Honda Beat, Suzuki Cappuccino, Daihatsu Copen – and Caterham Seven. In any list of the minuscule Kei cars so beloved of the Japanese – and we gave you such a list earlier this year – the British sportscar legend does rather stand out. But it’s a Kei car all right, and now there’s a new one – and unlike other Kei cars we can buy it, too.
The Seven 170 is the lightest Caterham ever
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It’s the Caterham Seven 170, which, as you will rightly assume, is a small (10PS) step up on its predecessor, the Seven 160. In either form it is Caterham’s smallest, lightest and least powerful model – small, light and weedy enough to meet Japan’s tough Kei car regulations in fact.
Did we say weedy? Forget it. There’s nothing weedy about 84PS (63kW) when all it has to shift is 440kg. To save you working it out, that’s a power-to-weight ratio of a healthy 170PS (127kW) per tonne, hence this new model’s name.
As with the previous 160, the motor is a turbocharged three-cylinder 660cc unit from a Suzuki microcar. Backing up the 84PS is 116Nm (86lb ft) of torque – for the UK version at least. With skinny body (just 1,470mm wide), skinny tyres (155 section) and a five-speed manual gearbox, it’s enough for a top speed around 100mph and 0-62mph in 6.9 seconds, according to Caterham. Worried about your carbon footprint? Don ‘t be. Its CO2 figure is 109g/km.
Not fast then but with the promise of something much more special: fun. The should be the ideal machine for a B-roads blast. Or as Caterham has it, “the Seven 170 remains a thrillingly pure driving experience.”
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In the UK you can get it fully built or in build-it-yourself kit form (from £22,990, or £200 a month if you put down a £6,312 deposit. And it comes in S (road) or R (more track focused) variants.
The R’s sportier spec centres on its sport suspension, 14-inch black alloy wheels, composite race seats, a four-point race harness, limited-slip differential, Momo steering wheel and carbon-fibre dashboard. The S road model gets a few of those goodies as well, along with silver wheels, softer suspension, leather seats and a hood and side screen.
In either form it is Caterham’s lightest ever car, what Caterham CEO Graham Macdonald calls a distillation of “the brand’s reputation for offering accessible, simple, light-weight sports cars.”
The ultimate Kei car? Probably. And what a way to impress Caterham’s new owners. They are Japanese!
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