Caterham have released their first new model in decades. The Sp300.R is a full-on trackday weapon designed to take market share away from Radical who have enjoyed this high end sector of the market place pretty much to themselves for nearly 10 years. The Sp300.R is basically a rebadged Lola, it has 2 litre, supercharged Ford Duratec engine, 6 speed sequential gearbox with paddle shift, slick tyres and it generates real down-force (up to 450kgs of the stuff) which is quite a lot.
Part of Caterhams thinking behind the SP300.R is that seasoned trackday pilots with cars such as the Porsche 911 GT3 or BMW M3 can upgrade to a more focused, dedicated trackday machine without ruining the on-road manners of their performance cars.
It is likely that there will be a one make race series for the SP300.R and no doubt it will be eligible for a number of endurance racing series around the globe.
Autocar magazine got their hands on the new Caterham, here's their video review:
