Road Test: Caterham Seven 360S
Sun’s out, Caterham’s out. I grab a Seven 360S for a week for some summertime antics.
WORDS: Mark Rose | PHOTOS: Dom Ginn
Summertime means many things to many people, but one of my highlights of the warmer months is the time I get to spend with a Caterham Seven. I’ve driven plenty of these including a 420S, 420R and the bonkers 620S on two separate occasions, but this year I spent a week with a 360S which also happened to be the most road-biased car Caterham has given me for review.
People often mistaken a Seven for some kind of stripped-out track day special, but in reality, they’re made for the public road first and if you want something track-focussed, then you can spec one accordingly. The misconception that they’re back-breaking couldn’t be further from the truth, especially when you consider that all the R&D is done on crap UK roads and therefore, they’re set up to suit. Obviously, they don’t ride like a comfortable family saloon, but for what they are, they’re genuinely compliant especially once you’re up to a reasonable speed.
The spec of my test car supported the idea that you can set up a Seven for road use. Not only did it come with the larger SV chassis – this is a must have for regular road miles – but the S Pack also comes with road suspension, a windscreen, carpeted interior and a heater as standard. Additional options included the comfy leather seats with diamond stitching, as well as leather for the dash and roll bar. The paint I hear you ask? That’s a £2,000 option and is called Aston Martin Apple Tree Green, and yes, it’s every bit as beautiful as it looks in the images. Base price for a 360S is £31,990 and with options, our test car came in at £44,680.
It's arguably a lot of money for a toy, but once you drive one, you soon realise what you’re paying for. A Caterham Seven serves as a reminder that mechanical grip can be just as good as traction control, providing the conditions are right. I had the 360S the week of a heatwave where temperatures were around 30 degrees every day, and trying to make it misbehave when the roads are hot and the tyres warm is actually quite difficult. It stuck to the road like bubble gum beneath a school desk, which meant I could take corners at silly speeds and use all the power without worrying about binning it.
Outputs of 180bhp and 194NM from a naturally aspirated, 2.0 litre 4-cylinder Duratec engine in a car weighing just 565kg meant it was no slouch either. Zero to 62mph in 4.8 seconds and a top speed of 130mph are arguably enough for the public road, and in typical Caterham-fashion, the longer you cling on to the revs, the stronger the engine gets. Sounds great, too. It may only be a Ford lump, but it sounds raw and unfiltered with a satisfying gunfire pap-pap-pap at the limiter.
But the performance isn’t what sets the Seven apart, and you could argue that if speed is your thing then you want no less than a 420, or if budget allows, the supercharged 620. No, the one transferable trait between all models and the reason you buy a Caterham is the way it feels to drive. Forget big infotainment screens, silly safety aids and annoying beeps, the point of any Caterham is the sense of connection to the road and driving pleasure it offers. I’ve discussed the lack of traction control, but also absent is power steering, ABS and there’s no servo for the brakes. Genuine effort has to go in to driving the car, and when you get it right, the rewards are joyous.
The front end operates using telepathy, you only have to think about where you want to place the car and it will go willingly. The five-speed manual gearbox is a precision instrument and the pedal arrangement goads you in to rev-matching at every opportunity. And the back-to-basics cabin means there’s nothing to distract you from the job of driving. In a Caterham, you feel the road surface through every fibre in your body, from your fingertips to the seat of your pants, and it’s absolutely wonderful. To drive a Caterham Seven is to drive in of itself. Sure, it won’t be for everyone, but for loopy petrolhead likes us, it’s as good as it gets.
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