The Caterham Seven might not be the nicest car you’ll see today, but it certainly is one of the fastest. Holding on to its no-frills strategy, the R500 Superlight is one of the proper examples of a fast and lightweight car as it is capable to do a zerotohundred in just 2.88 seconds. With Caterham planning to build only 174 units of this road-going rocket, the last of its kind had recently rolled out from the production lines, bidding goodbye to the Superlight.
Powered by a 2.0-liter Ford Duratec four-cylinder engine, the 263-horsepower engine has no problem propelling the 506kg car to serious speeds and acceleration. The power is sent to the rear via a six-speed sequential gearbox, wrapped in the iconic Lotus 7-derived chassis. It was then superseded by a more powerful 620R, packing 311-horsepower and with a faster zerotohundred time of 2.78 seconds.
“It was a landmark model for us in many aspects; its performance on the road and track was matched by the impact it had on our brand. It brought new technologies to the Seven range and was the first production Caterham to adopt a sequential gearbox,” said Caterham Group CEO Graham Macdonald.
The R500 Superlight also made an appearance on Top Gear where aside from grabbing the Top Gear Car of the Year award in 2008, it had also beaten the 1,001-horsepower Bugatti Veyron on the Power Lap board with a timing of 1:17.9.
