Yahoo Autos The Seven 310 Is the New, Perfect Caterham
Here at R&T, we're big fans of the Caterham Seven. It's a stripped-out, barebones sports car that's devoid of anything resembling creature comforts, but its light weight and incredible handling make it so enjoyable to drive, you don't care. And the Seven 310 that Caterham just announced sounds like it's going to be wonderful.
Originally planned as an updated version of the entry level Seven 270, the new 310 gets upgraded cams and an ECU tune, adding up to an extra 20 horsepower, now 155 total. On a normal car, such a power increase would be negligible, but the Seven 270 weighs barely more than 1200 pounds, improving the power-to-weight ratio from nine lbs. per horsepower to eight.
That's not nearly as insane as the Seven 620 R's 3.9 lbs. per horsepower, but it's still a recipe for one quick car. Caterham has yet to announce how much quicker the Seven 310 is, but its predecessor does 0-60 in 4.9 seconds.
According to Simon Lambert, the company's Chief Motorsport and Technical Officer, the upgrades were originally intended as an option package, but they make the car so much better, it was spun off into its own model.
"When we were going through the engineering process on the race engine upgrade, we had one eye on the aftermarket, of course. But, once the re-worked car hit the road, we knew it was far too good to be marketed simply as an option. The Seven 310 was born," Lambert said in the release.
And as if we weren't already looking forward to driving it, Lambert added that "if Caterham was only going to make one car for the rest of its days, this would be it."
Well, then. That's quite a statement. But the better news is, while pricing still has yet to be announced, Caterham confirmed to us that the Seven 310 will be available in the States. As far as we're concerned, the sooner the better.
