Caterham to Build Porsche Cayman Rival

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Caterham to Build Porsche Cayman Rival

By - January 10, 2013


Caterham to Build Porsche Cayman Rival
If there’s one company that can build a car to knock Porsche’s Cayman off the “worlds best drivers car” throne, it’s Caterham. Where Lotus has fallen into unfocused mess in the past few years, Caterham has been busy keeping Colin Chapman’s legacy alive with the Caterham Seven. Now there’s word that they’re building a mainstream sports car to challenge the Cayman, and in all likelihood, Lotus as well.

They’re not doing it alone though. According to the report from Autocar, the mid-engine coupe will be powered by a turbocharged Renault four cylinder with about 270bhp. That might not seem like much, but if their past efforts are anything to go by. the car will also be pretty light. Caterham expects it to get from 0-60 in under five seconds. It’ll be available with a six-speed manual transmission as well as a paddle shifted automatic.

It seems like Caterham and Renault have formed a Toyota/Subaru-esque partnership over the building of this new car. Both the Caterham and the  Renault Alpine are being built together, so I anticipate they’ll debut similarly to the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ combo. Caterham also intends to sell 25,000 over eight years. Without help from a larger company like Renault, that goal would be overly ambitious.

This is all pretty early stuff, so we really have no idea what Caterham and Renault’s love child will look like. If it’s anything like the Alpine Concept that Renault was showing off earlier this year… It probably won’t beat the Cayman in terms of looks. However, if they can shoehorn the performance of a Seven into something that you can actually live with, they’ll have done something that should send a shiver down Porsche’s spine.

via [AUTOCAR]


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