The most important part of the specification of Caterham’s new three-cylinder entry-level model, the 160, reads as follows: 155/55 R14 Avon ZT5.
The Avon ZT5 is a basic, everyday tyre, not a sports tyre. And a width of 155mm is barely wider than the average space saver.
In short, riding on four of them should make the new Caterham absolutely hilarious fun, absolutely everywhere.
Caterham’s executives certainly think so. They’ve just finished signing-off the 160’s handling, and they think it’s as brilliant as 7s get, as much fun as a 620R, albeit in slightly different ways.
Okay, they would think that, right? Well, of course. But I’m happy to believe it for now. Any Seven is a good thing. One that’s happy to indulge you, all the time, should be a great thing.
We’ve been banging on about this for a while when it comes to sports cars: don’t increase power, reduce grip, we’ve said. And Caterham have.
On those tyres, the 11bhp of my kart would be a giggle, so 80bhp should be plenty to get along with.
Two things would normally concern me, though. There is a turbo, and there is not a limited-slip differential. However, Caterham says it is impressed by the absence of lag, and that there’s so little grip that the absence of a slippy diff is no great problem, either. If you want it to slip around a little, it will.
It’s a neat installation, incidentally. The engine, gearbox and live rear axle are all Suzuki items, and they fit a treat.
Natural thinking would have been for Caterham to try Ford’s little Ecoboost triple-cylinder engine, but Caterham found two things. One, it’s heavy compared to the Suzuki unit (the Ford donkey is engineered for outputs up to 170bhp, so that’s no great surprise).
Secondly, the Ford unit is a whole lot more expensive. That’s why the 160 can cost from around £17,000 when it goes on sale at the start of next year.
Caterham is still deciding what kit to put on the standard equipment list, and working out when it can launch the 160 properly: Suzuki is involved in the decision-making process for the latter part. Either way, I’m hopelessly excited.
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Suzuki should cash in...
...on the near-certain success of this new Caterham. What about an entry level Swift fitted with this engine? Think of it as a Sport-lite for enthusiasts mindful of their running and insurance costs (eg young drivers). Paint it green, like this car, and call it the Suzuki Swift Seven. Priced competitively it would sell, I'm certain.
Car will be safer too
Consider that 155mm width tyres on a 500kg vehicle are equivalent to a 310mm width on a 1 tonne machine, then the new Caterham probably has the right tyres for the job. I'm sure that tyres any wider would make the car terribly susceptible to aquaplaning in wet weather, which I'm sure that many existing Caterham drivers (with cars on wider tyres) will be well aware of. Or maybe they just don't drive the cars in the wet?
At least they're radials - I seem to remember the original Lotus Elan had cross-pies, before progressing to 145 x 13 radials back in the sixties. But in those days wheel and tyre sizes were related to function taking into account unsprung weight etc. One suspects that nowdays wheel and tyre specifications are determined by marketing departments' perceptions of what they think the customer wants...
That Toyabaru got there first
Same reasoning behind giving the BRZ/FT-86 Toyota Prius tyres...