Welcome proof that less can definitely be more.
What’s better than a Caterham? Three Caterhams, of course. Plus, in this case, a racetrack packed with other Caterhams to play with.
The media drive at Snetterton takes place during an all-Caterham track day, with everything from modestly powered roadgoing Sevens to full-spec racers running around. I get to drive three cars in ascending order of performance: starting with the XL Seven 420 Cup SV, moving to the smaller, lighter, regular chassis version, and then - taking things to a different level - some laps in a slick-shod racer from the Caterham Seven Championship.
The first lap is spent getting everything up to temperature, trying to keep out of the way of everybody else and reacclimatising to the strange, parallel dimension of Caterham physics. It’s several years since I last drove one, and I’d forgotten just how kart-like they feel on track. This might sound like the sort of hyperbole commonly employed by marketing departments, but in the case of the Cup it really isn’t.
It’s not all smooth sailing. I get caught out by the lack of ABS a couple of times and experience the strange sense of a car accelerating as the front wheels lock. It’s operator error, but something that must be pretty common for those jumping into Caterhams after spending time exclusively in the world of anti-lock.
Leaving just the Caterham Seven Championship racer. Which I’m not here to review, but there was zero chance of me saying no to a turn.