Caterham 21
The Caterham 21 is a two-seat roadster designed and hand built by Caterham Cars in the 1990s. It was based on the mechanicals of the Caterham 7 and was intended to be a more practical version of that car with more conventional sports car styling.
The original car was announced at the 1994 British Motor Show to celebrate 21 years of Caterham Cars’ manufacture of the Lotus Seven. Styled by Iain Robertson and developed by a team under Jez Coates, the aim was to have a car that offered "the chance to experience Caterham motoring in a more practical format".
The 21 was offered with a range of four-cylinder engines from 1.6 to 2.0 L, with. Caterham originally intended to produce 200 cars per year, but in fact only 40 to 50 examples were actually made before the project was quietly shelved in 1999.
Design and specifications
Being almost mechanically identical to the Caterham 7, the 21 was set apart by the design of the body. Inspiration was drawn from the design of the Lotus Eleven, and the result was a curved, low-slung shape. The car did not have wind-up windows and its door sills were high and wide, which drew some criticism from contemporary reviewers regarding the car's practicality. Because of extra strengthening in the sills and at the front end, the initial chassis design was considerably more rigid than that in the 7. Adjustments to the suspension and the 21’s extra gave a better ride as well.Some components were taken from mainstream models in addition to the Seven-based mechanical underpinnings.
Most of the cars built by the factory were fitted with either the 1.6L or 1.8L variants of the K-Series engine, all of which were controlled by the Rover MEMS ECU. Two cars were built with engines in the "Very High Performance Derivative" specification. The Ford Type 9 transmission, as used in the Ford Sierra, was the standard gearbox, with Caterham's own 6-speed manual offered as an option. With the engine tune, the base car was capable of 0-60 mph in 6.7 seconds and a top speed of.
A single fixed-roof car, named the 21 GTO, was built to be used for racing. This car was equipped with the engine from the Caterham 7 R500, and with it the GTO was capable of a 0–60 mph sprint in 3.8 seconds and a top speed of.