Car: Caterham Roadsport SV range
Prices: From £19,995 – on the road
Insurance Group: 20
Performance: [SV160] Max Speed 125mph / 0-60mph 4.9s
Fuel Consumption: [SV160] (combined) 34.1mpg @ 75mph
Dimensions: Length/Width/Height mm 3180/1685/800mm
Comfort and Speed!
Our Rating: No Rating Available
Bigger drivers should rejoice! The Caterham Roadsport SV Range has added a few inches of room for the larger drivers while only adding a few pounds to the cars weight. More room plus a little more weight equals a super fast car with room for all types of drivers.
The inches added to the track and wheelbase have given this car greater stability which means you can still take this car at full throttle around a corner without fear of losing grip. Most people won't even notice a difference in this model from previous years. Sure if you put last year's model next to this one a keen eye may see the difference, but most regular folks will not see a change at all.
The new buckets seats are also an amazing addition to the car. It gives the body a perfect fit with great seat angling and a lot of padding makes this sporty car extremely comfortable to drive. Almost feels as though you are sitting at home playing a video game on your TV while sitting in a recliner. Maybe that is a bit of an overstatement, but the car is impressively comfortable.
The Caterham Roadsport SV range comes with a range of power choices. The car is available with 1.6 liter engine, SV XPower 140 and the SVXPower 160.
Starting with the 1.6 liter there is more power -to-weight ratio in this car than a standard Porsche Boxster S and the Honda S2000. The Boxster S gives the driver 200bhp/ton and the S2000 gives about 191bhp/ton while the Roadsport gives a powerful 218bhp/ton. And this is only with the 1.6 liter. When you toss in the SV XPower 140 it gets up to a 247 bhp/ton which is up there with the likes of the Porsche 911 Carra2 and the Subaru Impreza STi.
Then toss in the super SV XPower 160 and the bhp per pound goes up to a whopping 283! That power brings the car into the range of the powerhouse Ferrari 360! The best part of this car is that even with the added weight the car still takes turns better than any car in its class. If you put the Caterham SV Range in a race on a road course it would run circles around the other high powered cars. The car will go from 0-60 in less than 5 seconds.
Imagine taking that turn neck and neck with the Ferrari and coming out the other end with it in your rearview mirror. The truly sad part for the Ferrari owner is that they paid upwards of a 100 grand for their wimpy little car while the Caterham driver paid around $33,000.
For people who don't plan on racing these cars they will be pleased to note that even the SV 160 will get them 34.1 miles per gallon of gas even if they drive at a speed of 75 miles per hour.