The Caterham Seven CSR Twenty Is How Caterham Does A Luxury Car

‘Caterham’ and ‘luxury’ are not words that tend to be seen together and this, the Caterham Seven CSR Twenty… doesn’t do much to change that. It does, however, boast “the most premium finish ever seen on a Seven,” according to its maker, so it’s the closest we’re going to get to an actual posh Caterham.

It’s been built to celebrate 20 years of Caterham’s more sophisticated CSR chassis, which features things like inboard front suspension and fully independent rear suspension. All of that’s said to bring improvements in steering response, grip, comfort and ride quality.

For the first time, that chassis is being paired with the engine found in the 420 versions of the Seven, a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated Ford Duratec four-pot making 210bhp. A revvy little unit, it maxes out at 7600rpm, and helps propel the 620kg car to 62mph in 3.9 seconds and on to a 136mph top speed.

It’s sent through the five-speed manual ’box found on other Seven 420s, and uses ventilated front brake discs with four-pot callipers.

As for that quote-unquote premium finish, buyers will be getting a Momo steering wheel and transmission tunnel wrapped in leather, gear knob and handbrake gaiters finished in Alcantara, a dashboard in satin carbon and extra-thick black carpets. They’ll also get black leather seats with Alcantara inserts, red stitching and some unique CSR Twenty logos.

Visual differentiators on the outside include a set of model-specific 15-inch ‘Vulcan’ alloys, LED lights, red brake callipers and a grille with a Union Flag pattern. There are two colour choices, Kinetic Grey and Dynamic Silver.

Caterham CEO Bob Laishley said: “This is without doubt the most premium Seven we’ve ever built. The interior of the car is a level up from what we’ve produced before thanks to an array of high-quality materials used throughout. When you combine this with the exhilarating and engaging handling of our CSR chassis, this really is a Caterham built for longer distance road trips.”

The first car set to be built at Caterham’s new factory in Dartford, just outside London, the company will be building… well, it celebrates 20 years of the CSR chassis and is called the CSR Twenty, so you can probably guess, right?

Yep, it’s making 40. 20 of those are destined for the UK market, where it’ll cost £79,995, and the other 20 are heading for the US.