Truly great British track cars | Six of the Best
Worried about the UK's place in the world? Here are six reasons to feel warm and fuzzy about Blighty...
Lotus 2-Eleven, 2008, 25k, £44,500
The British car industry ebbs and flows much like the nation around it. Sometimes it surges with imagination and enthusiasm and expertise; other times it eddies into self-doubt and stagnancy. Mass producing and marketing a mid-tier hatchback is apparently beyond us. But two things we do better than anyone: very high-end luxury and very lightweight track cars. Lotus, bless it, is the only firm that’s attempted to go from one to the other - but that strategic fudge aside, let’s salute the period it turned out wonderful cars like they were no more difficult to do than 2H pencils. Virtually all of them worked on track by default - but the 2-Eleven was it actually focusing on the job exclusively. And boy did it show. Its successor seriously upped the power (and price) yet the supercharged original already supplied fun and speed and rawness in prodigious quantity. This one is road-legal, too. Bingo.
Ariel Atom 4, 2020, 5k, £64,995
While it would be wrong to regard Lotus as some sort of cautionary tale, it is hard not to think of Hethel’s travails whenever the subject of Ariel’s growth rate comes up. ‘We don’t want to get too big’ is the refrain often heard in Crewkerne. But its reluctance to take on too many staff or customer orders has never equated to a lack of ambition or innovation: Ariel has both coming out of its ears. Consider the evolution of the Atom, which, in its current format, is arguably, pound-for-pound, the quickest and most exciting car in the world. Granted, that does not make the 4 cheap to buy, but with 350hp from its uprated Honda Civic Type R engine, you’ll put cars three times as expensive to shame on a circuit. Or the road, too, for that matter. This one, from 2020 and with less than 5k on the clock, has it all going on.
Caterham Seven F225, 2016, 9k, £36,995
Between the Lotus’s China crisis heft and Ariel’s self-imposed agility there sits Caterham, as ageless and showily spry as Dorian Gray. But it too has not sat still: the Seven itself might be as old as time, but its maker has moved to a shiny new factory and - thanks to its Japanese owners - there is a new electric car in the offing. Still, for the British public at large, Caterham means only one thing, and that’s not a bad way to corner a market. People have been building and racing and loving the Seven for half a century, and show no sign of stopping. You could buy virtually any of the 147 currently for sale on PH and you’d be onto a winner, but we’ve gone with a rarity - a modified F225 from Premium Power. As the same suggests, this buys you more output from the 2.0-litre Duratec, and given the lack of screen, we’ll assume it’s no stranger to the track. ‘Visceral’ says the vendor. No kidding.
Noble M12 GTO, 2002, 45k, £35,995
Can it really be almost a quarter of a century since the Noble M12 arrived? Incredible. While not Lee Noble’s first sports car (that honour falling to the M10 of the late '90s), it was the one that best typified everything he was trying to achieve. The M10 drove nicely but looked weird; the M12 was even better from behind the wheel, and looked like a proper shrunken supercar. Everyone was captivated by its presence, turbo V6 performance and sublime handling - the M12 really was the mid-engined British lightweight at its very best. Through the early and mid-'00s it got better and better, the 2.5-litre V6 swapped for a 3.0-litre and the M12 evolving into the epic M400. This early 2.5 actually has seats from the ‘400, which is cool, plus it’s going to be sold with a fresh service and full tank of fuel. From a dealer right next to Brands Hatch, no less…
BAC Mono, 2020, 3k, £139,950
In 2026 it’ll be 15 years since the world first saw the BAC Mono, and there really hasn’t been anything like it since. Its combination of unashamed driver focus with exquisite detailing and finish was - and remains - unique. Cars designed so explicitly for track use don’t tend to be so beautifully put together; those with such lavish options lists aren’t usually 550hp-per-tonne single-seaters. Yet the Mountune-engined Mono has beguiled everyone who’s driven it over the past decade and a half, over which time the BAC has become faster and more focused still. While the company has gone from strength to strength, expanding into America and recruiting former McLaren man Mike Flewitt to Chairman, This Mono, by BAC standards, is almost touring spec, with its wide body, electronic handbrake and improved sequential software. But it also boasts an Inconel exhaust, a spare set of slicks and carbon wheels, in case the intentions were ever in doubt. ‘Intense’ probably won’t even come close to describing it.
GBS Zero, 2024, 4k, £24,900
Oh, to have £140,000 to spend on a car like the Mono just for track. Not really viable for a lot of us. Whereas £25k, which this nearly new Great British Sportscars Zero costs, feels considerably more attainable. Especially as depreciation won’t really be comparable to a conventional new car. This 2024, 4,000-miler sounds a lot like the Zero we drove earlier in the summer, with the 2.5 Duratec meaning some useful extra torque over the engines usually found in cars like this. It also benefits from a cage, semi-slick Nankangs plus a pretty serious seat and harness combo. The carbon goodies such as the front arches contrast nicely with the yellow, too. If our recent experience is anything to go by, a well-sorted Zero is going to be a riot: fast, agile, nicely balanced and exhilaratingly raw. As well as being more affordable than the other Great British sports car it closely resembles…
I would chose the average Westfield over the average Caterham because they offer far more bang for the buck, but a Caterham 620R would have a place in my garage if I had the space.
Then there’s numerous race car chassis builders like oms and the like if you want to compete…
Second for me would be the Noble though, especially in that colour.
I would chose the average Westfield over the average Caterham because they offer far more bang for the buck, but a Caterham 620R would have a place in my garage if I had the space.
If anyone wants a fun track /Road toy there's a lot of westy/caterham/lotus 7 copies about at £10-20k for a huge amount of cheaper fun.
Not a car there I'd say no to.
I've had a drive in an Atom 3 with the 300bhp supercharger engine, it absolutely was nuts.
Only ever driven a basic 120bhp Caterham and that was a lot of fun too!
The rest I've never been near, but greatly admire.
Having said that, I've never heard of that Lotus before today. Looks interesting though.
All of them would wake one up on a damp December morning.
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