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The Caterham Super Seven shows that you can enjoy driving even with just 84 hp
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–> by Sebastien Bell
3 hours ago
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by Sebastien Bell
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Automakers endow their sports cars will increasing levels of performance, but even though that’s welcome, sometimes something is missing from the recipe. The pursuit of more power, more brakes, and more grip can often obscure the goal of a sports car, which is actually more fun.
And that’s sort of the concept behind the Caterham Super Seven 600. Powered by a three-cylinder Suzuki engine, just about the only way in which the car’s figures are impressive is in how small they are.
Displacing 660 cubic centimeters, the engine makes just 84 hp (63 kW/85 PS), sits on remarkably skinny tires, and, in its base form, doesn’t even get a limited slip differential. Even the top speed is tiny at 104 mph (167 km/h) but, at least, the weight (460 kg/1,104 lbs) is also minuscule.
Read: 2022 Super Seven 600 and 2000 Channel Caterham’s 1970s Heritage
According to Henry Catchpole, in a new video for Hagerty, those tiny figures all serve to improve the experience of the Caterham. While he’s willing to admit that it isn’t a perfect car, that doesn’t really matter when you’re in the driver’s seat.
“I’m not about to claim that this is the best car I’ve ever driven – it’s not even the best Caterham I’ve ever driven,” he says. “But by stripping it all away, back to basics, you get to the fundamentals, I think, of a lot of what, certainly, I love about driving.”
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That’s not to say that all cars should be more basic. The existence of the grilled cheese doesn’t make a cheeseburger any less worthwhile. It’s just that both can exist together, and each offers something good that the other might not.
“Take away a lot of the power, a lot of the grip, and you remember that at a very basic level driving enjoyment is about involvement, about feeling alive. And this certainly makes you feel alive, and all at manageable, inoffensive speeds.”
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