New Caterham Seven CSR Twenty review: easy to live with, by Caterham standards

Verdict

The CSR chassis introduced a whole extra layer of sophistication to the Caterham Seven when it was released 20 years ago, and that sophistication has been added to inside this anniversary special. Calling any Seven comfortable and refined is a stretch, but it’s among the easiest of the breed to live with, while remaining more exhilarating for the senses than pretty much any other car money can buy. While its rarity will appeal to die-hard customers, the 80 grand price tag will seem steep to some, especially when so many other models in the range have so much scope for customisation anyway.

This is the new Caterham Seven CSR Twenty - a model that celebrates 20 years since the launch of the sports car maker’s CSR chassis. Two decades seems like an awfully long time in automotive terms, but for a car that has existed with only incremental changes for the past 70 years, a significant overhaul in 2004 is actually quite a recent update, relatively speaking. 

Back then, Caterham’s plan was to retain the original Seven magic but bring it bang up to date. Following two years of work, which introduced aerodynamic, chassis and ergonomic improvements, the end result was a car which introduced a lot more sophistication without diminishing the excitement in any way. Certainly cause for an anniversary celebration, then. 

It’s arriving at an exciting time for the brand, following a recent move into a new facility in Dartford, enabling the team to up annual production by roughly 50 per cent compared with its former site. Among the many benefits is that the new base is equipped with a state-of-the-art paint booth, so Caterham now has a much greater scope for painting individual parts - like the outer lips of alloy wheels, for example - than was possible before. While that hasn’t been applied to the Twenty’s 15-inch ‘Vulcan’ wheels, the quality of the new paint finish - completed in dark grey with a silver stripe - is clear to see. The quality of the finish is better than most volume manufacturers and a world away from what you’d expect to find on a car which, if you like, you can assemble yourself. 

Elsewhere, the other CSR cues remain. The vent on top of the engine cover, the squared-off wheelarches and small canards at the lower end of the nose section are all here. What is new for the latter of those two is the finish; Caterham is using a satin coating for the exposed carbon-fibre parts, and this extends into the cabin. 

The full dashboard span, whose design is lifted from the most extreme 620 range, uses the same satin finish, interrupted by a series of analogue clocks plus some delightfully tactile toggle switches for all of the major controls. But that obvious piece of carbon aside, most of the remaining cabin surfaces are trimmed in soft leather - from the same supplier that Morgan uses for its upholstery, no less - and Alcantara. The CSR Twenty gets thicker carpet on the floor, too. By Caterham standards, it’s positively decadent in here.

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This special model is set apart from the rest of the Seven family thanks to the red stitching and CSR Twenty lettering on the seat backrests, while the seats are supportive yet much more comfortable than the composite race seats in some other models. We do think the four-point harnesses are a bit of a faff to use for on-road driving, but we’re sure if you asked nicely, Caterham could swap them for regular seat belts. 

As the more luxurious cockpit suggests, the CSR Twenty has been designed to cater more for on-road driving than trackdays, which is why the CSR’s in-board front suspension and double-wishbone rear set-up is tuned towards its more compliant side. 

However, Caterham hasn’t held back on the powertrain. The 2.0-litre Ford Duratec unit is tuned to 210bhp here, making it the same unit found in Caterham’s existing 420 models. Unlike the 420 Cup, however, the Twenty uses a five-speed manual gearbox. It’s the first time Caterham has paired this fairly muscular engine with the more relaxing chassis settings. 

Turn the ignition key, make sure the immobiliser has disarmed, flick the lower right of the toggles, and the engine sends a jolt through the cabin as it chunters into life. It’s a purposeful, bassy idle, made all the more tuneful by the fact that, on right-hand-drive cars, the exhaust exits right beside the driver’s seat.

Despite the fact that all those luxury trimmings make the CSR among the more hefty Sevens, it still weighs just 620kg - that’s only a few kilos more than just the battery pack of a Jaguar I-Pace. Shift the stubby lever into first and that lack of inertia is immediately apparent as the Caterham rolls away from a standstill with little effort. The gearshift takes a positive shove and the clutch has some weight to it, as does the unassisted steering at low speeds. The engine is fairly well behaved at low revs, too, so it’s not jumpy or grumpy when shuffling along in traffic.

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But it’s clear that it’s an engine that is beginning to be let loose. That throttle response is absolutely instant, and with your right foot planted against the bulkhead, there’s a whole lot of anger and drama to accompany the fairly startling speed at which the horizon is now approaching. For the first couple of bursts, you think it’s fast, only to realise you’ve been chickening out and shifting up at 6,500rpm - but by that point, the Duratec unit has only just passed its peak torque of 203Nm. You need to pluck up some more courage, because that 210bhp maximum doesn’t arrive until a screaming 7,600rpm. On a dry road with warm tyres and a perfectly judged launch and gearshifts, it’ll crack the 0-60mph dash in just 3.9 seconds.

The CSR’s chassis doesn’t fight you quite as much as other Seven set-ups; it’s more flowing over bumps, with less kickback through the steering wheel. That slightly calmer demeanour doesn’t make it any less visceral, though; all it means is that the extra body control enables you to carry even more speed, especially over uneven roads.

Our test drive took place on a cold, damp, November day - not the ideal conditions for a car shod in track-ready Toyo R888R rubber. With no driving assistance whatsoever, it’s possible to light up the rear tyres under acceleration, and lock the front axle under heavy braking. Intense, yes, but it’s the fact that there’s so much feedback to everything that it feels like such episodes are entirely under your control; even slip and slide from the front and rear axles when cornering are down to how delicate or brutal your inputs are. Nothing else on the road can teach you car control like a Caterham, and we can’t think of any more enjoyable ways to learn them, either.

Despite the improved refinement, this will still more than likely be a weekend toy/trackday weapon for most owners. That being said, as long as you’re happy to live with the usual Caterham idiosyncrasies - a fiddly roof (here finished in a more sumptuous mohair), wind noise that can become a bit draining on a motorway run, a fairly poor turning circle - it’s really not too overbearing to live with. 

If you do want one of the sweetest examples of a Seven yet produced, you’ll need to be quick, because the CRS Twenty will be limited to just 20 units in the UK (and 20 more worldwide). But you’ll need deep pockets, too, because it’ll cost you £79,995.