2016 Caterham Seven 310R first drive

Described as an ‘unplanned baby’ by Caterham’s chief motorsport and technical officer, Simon Lambert, the Seven 310R is the result of a surprise discovery made by engineers involved in the company’s long-standing motorsport programme.

By simply fitting high-performance camshafts and revised mapping to the existing Seven 270’s 1.6-litre Ford Sigma engine, the engineering team managed to extract another 17bhp, increasing overall output from 135bhp to 152bhp.

Initially, Caterham planned to offer these changes as an upgrade for racers who were looking to move from the entry-level Tracksport championship to the more competitive Supersport category. However, after further testing revealed impressive all-round performance, the development team decided the engine was worthy of its own car. Enter the Seven 310R. 

There’s something ritualistic about driving a Caterham Seven; you don’t simply hop in and drive. For one, ingress is never straightforward. With the roof in place (this is the UK, after all), you have to contort your body into unimaginable positions to gain access to the narrow cockpit, and once you’ve wriggled yourself into the tight-fitting composite race seat, it can take a few minutes to get the fiddly racing harness on.

Once inside, you’re treated to one of the all-time great driving positions. You sit low inside the tub, with your legs stretched out in front of you and the steering wheel close to your chest. The position is even better in this particular Seven thanks to an optional lower floor (£395).

Reaching forward and pressing the bright red button on the beautifully finished carbonfibre dashboard fires the reworked Sigma motor into life with an instantly recognisable brap. Even at a standstill, it pops and crackles with an intensity that a turbocharged engine couldn’t hope to match.

Once on the move, the 310R is everything we’ve come to expect from a Caterham. Turn-in is sharp, the steering is beautifully communicative and body control is flawless. We were initially worried that the optional sports suspension would result in an unsettled ride on our undulating test route, but the brilliantly judged Bilstein road dampers soaked up everything we could throw at them.

Sitting over the rear axle also gives you a level of feedback that’s truly unique to the Seven - something we were grateful for when the heavens opened. On a cold and wet track, it didn’t take much provocation to get the rear end to rotate, but thanks to progressive handling and excellent body control, the 310R was surprisingly easy to control at the limit.

However, it’s in a straight line where you really feel the result of Caterham’s hard work. With an extra 17bhp, the 310R is noticeably quicker than the current 270, and thanks to the aforementioned high-performance camshafts and revised mapping, the engine now pulls from lower down in the rev range.

In fact, we often found ourselves putting the 310R into a higher gear than the 270 might have comfortably pulled during give-and-take motoring and leaving it there, using the increased tractability of the engine to power from corner to corner. Granted, with only 124lb ft, the engine isn't exactly torque-rich, but short gearing and a kerb weight of just 540kg help to ensure instant forward thrust regardless of where you are in the rev range.