Caterham Seven 420R Donington Edition: Driven
Why the Seven is as brilliant as ever, even as it saunters into its seventh decade
Space for a passenger, if you want
I think the best reason for not going racing, though, is that you can actually experience a decent percentage of the thrill of motorsport within a track day context - and therefore do away with a fair amount of hassle - by simply choosing the right machine. Which brings me to this, the Caterham Seven 420R Donington Edition, the car that gets closer to reproducing the fun of racing than anything else I've driven in a decade of testing cars.
Race car for the track
That does make a lot of sense given this limited edition model is probably the closest thing Caterham has ever built to a road-legal racing car. In fact, it's so closely related to the 420R competition machine - Caterham's top-spec racer - that you'd only need to kick off the headlights and slap on a couple of numbers before you could compete in it (which would completely undermine the very point of buying a track day car rather than a racing car, but you see what I'm getting at).
Bathurst, Monza, Daytona, Motegi... Donington
There'll only ever be 10 Donington Editions and each one will carry a numbered plaque. The blue, white and red colour scheme is inspired by the circuit's corporate colours and is unique to this car. It's based on the 420R road car, which slots in just beneath the wild supercharged 620R in the Seven line-up and is, therefore, a fearsomely quick car in its own right.
But the revisions that have been made to the Donington Edition are so far reaching that the car is closer in execution to the competition machine. It uses the full race spec roll cage, rather than a slightly sorry looking rollover bar, and it also pinches the six-speed Sadev sequential gearbox from the 620R and top-level racers.
213hp at 7,600rpm. Proper
The engine is a 2.0-litre Ford Duratec that's good for 210 very snorty, very ill tempered horsepower. It isn't a peaky, difficult engine, but it does rev out with such intensity and aggression that you'd swear it was mad at you. The clutch is a race-spec item, although it isn't quite as tricky as the one you'll find in the racing car.
We wanted to bring the 420R racing car experience to track day drivers in a road-legal model," says Stuart Faulds, the BookaTrack Caterham workshop manager who developed the car and will personally build all 10 examples. "We set out to make an accessible but fast track day car. It's almost as quick as the racing car, but it's fairly easy to drive and it isn't on a knife-edge. It doesn't have any weather protection so I don't envisage them being used on the road much, although it is actually pretty good to drive on the road."
It's stupendously good to drive on circuit, though. In fact, it's every bit as immersive and engaging as the racing car itself; it's only the less frenetic nature of a track day compared to motorsport that makes the whole experience any less thrilling. The race-spec springs and dampers are unique to this car and it has a noise limit-friendly rear exit exhaust rather than the racing car's noisy side exit pipe.
Driving modes? Good one.
Point and smirk
Driving any track-prepared Caterham on circuit for the first time goes like this: you start off braking hard for corners and getting right down the gears. Then, as you get braver, you brake a little less and start releasing the car into the corner. Soon enough, you realise you can take every single bend a full gear higher than you first thought. That's when it all starts coming together, when you get the car swooping through corners, linking one to the next, the whole lap a cohesive and fluid rumba rather than a disjointed point-to-point, stop-start staccato shuffle.
Want one? Get one. It's brilliant
The irony of this thing is that it's so close to being a racing car that you really ought to pull yourself together and just buy a bloody racing car instead. But if you don't want to get drawn into motorsport's financial vortex or you just don't have the time, the Donington Edition will at least give you a pretty good taste of what you're missing.
CATERHAM SEVEN 420R DONINGTON EDITION
Engine: 1,999cc, four-cyl
Transmission: 6-speed sequential, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 213@7,600rpm
Torque (lb ft): 150@6,300rpm
0-62mph: 3.8sec
Top speed: 136mph
Weight: Probably not much
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
Price: £47,500
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Do Westfield still make a compelling car, for example? Or are Caterham simply way ahead now?
A Lotus/Caterham 7 owner will say No.
A Westfield etc owner will say Yes.
You pay a premium for a Caterham, but it's aluminium and they hold their value.
Personally as a former Caterham 7 (HPC) owner I'd only buy a Caterham. Even if that meant settling for a cheaper earlier car.
Do Westfield still make a compelling car, for example? Or are Caterham simply way ahead now?
A Lotus/Caterham 7 owner will say No.
A Westfield etc owner will say Yes.
You pay a premium for a Caterham, but it's aluminium and they hold their value.
Personally as a former Caterham 7 (HPC) owner I'd only buy a Caterham. Even if that meant settling for a cheaper earlier car.
If you still want a car on carbs or with flared wings you can find one.
Of course since then they have been developed into what they are today, but this could equally be said about Porsche 911`s which have been around for almost the same length of time, where development of the modern cars means they bear relatively little similarities to the early cars, other than a recognizable shape.
I wouldn't argue with you that the caterhams will be better built, that 420R is much quicker than my 130bhp (ish) pinto on carbs deal, but you could build one with a duratec if you wanted to, or a zetec, remember a 2.0 Zetec crate engine can be had for less than a grand,, that leaves some change for a supercharger if power is what you want
I mean a caterham owner will say otherwise but comparing them side by side things like the bare chassis and suspension hardware is a lot nicer on the GBS.
I'm sure the many, many other 7 shaped cars can be good, during the decades of lusting after a 7 I looked at a few. The Ali skin forms part of the chassis so the plastic bodies cars handle differently (IMO)
You can buy other types of small lightweight cars that can be faster/handle differently but if you want The 7 the Caterham is pretty much the best example- caveat, I am biased as after 25years I finally got one, but I did look.
At the end of the day when your flying down a country lane, carbs barking, exhaust howling, your arse 3" off the tarmac if you have a grin on your face it won't matter to you.... (also because whether you buy a "real" 60 grand 620R Caterham 7 or build the nastiest plastic abortion copy some wideboy in the petrol station will still say- "Nice Kit car mate" :-)
BaT know their sh*t, if I where in the market I might quibble the colour scheme personally but I'm sure it goes amazingly, 200-ish bhp is a sweet motor... but I prefer my 7's with clams ;-)
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