Brief History About Caterham
Caterham Cars was founded in England in 1959 by Graham Nearn, however the Lotus 7 was built by Colin Chapman in 1957 and shown at the 1957 London Motor Show.
It was a successful seller, but despite this, in 1973 Lotus announced that it was time to discontinue the model. So that year in 1973, Caterham Cars, who was a dealer for the 7 from 1959 then purchased the rights to build the lightweight, low-cost car from Lotus and renamed it the Caterham 7.
As a dealer Caterham was the one of the first dealers to sell the Lotus 7 and was the company that supplied KAR 120C for the Prisoner TV series in 1965. Caterham, also helped build the UK kit car industry.
There has been many incarnations of the car over the years, all pretty much staying faithful to Colin Chapman’s original design and ethos, but with many new features to keep up to date and speed with the modern automotive industry.
In 2011 Team Lotus purchased Caterham Cars, bringing back the 7 to its original Lotus home.
In 2021 Caterham Cars came under new ownership and was acquired by VT Holdings, a Japanese automotive retail group.
Caterham 7 (various) 1957-Present
