Caterham Seven

"Thank you for the days,
Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me.
I'm thinking of the days,
I won't forget a single day, believe me...."

"Days" by The Kinks.

The Importance of Lightness. If you go to Dealey Plaza in Dallas, there is an eerie little white cross, not big, marked in the street. A little white 'X'. 'X' marks the spot where JFK took a bullet. Boom. I was thinking about this as I was shooting up Tottenham Lane towards Crouch End in Norfff Lahndan. It's a one way road, but if you're able to slow down and come to a stop, on your right you'll see a dark brown single story building. It's got a very small neon light that's never switched on. It says 'KONK'. Owned by the Davies brothers and The Kinks, it's their recording studio. Very unprepossessing, but it's there.

Now if you look left....you'll see a bunch of semi-industrial units, a car lot and a pub. This is also Colin Chapman country and long before Lotus moved, this is where the genius designer started on his quest to make the best handling, nimblest sports cars of them all.

"Simplify and add lightness...", was the Chapman mantra.

The Caterham Seven. So here we are. No revolution, just evolution. The refinement of the Lotus ethos. The direct descendant of the cars that were banged and shaped behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey in the early to mid '50s.