Caterham Logo — Caterham is a specialized manufacturer of sports cars based lightweight Caterham, Surrey, England. His only current model, the Caterham Seven is a direct evolution of the Series 3 Lotus Seven designed by Colin Chapman and originally released in 1968. On November 5, 2008 Caterham announced its partnership with Project Splitwheel with an online initiative that would use a multitude of suppliers (crowdsourcing) to design a new Caterham car performance with the participation of owners and car enthusiasts. The model potentially could enter production in 2011. On April 27th of 2011, team owner of Formula 1 Team Lotus (Tony Fernandes) acquired the company.
Lotus , Colin Chapman’s company, launched in 1957, the Series 1 Lotus Seven. The car was immediately welcomed by enthusiasts as a low-cost car, sporty, lightweight and successful in the competitions. Updated versions as the Series 2, 3 and 4 were launched in 1960, 1968 and 1970 respectively.
Caterham Cars was the largest distributor of Lotus 7 during the 1960’s. Its founder, Graham Nearn, in 1973 bought the rights to continue the manufacture of the car designed by Chapman, this depues that Lotus announced its intention to discontinue the model. Caterham initially restarted the manufacture of Lotus Seven Series 4, but when this proved not to be popular, the production change to the 3 Series model in 1974. The Lotus / Caterham 7 is widely seen by the media and car enthusiasts as one of the iconic cars of the twentieth century. The 2007 under 50 years of continuous production, miraculously Seven continues to enjoy strong support from clubs competing cars.