So this is the road-going Caterham CSR. The first new Seven in 48 years, and the car that former Lotus man Ansar Ali bought when he persuaded the Nearn family to sell the family silver back in January. If you judge the quality of a transaction on the products and goodwill you inherit, Ali has himself a good deal. Feeling the CSR work its magic over the roads around Cadwell Park, it’s difficult to know where to start in explaining the differences from old to new.
We’ll begin with the chassis. Now infinitely stiffer than the old car (known internally as Series 3) and boasting double wishbones all-round with pushrods linking coil-over spring and damper units, owners of the last-generation cars simply won’t recognise the way the CSR covers ground. Compared to my R500, which runs suspension as high and soft as 240bhp in a roller skate will allow, this car has so much more suspension control it will deal with anything at almost any speed without a wheel even leaving the surface. Try the same in an R500 and you’ll be visible on RAF radar.
The secret to this is a combination of the rigid structure, the independent set-up at each corner and some meticulous damping work . To arrive at the settings on the bespoke Bilstein dampers, Caterham worked with Multimatic Technical Centre Europe and tried no less than 36 settings for the front shock and a scarcely believable 89 at the rear.
If the car looks similar, don’t be decieved into thinking it’s just another fast iteration of the Caterham staple. Running a 2261cc Cosworth-fettled engine of Ford, ahem, commercial vehicle origin, it puts out a solid 260bhp at 7200rpm and enough torque to make R500 owners such as yours truly weep: 200lb ft at 6200rpm.
Unsurprisingly, this bumps the CSR up the road at a serious lick. It’s probably a touch faster than last year’s silly R500 Evo, but the extra torque means far less stirring of the gearbox. That’s almost a shame because, within the revised cabin, the lever has been repositioned to perfection and even though it’s the same ’box as before, I’ve never driven a sweeter example than this.
What will matter to potential buyers most isn’t just the performance (anyone can squeeze huge power from a K-series these days) but the reliability. The Cosworth unit is nowhere near as stressed as a grenade-spec K and should last far longer. It sounds the business, too: burbly low-down then growing into a BTCC howl at the top end.
The dimensions of the CSR are based on the wide-body SV. It’s much roomier than the standard car, and fitted with the optional upgraded dash – which also exposes the chassis – it’s a different world to the old one. Our test car had optional Tillett carbonfibre bucket seats fitted (roughly £1500 for the pair) and they sit a little too high for me, but otherwise it’s spot-on. Thankfully, all the good bits about snuggling down into a Seven cockpit remain: peering over the dash, along the nose and seeing its reflection in the back of the chrome headlights, grabbing the tiny steering wheel (this time an off-the-peg Momo) and wanting to scamper away.
There are a couple of ergonomic gripes. I kept fouling my right elbow on the side screen and the pedal box wasn’t ideal for rolling from brake to throttle. Given that it’s completely adjustable, that last gripe doesn’t count for much. Oh, and to placate left-hand-drive buyers the exhaust now exits on the driver’s side, which will make for singed shins on this side of the channel. It also makes it marginally noisier for the driver when cruising.
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