Some History:
Caterham cars ltd., founded by Graham Nearn, is based in Dartford East of London, just South of the Thames, with it's sales office located in the village of Caterham, on the south side of London. Amongst several others some of the key players are the chief engineer Jez Coates and co-proprietor Any Noble. Since '97, Graham's son Simon ran the business until recently when it was sold in January of 2005 to a team headed up by former Lotus General Manager Ansar Ali, who since then has made great progress judging by sales and model portfolio.
Originally a Lotus distributor, in 1973 Caterham acquired the manufacturing and marketing rights for the Seven  Lotus and Caterham officially became the new source of the Lotus Seven, from then on called "Caterham" Seven. Somewhat ironic, as Caterham had already been manufacturing the series III and IV before that, as Lotus didn't really want to "mix" the old fashioned Seven with it's newer upscale cars. Ironic, because all those cars are no longer in production, while the Seven became an iconic car.

The name "Caterham" was adopted from the sales office homebase village, Caterham, just South of London. Since then a number of other enthusiast around the planet have made other incarnations and replica's. There is Donkervoort, Westfield, Birkin, Robin Hood, Dax Rush to name a few. There is always a heated debate on which 7 is the direct descendant of the original, but there is no doubt that today's Caterham is an outstanding evolution of the original Lotus.

Careful development by Caterham have improved considerably on the original Lotus design, with more precise suspension geometry, e.g. full double A-arm front suspension, and a return to the original deDion suspension that was found on the very first 7's. The so-called "long cockpit design, preserved nearly all internal and all external dimensions of the original Lotus, except it moved the rear bulkhead back by a couple of inches, to create more legroom and allowed use of adjustable seats, as not everyone was or is identical to Colin Chapman with a 5'8" stature. Also, the passenger footbox was extended, allowing most passengers to travel with their legs extended. Detailed developments improved overall chassis stiffness as well as accommodation for newer engines.

Characteristic for a Seven is the razor sharp handling and the open wheel racer seating position. In fact these cars handle so well, that in many racing events they are only appropriately raced against each other. Handling and control are extremely well balanced and likely for the first time offer a good driver a vehicle where he or she is the limit, rather than the car. Improvements can be made, there are several options offered by the factory, primarily to deal with the different environment that exists on the racetrack vs the open road. For the track, suspension tuning is accommodated by the available suspension adjustments. All critical parameters can be modified.