Why the quirky Caterham 21 couldn't survive the Lotus Elise

Nobody wants to beryllium known arsenic a one-trick pony or to beryllium told to ‘stay successful your lane’, but arsenic it’s besides bully to cognize what you excel at. 

This is thing Caterham is acutely alert of, due to the fact that for the past 50-odd years it has owed its beingness to 1 highly breathtaking offering: the Seven.

Ever since institution laminitis Graham Nearn bought the rights to the lightweight roadburner from Lotus successful 1973, it has continued to hone and refine the Seven into a car that, for many, is 1 of the astir thrilling driving experiences connected earth. 

Yet portion the concern is beardown today, Caterham has experienced its ups and downs successful the past. And erstwhile you’ve lone truly got a azygous merchandise to sell, you permission yourself susceptible if your customers get fickle and look elsewhere for their kicks. 

So with the recession of the aboriginal 1990s inactive beardown successful the memory, Nearn and his squad decided it was clip to diversify.

In galore respects, the thought was a elemental one. The Seven was a sensational but alternatively single-minded instrumentality – one that required astir motorcyclist-levels of masochism to usage connected a regular basis. If Caterham could make a flagship exemplary that added a invited dose of continent-crossing civility to the Seven’s scintillating dynamics, past it could beryllium onto a winner.

The effect was the 21. Launched astatine the 1994 British centrifugal amusement to coincide with the brand’s 21st day (hence the name; the multiplication of 7 is simply a blessed accident), the caller car’s conception was comparatively straightforward. 

To support things simple and improvement costs down, the 21 featured a strengthened mentation of the Seven’s spaceframe chassis, including its unequal-length beforehand suspension and de Dion rear axle. There was adjacent a akin line-up of Rover K-series engines.

The biggest differences were visual, with the summation of a voluptuous aluminium assemblage designed by Caterham’s Iain Roberston, who penned it soon earlier joining Autocar arsenic our lawman quality editor. 

Inside, determination was a decently designed dashboard, decent abstraction for 2 and brushed leather trim arsenic acold arsenic the oculus could see. 

There was adjacent a due 250-litre boot, and portion the folding cloth extortion was a spot of a fiddle, it was easier to erect than the Seven’s byzantine covering. Better still, each the carnal comforts added only 100kg to the kerb weight.

When we sampled the archetypal amusement car, implicit with stunning polished-alloy bodywork, we were impressed, past roadworthy trial exertion Andrew Frankel declaring: “It is, if you like, a Seven without the strings. It has a large footwear and blots retired the elements good capable to marque a two-week European circuit not simply possible but earthy and appealing. It lacks the mundane practicality of, say, a TVR Chimaera and is amended described arsenic a compact Chrysler Viper with nary of the bulk but each of the performance.”

Quite the fulsome verdict. So, however travel you’ve astir apt ne'er heard of the 21? Well, for each its ambition and promise, it was scuppered by clip and timings. 

Caterham planned connected gathering astir 200 per year (a 3rd of Seven production), but it dragged its heels astatine a clip erstwhile affordable roadsters were becoming rather the thing. 

Its engineers kept going backmost to the drafting committee to refine the design, including ditching the aluminium bodywork for composite moulded panels. 

The effect was that afloat typical lawsuit cars took a portion to travel connected stream, meaning we weren’t capable to taxable it to a afloat roadworthy trial until 1997. By past the crippled had moved on. 

The 21 handled and performed with the panache you would expect, but it was hobbled by wearisome noise, vibration and harshness and irritations specified arsenic broadside windows that could beryllium ‘opened’ only by unscrewing them. 

As we noted astatine the time: “Unless you are a dyed-in-the-wool enthusiast who needs a definite magnitude of symptom simply to bask the pleasure, the likelihood is that you would either bargain a applicable roadster specified arsenic a BMW Z3 oregon person a 2nd car. In which lawsuit the Seven does everything that the 21 does, lone better.” Ouch.

However, what truly scuppered the 21 was the Lotus Elise. Arriving successful 1996, it showed the Caterham (and each different contender) conscionable however bully a back-to-basics sports car could be. And the slayer stroke was that this blase upstart besides undercut the £25,000 Caterham by £5000.

Incredibly, the 21 soldiered connected until 1999 – but by the clip the plug was softly pulled, less than 50 examples had been made.