 2005 Mondeo 2.0? I have never seen a single tuning option for this engine, but lots of people seem to use them tuned. Doesn't anyone specialise in tuning them, would be interested in a few more ponies!
Duratecs have been the biggest 'next big thing' in tuning for many years now. Burton Power Products offer a huge range of tuning goodies for it, the R500 has been using a tuned duratec for nearly 3 years now.