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By Jonathan Crouch

The most potent production Seven to date, the latest R500 helps haul Caterham into the modern era without forgetting a formula that has built a loyal following. Jonathan Crouch reports

Ten Second Reviewword count: 50

Now we're talking. With a 263bhp engine that serves up a massive 520bhp per tonne, the Caterham Seven Superlight R500 shows that when it comes to serving up an undiluted adrenaline hit, nobody does it better. Further weight has been taken out of the chassis and performance is suitably shattering.

Backgroundword count: 126

The Caterham Seven Superlight R500 is a car I am rather frightened of. It doesn't happen too often that a car gives me the heebie-jeebies but the R500 certainly did. I took it for one lap of the Nurburgring, discovered where the limits of my bravery lay and spent the rest of my trip in something with airbags, a roof and electronic stability control. A group of Caterham owners from Leeds caught sight of this and I must have looked the very embodiment of a shandy-drinking Southerner. While that first-generation R500 never felt anything less than malevolent, Caterham is back with a version that runs on a completely different chassis and which offers both more speed and more control. That's the party line in any case.

Driving Experienceword count: 203

I can understand if you're wondering what all the fuss is about, given that the R500's engine is outgunned in terms of power by the lump in, say, a diesel BMW 3 Series. One statistic should let you know what you're in for. This car has registered a 0-60mph sprint in just 2.88 seconds. It sounds ridiculous, it reads like a misprint but there it is. Two point eight eight. That's quicker than any production Lamborghini, Porsche or Ferrari and it means the R500 will even smoke the Bugatti Veyron off the line. That's the headliner. The details show that Caterham is committed to making that sort of performance accessible to a wider audience. Beneath the lightweight bonnet is an all alloy Ford 2.0-litre Duratec engine. It doesn't rely on the quick hit of forced induction to make its power, instead extracting it the old fashioned engine tuner's way. With polished ports, gas-flowed heads, roller-barrel throttle bodies and an aggressive cam profile. Power is transmitted to the rear wheels via a six-speed close ratio gearbox or, as an optional extra, a Caterham Motorsport-engineered sequential transmission. Four-piston front brake calipers, fully adjustable dampers and no-nonsense Avon CR500 tyres also hint at this car's potential.

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