Don’t judge a book by its cover is one of the stranger sayings, given the outside of a book is there precisely to tell you about its contents. But it most definitely still applies to cars; the most innocuous of family estates might have a huge V8 lurking under the bonnet, a humble saloon could have received a very spicy tune, or a classic SUV may have been treated to a total overhaul of its running gear. Usually you can tell, but not always - and under the radar performance cars are some of the most likeable out there.
Nobody would call a Caterham Seven a discreet sports car, given the sound and the spectacle of any drive in one. There’ll be the moans and groans of a driver attempting to get in for one thing, before even thinking about side exit exhausts, individual throttle bodies and shrieking sequentials. This one, however, almost qualifies as a Caterham Q-car, if such a thing could ever exist. To most intents and purposes, it looks like a common-or-garden Sigma or Duractec-engined Seven: there’s a windscreen in place, the wheels look normal and the roll cage is entirely reasonable. It’s extreme because all Caterhams are extreme, seemingly no more so than usual.
Maybe the rear end hints that this is something a little different, with four exhausts and a different light design. But again, it’s hardly drastically different, and it’s only under the bonnet where the reality is uncovered: this is a V8 Caterham, one of the precious few Levantes built at the end of the '00s. And where every other V8 Seven we’ve seen has looked like something out of the Marvel universe, this one looks positively ordinary given its performance potential. And that’s very cool.
Precise details about the Levante are hard to come by, given there were both V8 and later V6 models carrying the name. Plus it was launched at the worst time possible for such a thing (financial crises really hurt Sunday morning sports cars) and very few people ever drove one. There were originally intended to be eight Levantes with the 2.4-litre V8, a unit created by mating a pair of 1.2-litre superbike four-cylinder units on a custom crank (and then supercharging it for good measure), but the ad for this one suggests only five were ever made. Perhaps understandable at more than £100,000 in 2008. The V6 follow-up was believed to add only seven more cars to the tally. Whatever the engine, the pool of 550hp Caterhams (or 600hp, allegedly, in the case of the V6) is tiny.
This one is of additional interest as it was bought new by ‘a Le Mans race winner’ and put in their personal collection, never registered or driven. Of all the people who could probably take advantage of such a car, an actual racing driver sounds like just the person, but for whatever reason they didn’t. The next owner added just a handful before also stuffing it away; it looks as good as new because it basically is. The Levante will go to specialist Geoff Page for fettling before reaching its next owner, too, so it drives as intended.
What the heck 550hp of supercharged V8 Caterham with a Sadev sequential is actually like we’re not sure, but it must be on the wild side of outrageous based on the feral nature of Sevens with 300hp or so. Even the selling dealer, one that features predominantly Caterhams in its rolling stock, won’t offer a warranty due to the ‘extreme specialist nature of this car’. Just imagine what parts for a bespoke V8 like this might cost. Even against conventionally crazy Caterhams, this is another level again - and that’s fantastic. A Levante is patently going to require very careful care just in terms of maintenance given its unique nature, before even thinking about driving a c.1000hp-per-tonne Seven. But ownership surely promises to redefine what ‘unforgettable’ means to the next keeper. For just £50k, too - there are mere 360s around at not much less. And as we started with an old adage, let’s end with one as well, which you can probably all guess: fortune favours the brave. Just maybe save that first drive until we’re back in British Summer Time, though…
1 / 4
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)