GRR Garage: Caterham 310S – in for the long haul

Adventure doesn’t always have to be trekking across the arctic with no support, traversing Africa on a pushbike or crossing the Atlantic on a pedalo. Sometimes it can be doing the most mundane things in some slightly adverse conditions. Or at least that’s what we at GRR like to tell ourselves.

So how about a 500-mile round trip from Goodwood to Leeds and back in a Caterham 310S? Does that count as an adventure?

If adventure is meant to take you and machine out of your comfort zone, and prove that you’re both fit for a purpose that perhaps doesn’t spring to mind instantly – then this is a definite adventure. The Caterham is made for fun round country lanes, driving to track days and embarrassing supercars and generally generating grins. It probably isn’t in the engineers’ minds really to lug a couple of people and luggage most of the way across the country.

But, the trek up to Yorkshire had to be done, and the Caterham was the vehicle of choice, so whether we thought it ready or not, it was about to be tested.

We happened to be trekking just as our recent heatwave broke. Queue a mix of torrential rain and humidity. On the way up north we were mostly unencumbered by the roof, able to enjoy the much nicer experience of open-air Caterham-ing, although we did go through one short, sharp shower. But on the way down the roof needed to return for the first time in months, the erection of which is a story for another day. The upside of a roof is not getting wet, the downside (in July) is humidity. The Caterham 310S has a heater, but no real cooling. Fortunately we’re ingenious types at Goodwood, so a quick rearrangement of the ‘armrest’ on the door to get some ventilation going and we were fine.

The simple answer to this ramble is that a Caterham, although not really designed for motorway cruising, will do it, and in doing so will make you feel happy. Every journey is a shout of enjoyment, the little orange beast is very happy every time it’s going anywhere, and definitely wants everyone to know about it. It’ll be a bumpier ride than some due to the firm suspension, but while you see cars fitted with all-wheel-drive and cruise control littering the sides of the road after being caught out by the suddenly wet weather, the Caterham, lacking all of those things, will communicate what’s going on so well that it’ll never even dream of stepping out – even over the most sodden of roads… unless you want it to of course.

Find out more about Caterham

MPG this week: 30.2.

Photography by Tom Shaxson and Ben Miles.