Page two: Super cars/Caterham Super Seven

picture taken from www.animation factory.com/
 
 
 
 

~ A short history of the Super Seven ~
 
 

The first Seven was built in 1957 by Lotus, the brainchild of Colin Chapman, who was convinced of the advantages of small lightweight racing cars, giving huge power to weight benefits.

The first sevens were powered by a Ford engine coupled to a single dry plate clutch and a three speed Ford gearbox. The design proved to be an instant success, Graham Hill being the first driver to race the seven in 1958. Over the next decade there were three more series of the Seven developed, improving transmission, suspension and increasing power to 84 bhp.

In 1967 Caterham Cars became the sole distributor, and have continually developed and improved the car since. Major developments over the years have included the introduction of double wishbone front and de Dion rear suspension, four wheel disc brakes, a six speed close ration gear box, a torsionally stiffer spaceframe chassis with honeycomb panels for side impact protection and lead free engines with catalytic converters. The cars can be bought in kit form.

The quickest Caterham - the R500, introduced in 1999, has a 0-60 time of 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 146 mph.