British sportscar company Caterham Cars has joined forces with go-fast house RS Performance to offer "the ultimate in bespoke Seven coachbuilding".
Caterham has long been the epitome of personalised motoring, with almost every version of the 12,000 Sevens on the road differing from one another. The joint venturetakes that famous philosophy to an altogether new level, says the company.
Herefordshire-based RS Performance is offering an "everything is possible service" to Caterham customers wanting cars truly built to order.
"Using the motorsport-honed Caterham chassis and benchmark technology as a cosmetic and engineering base, RS Performance will turn imagination into reality," says founder Russell Savory.
The heartbeat of every RS-monikered Seven will be the RST-V8 engine; a lightweight 40-valve 2.4-litre unit with a 16-year high-performance history.
The 90kg engine develops 298kW (400bhp) in normally aspirated mode or more than 373kW (500bhp) as a supercharged variant.
Savory says matching the RST-V8 engine to the already featherweight Seven chassis delivers a power-to-weight ratio of over 746kW (1000bhp) per tonne, more than double that of a Bugatti Veyron. "This unique partnership will be open to customers looking for the ultimate in exclusivity, and carry a price tag to reflect the tailoring, detail and hand-built craftsmanship that will go into every RS-badged Caterham," says Savory.
Validation of the engineering house's abilities comes in the form of the supercharged Levante. This is the first Seven to roll out of RS Performance's doors and only seven more of this type will be available.
The company says that with a 12-week waiting time and a price of around $300,000, "this supercharged engineering masterpiece boasts a modern interpretation of the Seven's classic looks with a sophisticated electronics package with traction and launch control to help get the phenomenal power to the floor".
The RS Performance badge will sit alongside the Ford-powered Caterham Seven range.
