What’s going on?
Before starting with this note I want to make a reference so that we know the origin of this emblematic car called SEVEN and which was created by Colin Chapman in the 50s, if you read correctly in the fifties and it is still being produced.
Lotus Seven Series 1 1957
It had double wishbone front suspension and a De Dion rear axle, mounted a Ford 1.2-liter four-cylinder engine with side valves, capable of delivering 40 HP. It was not a powerful engine, the mechanics were very simple and the design was very light, weighing a little over 400 kg..
The Lotus brand manufactured and marketed the SEVEN from 1957 to 1975 and one of its most important distributors was a dealer located in Caterham, Surrey in the United Kingdom, said dealer ended up buying the SEVEN name and manufacturing rights from Lotus Cars in 1974.
Since then -and to this day- the Caterham Seven continues to be considered a classy, old-school sports vehicle and that only the most experienced dare to drive it, because it is old-school, there have even been crazy people who ride it. a V8 to that small and fragile rodaster that in good hands can give a lot of fight to Ferraris or Lambos in stuck areas.
Let’s go to the seven
The Caterham EV Seven will make its debut at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed
Designed in collaboration with Swindon Powertrain Ltd, the Caterham EV Seven will test the feasibility of an electric sports car that stays true to Caterham’s roots in building simple – and fast – cars that are road legal and can be used on the track.
Based on a wide-body SV chassis, the EV Seven weighs only 70 kg (about the same as a passenger) more than a comparable petrol model, with an impressive planned total weight of 700kg. Including the batteries.
The EV Seven uses an engine created by Swindon Powertrain, which produces 243 HP or its equivalent of 179 kW and offers a torque of 184 lb ft. That translates to 0-100mph in just four seconds and a top speed of 210km/h which is seriously high for a car as light as the Caterham.
The batteries are cooled by 40kWh immersion dielectric fluids (generally used to keep the temperatures of very powerful computers down) to stay cool. The result is a battery that can handle the demanding heat cycles experienced during sporty driving and subsequent recharge rates of up to 152kWh.
Bob Laishley
Caterham CEO Bob Laishley (Former NISMO CEO) said: “Any future EV models we produce must be true to Caterham’s DNA: light, fun to drive and driver-focused. The main objective of this project is to develop a vehicle with a weight challenge of no more than the equivalent of carrying a passenger on board. We’re never going to launch a Seven that weighs a ton or more, we’d rather not.
“Building a Seven that is capable of completing a Sunday morning drive electrically can be achieved with current battery technology, but the challenge is for track use, where power consumption increases considerably. At the moment, immersion cooling of the battery is one of the best solutions to deal with the rapid charge and discharge cycles that would be experienced on a race track.
“We have no plans to put the EV Seven into production. in this stage; it’s a test bed to see how well an EV powertrain performs for our customers’ specific use cases. We are doing this project with our eyes wide open so that we can learn how to deliver the specific Caterham vehicle attributes needed for a Seven: light, simple and fun to drive. We are going to bring it to the market at the right time, when the future generation of battery technology allows it.and that is why now is the time to test the concept in the natural habitat of our car, on the track and what better to do it at Goodwood”.
