JOHN BARKER
Why I admire… Caterham
I FIRST DROVE A CATERHAM SEVEN IN 1987. It had a Ford 1.7-litre Kent engine on twin-choke carburettors and flowing front wings that acted like umbrellas, but the intensity of the driving experience was extraordinary. It was raw and loud and exhilarating like it should have been illegal, yet once I’d acclimatised to the noise, the buffeting and the explosive performance, I realised that the Seven was brilliantly responsive, agile and controllable. And so small that you could thread it down lanes and still play with power oversteer. The Seven of today is no different, just better finished and, if you want, even more potent.
Caterham got the rights from Lotus in 1973 and developed the Seven first out of necessity to keep it in production
