RE: Caterham confirms 'Project V' at Festival of Speed
RE: Caterham confirms 'Project V' at Festival of Speed
Wednesday 21st June 2023

Caterham confirms 'Project V' at Festival of Speed

Electric concept will get its public debut at Goodwood next month; latest teaser has us genuinely excited


Caterham told us about the existence of its new concept at the start of the month; now it has confirmed that ‘Project V’ will be revealed for the first time on July 12th, and be on its Festival of Speed stand for all to see. Given that it has taken us a few weeks to get over the fact that a) Caterham has a concept, b) it is electric, c) it has a roof, the thought of actually getting up close and personal with it in West Sussex - and finally learning what the future looks like for the venerable firm - is actually a genuinely exciting one. 

Obviously, the car is just a concept at this stage (and the firm has been guilty of building pie-in-the-sky stuff before) but Project V is evidently the result of a better-funded and increasingly far-sighted Caterham - and it reiterates that what we’re going to see is a ‘completely new design language’ showcased for the first time. That language, of course, is the work of Anthony Jannarelly, Caterham’s Chief Designer and the man charged with leading the manufacturer into a new era. 

We won’t dwell too long on what Project V is going to look like based on yet another shadowy teaser - but let’s just say the front is at least as intriguing as the earlier profile shot, and it seems almost certain that some of the themes that were manifested in the Jannarelly Design-1 are being revived here (not a complaint; we loved that car). 

Beyond affirming the involvement of the man it officially hired back in May, Caterham has also taken the opportunity to explain that it has partnered with Italdesign to bring Project V to life. Specifically, that means that the design and engineering specialist is responsible for building the show car in Turin - to what extent that relationship will continue in the future, we don’t know. That is one among many questions. What we do know for sure is that we’ve got exactly three weeks before we get some answers. It can’t come soon enough.


Author
Discussion

sidesauce

Original Poster:

2,967 posts

248 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
Good to see Caterham branching out from the same aesthetic style they've used up until now.

Equus

16,980 posts

131 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
The teaser images on this look very promising. Genuinely looking forward to seeing the details when it's revealed.

Lotobear

9,143 posts

158 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
sidesauce said:
Good to see Caterham branching out from the same aesthetic style they've used up until now.
Save for the 21 of course - a great looking thing IMHO, shame it never took off. Always quite fancied one, ..especially the aluminium bodied version.

....hope this is succesful and actually transpires, they need to depart from the Seven formula to have any chance of survival IMO

sideways man

1,673 posts

167 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
Looks great in my opinion, but then I really liked the Caterham 21….

Robertb

3,881 posts

268 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
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Will be intrigued to see how it looks, and what the power train will involve. Looks promising from the shadowy pics!

Andy OH

1,961 posts

280 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
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Looking forward to see this at FOS.

Dombilano

1,453 posts

85 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
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Imagine if it's chassis is made of wood

myhandle

1,297 posts

204 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
Lotobear said:
Save for the 21 of course - a great looking thing IMHO, shame it never took off. Always quite fancied one, ..especially the aluminium bodied version.

....hope this is succesful and actually transpires, they need to depart from the Seven formula to have any chance of survival IMO
Also the Aeroseven, which certainly did not look like a regular Seven.

Cotty

42,248 posts

314 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
sideways man said:
Looks great in my opinion, but then I really liked the Caterham 21….
or even better the Caterham 21 GTO

redroadster

1,886 posts

262 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
They missed out on binning the alpine shared car hope they get this right .

kris450

740 posts

224 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
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Looks very NSX-ish from that angle. I like !!

Equus

16,980 posts

131 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
myhandle said:
Lotobear said:
Save for the 21 of course...
Also the Aeroseven, which certainly did not look like a regular Seven.
Also the SP/300.R


lardybiker

30 posts

190 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
Love it. Wrong music though. Surely some nice chamber music is far more appropriate....

https://youtu.be/6lD_VIbgEZY

GTRene

22,599 posts

254 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
lets hope it will be great, a 'compact' lightweight sportscar.

Gecko1978

12,302 posts

187 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
It looks like an LM prototype so would it be track only or like driving a radical on the road

Equus

16,980 posts

131 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
Gecko1978 said:
It looks like an LM prototype so would it be track only or like driving a radical on the road
Are you looking at the picture of the SP/300.R I posted above?

The current 'Project V' design - certainly when you view the side profile 'teaser' published previously - is a lot less extreme than an LMP. It looks more like an old '60's sports racer like the Chevron B8 or Ginetta G12.

CanAm

14,050 posts

302 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
Equus said:
Are you looking at the picture of the SP/300.R I posted above?

The current 'Project V' design - certainly when you view the side profile 'teaser' published previously - is a lot less extreme than an LMP. It looks more like an old '60's sports racer like the Chevron B8 or Ginetta G12.
Nothing wrong with that. The 60s cars were the last ones that could really be thought of as the basis of a road car.

Equus

16,980 posts

131 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
CanAm said:
Nothing wrong with that. The 60s cars were the last ones that could really be thought of as the basis of a road car.
Yes, absolutely - that was my point: I'm not seeing Gecko's 'track only' LMP car in any of the teaser shots we've seen so far. It looks perfectly road-driveable to me (but then I drive a 2-seater coupe with full doors, windscreen, carpets and heater that's lighter than Caterham's current mainstream models!).

HeyZuZe

1 posts

40 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
I’ve had an idea that no body has ever thought of…. Why don’t Caterham purchase the Elise of Lotus and sell it as a Caterham Elise wink

braddo

12,361 posts

218 months

Wednesday 21st June 2023
quotequote all
Equus said:
... (but then I drive a 2-seater coupe with full doors, windscreen, carpets and heater that's lighter than Caterham's current mainstream models!).
The manufacturer of which might sell 5 per year? Not exactly a product that ever had customers lining up and thus of no relevance to Caterham.