Car Court

Posted by tvr2500m (A) on September 29, 2004 at 20:05:57

In Reply to: Caterham Super Seven posted by topoxforddoc on July 17, 2004 at 14:06:54:

The Seven is one of great automotive engineering efforts. The Lotus Seven often shows up in the top ranks of all time great cars in opinion polls done of auto writers. The location of the solid rear axle on the solid rear axled cars is the definitive, textbook method of correctly locating a solid rear axle. Hasn't been bettered. Very nifty. Caterham has done, as have one or two others, a fine job building a very high quality product.

It's a difficult product particularly for Americans to palate, I think. It's so singular in purpose and so extreme in performance. It's a driver's car, for people who REALLY know how and like to drive. It's also just about as little car as you can buy for the money - which is its point, but one lost on typical car buyers.

I've driven a few flavors of Lotuses, Caterhams, and Westfields. All fabulous. I'd own one if I didn't have an Lotus Elan and a TVR 2500M already in the garage, with my next toy car being a Formula Ford. I'm just tired of fighting with production-based cars to make them work right on the track, and then having the Formula Fords just be a lot faster and cheaper anyway.

- SJ

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