Let's get the big one out of the way first, shall we? Caterhams have long been beloved of British sports car enthusiasts for two reasons: firstly, because the Lotus Seven, from which the Caterham was spawned, was really the first attempt at a sports car which prioritised lightness above all else, and therefore it's proven to be the template for this kind of car for so many years. And secondly, but no less importantly, because you can build one in your garage.
You might think a factory-built car is more desirable as a used purchase, but those in the know actually say there's no real advantage. "To be honest," says Andy Noble of lightweight sports car specialist
Sevens & Classics
, "most home-builds are better built than the factory ones.
"If you can imagine, in a factory you've got to make money and churn them out the door as fast as you can, whereas if you build it at home, a) all the cars get checked by the factory afterwards anyway so any problems get sorted, and b) people who build them at home have got time to do it and they're enthusiasts, so generally they're nicely put together."
But which model to choose? Do you want your Caterham as a basic Sprint, or perhaps as an easy-going Roadsport or more hardcore Supersport? Or would you rather a track-focused Superlight? Or perhaps one of the versions that don't fall into any of those categories - the rare HPC, even rarer JPE, or particularly special CSR, for example.
Picking a Caterham is a bit of a maze, in other words. But there are a few models that are perenially popular, according to Noble. "K-Series Superlight R500s are still great value, great cars to buy. Price-wise, they're going up, probably at around £25-28,000 at the moment," he says. "Original Superlight Rs are always in demand, and for those you're talking probably around £19,000 to £23,000, and CSRs, too, are always strong - a good CSR commands £35,000 to £37,000."
Even settling for the cheapest Caterham of all, though, you're unlikely to find prices dropping down below the £10,000 mark. In fact, at the time of writing, the cheapest Seven in the PH Classifieds is a 1.6 Ford Crossflow engined car, endowed with a mere 100hp or so, dating from the early 1990s and going for £11,495 at Sevens & Classics.
At the other end of the scale sits a nearly-new 620R being sold by Caterham itself through its Caterham Selected used car scheme. It's done just 3,780 miles and comes with a heap of options, so you'll have to pay £50,995 if you want to take it home.