Although not everyone might be in favor of the Caterham’s bare and basic looks, it is nevertheless a great machine that goes around the track like lightning. Strapping on only the bare necessities onboard, this barely road legal sports car sticks with the simple recipe of going lightweight and pumping up the power. And after nearly 40 years since they acquired the rights in producing the famous Lotus Seven, Caterham had now come up with their most menacing car ever produced, the Superlight R600.
To give you the general idea of how fast the Caterham is, the R600’s predecessor, the R500 has 263-horsepower. With a total weight of only 506kg, that power is enough to propel this featherweight car from a standstill to 100 in just 2.88 seconds. It had even managed to beat the Bugatti Veyron’s lap time record on Top Gear’s Power Lap Board with a 1:17.9. Now imagine what kind of potential does the R600 hold with its 275-horsepower output?
For the time being, Caterham had yet to release any official figures for this all-new Superlight, but they did mention that it will be their first ever production car fitted with a supercharger. Powered by a 2.0-liter Ford Duratec inline-four, all 275-horsepower and 200lb-ft of torque will be fed to the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox. This latest variant is available to the customers either by purchasing it as a whole new car or to the existing R300 owners, upgrading them to the R600 specs.
“Caterham racing just got even more interesting. As the fastest Seven we’ve ever built, this will provide our existing R300 racers with a real step up and a new and exciting challenge, even for experienced drivers. The R600 represents an increase in aggressiveness, although the linear power delivery of the supercharged engine makes it superbly driveable, much like the R300”, said Caterham’s Chief Motorsport and Technical Officer, Simon Lambert.
