GRR Garage: Caterham 310 S – small

Yep, that's right, a massive American pickup – and it's bright white with a chrome grille, standing out proudly in the Floridian sun. It might as well have an Eagle riding on the roof and the some stars and stripes painted on the nose – it couldn't be any more different from our little orange runabout back home.

Which struck me when I thought about the difference in size. The Caterham is a tiny tiny car when it's at home, so over here it would barely even be seen among the traffic. A small bug nipping between the wheels of bloated SUVs and trucks. If you sit in traffic (not the most pleasant experience) in our 310 S back in the UK you'll spend some time looking around at just how big modern cars look.

Even the smallest Peugeot 206 will tower over the Caterham. And when you drive it fast that feeling comes even more – but in the best of ways. As you drive hard the 310 S actually feels like it shrinks down, so that the car is just an extra limb, or an exoskeleton ready to help you become a driving hero.

We even parked it next to my colleague Ed Foster's Chevrolet Impala the other week, just to prove exactly how tiny the Caterham is. Considering the fact that we've been able to daily drive this car for the last near-on six months, including normal shopping trips and trips across the country with luggage, it shows that maybe we don't need all the space we crave in modern cars.

Then again, maybe we need a big American truck so we can cart the Caterham around with us at all times in the back. Now there's an idea...

MPG this week: 33.4.

Photography by Ben Miles

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