The Caterham Seven may be eligible for a pension card but it is still one of the most visceral trackday cars in the world. A point proven by the Superlight R500 going very high, very spectacularly, on the Top Gear lap time board a few seasons ago. Caterham Cars have now developed an even more extreme version of its Seven, the Superlight R600. The fastest Caterham ever. Caterham is keeping the R600’s performance figures quiet for now, but the R500 already does the 0 – 100 km/h sprint in 2.9 seconds.
The new supercharged incarnation is still powered by the familiar 2.0-litre Ford Duratec engine, but now it will be producing 205 kW of power and 270 Nm of torque. All that power is directed to the rear wheels through a 6-speed, sequential gearbox with the help of a Titan limited-slip differential. The R600 runs on Avon radial slicks or wets for maximum traction. This car will birth a Caterham Superlight R600 Championship from 2013 onwards in the UK. Caterham expects at least a sixteen-car grid for the debut championship season in 2013, with thirty cars anticipated in 2014.
The Caterham Superlight R600, costs £44 995. Doesn’t that sound a little steep for a design from the 1960’s? What is cool though is Caterham are also offering existing R300 owners the chance to convert their vehicles up to R600 spec, rather than having to buy the car new from scratch.
