It also feels nice and subdued. There are the occasional crashes, but overall you’re both comfortable and fully immersed in the surface, while the chatty and wrist-quick steering keeps your fingertips in direct communication with Tarmac. All of this helps keep the Seven flowing down the road while cutting through corners with little to no inertia, taking full advantage of the car’s exquisite balance. It’s engaging, exciting, and totally addicting.
As Caterham first-time driver Verpraet put it, “It’s the only car here that made me grin from ear to ear from the moment I slipped in to crawl out. It’s a bit shocking how straightforward and short-stroke all of the controls are, as all the driving sensations you expect are disproportionately amplified, requiring you to recalibrate your inputs. Maybe not for every day, but what an experience. “
Ultimately, this particular example is not the best of the Caterham breed. It really takes the more muscular 1.6 liter 152 hp engine from the 310, the tighter R chassis, a limited slip differential, and the narrow S3 body to become a true Super Seven, but as Prior put it, “Even a not bad Caterham”. is damn awesome ”. It is emphatically the best driver’s car here that will make your heart beat faster and break synapses every time you hit the starter button.
But as explained under the link below, it can’t win and doesn’t really feed into the results: Its focus is too narrow and its everyday compromises too restrictive, even in “practical” widebody SV form like this one. Prior drove him all the way there and back with no serious complaints, but I’ll bet his ears are still ringing. You could use a Seven every day (and you should), but you’d have to be pretty dedicated, like a cyclist tied in lycra or leather. For this reason, it must be viewed as a dynamic benchmark rather than a full competitor.
On the plus side, the honorable decision of the Seven to step aside paves the way for a truly deserved winner. You have to turn the page to find out what it is, but let’s just say that it literally fits the list of Britain’s best affordable driver car better than any of its competitors here, and it was one of the few to have driver-loving talents really distracted us from our epic surroundings.
