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Caterham Car Clubs
The history of Caterham actually began when Lotus Engineering Ltd which was created by Colin Chapman in 1952 began to build the ‘Lotus 7’. Chapmans ‘Lotus 7’ made its debut at the Earls Court Motor show in 1959 and later that year Graham Nearn set up a dealership in the town of Caterham in Surrey to sell them. The car soon became extremely popular for a number of reasons, firstly, it was available in kit form which meant it could be sold without the customer paying purchase tax, and secondly, because it was a great car to drive especially on the race track. Through the 1960’s and early 1970’s the ‘Lotus 7’ was produced in three different series but by 1971 Lotus decided to move on to build more complex models and the fate of the ‘Lotus 7’ seemed to be in doubt. However Nearn’s Caterham dealership was doing well and so he approached Chapman and bought the rights to carry on building the design in his own company’s name. The ‘Lotus 7’ was rebranded as the ‘Caterham Super 7’ and were initially supplied with a choice of either the 1300cc Ford Crossflow engine, or the Lotus Twin Cam and a maximum output of 115Bhp. Nearn continued to develop the design of the car with modifications to suspension and an increasing number of available powerplants as well as the introduction of various Chassis options. However the basic design of sheet aluminium panels attached to a tubular steel chassis with wings and a nosecone made from fibreglass or carbon fibre,(depending on the customers budget!) still remains to this day. In 1994 Caterham launched the ‘Caterham 21’, based on the ‘Super 7’ but with a stiffer suspension set-up, a folding fabric hood and a wraparound windscreen. Despite being well received by the British motoring press the ‘21’ took a long time to be built after its launch and in the end just 48 were built. During 2005 the company was sold by the Nearn family and Ansar Ali, formerly of Lotus, became the managing director. The next new model to be built was the ‘Series 6 CSR’ which became the first Caterham not to be offered in kit form. The ‘CSR’ is the latest evolution of the ‘7’ design and features a 260Bhp Cosworth Duratec engine. During 2007 Caterham celebrated 50 years of continuous production of its most iconic model and in 2010 the company unveiled the ‘SP300/R’, a track-only car built in conjunction with Lola Cars. The Lotus 7’s car club and the Warwickshire 7’s car club are two of the clubs listed in this directory which are dedicated to this popular British sports car marque. |
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| Just Car Clubs Great Hucklow
, Derbyshire, SK17 8RG, United Kingdom - Show map - Tel: 01433 639095 Email: justcarclubs@global7.co.uk Copyright �© Just Car Clubs 2012. Directory Software and Car Covers by global7.co.uk. |