Caterham to unveil 620 R at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Caterham has launched a new version of the Seven dubbed the 620 R, and it will be shown to the public for the first time this weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This new Seven uses a 2.0-liter supercharged Ford Duratec engine producing a reported 310 hp. The 620 will make the 0-60 sprint in less than 2.8 seconds and streak all the way up to a top speed of 155 mph.

Those are fearsome statistics to be sure, and as usual we have the Caterham's lightweight engineering to thank for that.

The 620 R can be viewed as part of the ongoing development of the Seven, which Caterham has been making since the early 1970s -- though the car's roots go back even further. The sole focus of the 620 R is performance, and as a result this is one of the most focused cars that Caterham has produced. Caterham CEO Graham Macdonald wasn't about to mince words, simply stating that “the 620 R is the most hardcore production Seven ever built for the road.” With figures like those, we'll take his word for it.

Underneath the skin, of which there isn't much anyway, the 620 R features a De Dion rear suspension with high-performance dampers. The car sits on 13-inch alloy wheels shod with Avon ZZR tires. Interior panels are, of course, carbon-fiber -- which is found in virtually every area of the car, including the seats.

The 620 R is indeed a car for the road, in the UK at least, where it is expected to retail for

By Jay Ramey