Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House.
It was as I folded myself into the tiny cockpit of the Caterham Super Seven 600, that I made my first mistake. Collecting the car from Caterham’s shiny new factory facilities in theThameside suburb of Dartford, I weighed up the practicalities of removing the canvas roof for the half an hour journey back home to South London. The sun beat down and I had no sunglasses or hat. Best keep the roof in place.To the unfamiliar, the cockpit of a Caterham is akin to travelling back in automotive time.
Within a few miles, the sweat had started to build up. Whilst hardly tricky to drive, the oppressive climate made getting to know the little car’s foibles and character harder to parse. From the switch-like manual gearchange, ultra-direct unassisted steering and intimidatingly diminutive scale, that first journey was a baptism by fire.
The Caterham Super Seven 600's spartan cabin: removing the doors looks great, but you lose the wing mirrors as wellOn the next journey, I sensibly opted to remove the roof. This is a convoluted process involved popper fastenings, an internal deckchair-like structure and brute force. To put it back, you reverse the steps, ‘usually in the pouring rain,’ according to Caterham’s cheerful PR rep.
Once topless , the character of the car is transformed. It’s marginally easier to squeeze into, but at least you can step in and slide down, rather than squeeze through the tiny door opening, but once firmly installed you are engaged not just with the Caterham’s snappy dynamics but also the proximity of the world outside, just grazing the tarmac, eye-level with the wheel nuts on buses and articulated lorries.
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