Caterham to mark the Seven's 50th anniversary with switch to Ford power
British specialist automaker Caterham, stewards of the legendary Lotus Seven ultra-minimalist sports car, have announced a wholesale switch to Ford powerplants from the Rover K-Series engines that have been the mainstay of the marque for the last 15 years.With MG Rover's closing, the clock was ticking to find a new power source before the current K-Series supply ran out, and What Car? reports that Caterham looked at 18 manufacturers before settling on Ford's 1.6-liter engine as it's K-Series replacement.
The company's top-line models, the CSR and the newest edition of the R400 (pictured), are already offered with Ford-Cosworth 2.3-liter and 2.0-liter powerplants, respectively, the latter propelling the superlight R400 from 0-60 mph in 3.8 seconds.
[Source: What Car?]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ian 4:15PM (5/16/2006)
While the 7 is still quite something the prices have sky rocketed of late, under the new owners, for new models.
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That One Person 6:18PM (5/16/2006)
I wouldnt mind having one of those. A lot of people around here have never heard of Caterham. I wouldnt mind pulling up in this next to some punk kid with a "riced out" Honda. He wouldnt know what hit him hehe...
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Stphane Dumas 6:22PM (5/16/2006)
I'll go with the Ford engine, it's a sort of back to its roots, the Super Seven had in its beginning, a Ford engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterham_Super_Seven
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Ian 9:32PM (5/16/2006)
I always throught that the Mazda Rotary engne would make a terrific power unit for this car. Small size, low weight and a lot of power and ultra smooth.
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vetechdoglet4eva 10:40PM (5/16/2006)
nah yall yall shoulda gone wit da legendary vetek power!!! fo realz. i mean dat ford junk paleaze. proud japanese back me up on dis for shizzul. gook power.
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Bruno 6:34AM (5/17/2006)
This 1.6 engine is the Duratec 8v from the brazilian Ford Ka ?
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Chance_Brazil 3:50PM (12/03/2006)
hey vtec loverboy, vtec isnt god, there are other engines on the earth. Sure, vtec is nice, but so is vvt. Then again, vvt is newer than vtec. I own a mazda 6 with a 2.3mzr engine ( comes stock ), and i love it.. EIther people dont know how to shift or what, but ive beaten vtec powered cars a lot. Then again they prolly dont know how to shift bc the automatic mazda6 weighs 3166 at 160hp. Now if you are gonna make fun of the fact that i have an automatic, i dont really care, it was a gift. Besides, the ariel atom ( might as well consider it caterhams competetion)uses the vtec powerplant, so caterham has to be different, and i like that. If the whole world used vtec, it wouldnt be unique
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