Friday 6th September 2013

Caterham hints at supercar

Caterham teases 'ultra high performance model' to go playing with the big boys

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A mysterious press release from Caterham suggests the much-discussed Alpine-Caterham isn't the only roadgoing sports car on the way and the brand has aspirations to join the supercar elite as well.

There's not much to go on but the press release states "Caterham F1 Team's race cars, driven by Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, will bear the silhouette of a brand new concept Caterham road car at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza this weekend."

The new "ultra high performance model" will apparently be revealed by Tony Fernandes over the weekend of the Singapore Grand Prix on September 20-22, rather than next week's Frankfurt show where Caterham has already confirmed it'll be showing its back to basics Seven 165.

The press release reiterates that this new car is nothing to do with the co-developed Alpine, saying, "The concept is the first model to be designed and developed with significant input from all of Caterham Group's specialist business arms - Caterham Technology & Innovation, Caterham Composites and Caterham F1 Team. Separately, Caterham's all-new two-seater sports car, which is being developed as a joint venture with Renault-Alpine, continues to move apace ahead of its launch in early 2016."

 

 

[eliotrw]

Could be Caterhams step up to the big league.

I think they have a brand behind them to do it. Being a f1 team too.

[framerateuk]

They certainly have the technical knowledge.

The only question is can the interior quality and finish stand up to it's competitors? It's not something that Caterham are overly familiar with!

I'd love to see them grow the marque though. And I'm still very excited about the Alpine tie up... I'll be looking for a new car in 2015....

[chickensoup]

Dany found a new job?

[Krikkit]

Sounds great, as above if the interior quality and carbon bling factor is there it should be pretty well received!

[woof]

I think this will be the Alpine car - developed by Renault ?
( nothing to do with Caterham apart for a Caterham badge on it)

[DonkeyApple]

I wonder if they will go the route of filling it with electronics or make something that is more akin to the supercars of old or the Noble?

I would hope the latter. They could make something really special if they went with cables instead of wires.

[tram50]

From the silhouette it looks more KTM Crossbow or Lotus 340R than a recognised supercar such as McLaren, Piganni etc.

But then maybe this is a more realistic building block towards building a genuine Supercar in the long term.

I’m sure it would be a good car but will it appeal to a wider audience than Caterham already have? That must be the aim.

[rsox87]

woof said:

I think this will be the Alpine car - developed by Renault ?
( nothing to do with Caterham apart for a Caterham badge on it)

The press release reiterates that this new car is nothing to do with the co-developed Alpine

Confucius say, "good things come to he who read article all way through"

[ewenm]

woof said:

I think this will be the Alpine car - developed by Renault ?
( nothing to do with Caterham apart for a Caterham badge on it)

Not according to the press release - this is separate from the Alpine collaboration.

The profile looks similar to a Lotus 2-11/KTM X-Bow so a(nother) track day toy.

[MonteV]

Lotus can't do it, but Caterham can?

[Coldfuse]

It would need a roof before i would consider it in the big leagues!

[woof]

Ha - yep I only ever read the first few lines of anything

rsox87 said:

woof said:

I think this will be the Alpine car - developed by Renault ?
( nothing to do with Caterham apart for a Caterham badge on it)

The press release reiterates that this new car is nothing to do with the co-developed Alpine

Confucius say, "good things come to he who read article all way through"

[marshalla]

chickensoup said:

Dany found a new job?

No, but a lot of ex-Lotus staff did.

[subirg]

Someone please convince me that Caterham aren't at risk of 'doing a Lotus' and going down in a blaze of ill conceived new 'high end' product lines which drain gargantuan amounts of resources and deliver too little???

[OlberJ]

Was it Caterham or Lotus who brought out the T25 track day car/F1 car.

[DonkeyApple]

Shame if it is another track car. Would be rather interesting if they launched the 'Esprit' that everyone has been waiting for.

[Ex Boy Racer]

which end is the front???

[suffolk009]

Looks like an open top car. Good thing.

[footsoldier]

subirg said:

Someone please convince me that Caterham aren't at risk of 'doing a Lotus' and going down in a blaze of ill conceived new 'high end' product lines which drain gargantuan amounts of resources and deliver too little???

They "launched" and re-launched two race series which came to nowt in 3 successive years. (SP300 and then R600 twice)

[ewenm]

"Ultra-high performance" does not mean "supercar" when talking about Caterhams. The R500 and 620R have supercar matching (or beating) performance but are not supercars. There's nothing in this article that suggests Caterham are planning a supercar in the normal meaning of the word.