Future classic: Caterham CSR Twenty

By Simon Hucknall

| 8 Aug 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Future classic: Caterham CSR Twenty

Is there a new Caterham that doesn’t deserve Future classic status? Probably not: most are instant classics anyway.

But if rarity plays a part, along with a unique engineering twist, then the CSR Twenty is perhaps more deserving than any other.

After the original CSR was launched in 2005, British buyers were nonplussed by the model to the extent that Caterham eventually withdrew it from UK sale.

That was a shame, because it represented the biggest technological change in the Seven’s 32-year history, with the adoption of all-round independent suspension by wishbones.

The Caterham CSR Twenty has a characteristically sparse cabin, with carbonfibre, leather and Alcantara trim

It was a more salubrious car, too (relatively), being 180mm longer and 230mm wider than the regular model, if maybe at the expense of some snake-hipped charm.

If that, and a lack of the original Seven’s more hardcore, semi-independent rear, put off customers 20 years ago, then Caterham now thinks there are enough British buyers to tempt with the final 20 (hence the name) CSRs off the line.

A kit-build option is off-menu, which goes a tiny way to explaining the Twenty’s slightly eye-watering £79,995 price.

Ford’s 210bhp, four-cylinder engine is mated to the five-speed gearbox from a Mazda MX-5

Powered in this final guise by Ford’s Duratec 2-litre ‘four’, the CSR makes 210bhp at 7600rpm and 150lb ft at 6300rpm.

Drive is delivered to the Toyo Proxes-shod rear wheels via a Mazda MX-5 five-speed and an open diff (a limited-slip diff is optional).

Inside, there’s a simple, carbonfibre-faced dashboard, neat controls, and a leather-trimmed gear tunnel inlayed with Alcantara around the handbrake and gearlever.

The leather seats are (for a Caterham) sumptuous – although, at 5ft 7in, I needed the driver’s chair adjusted fully forward to reach the pedals – I’m near enough the minimum height for CSR ownership.

The all-round independent suspension by wishbones increases compliance and everyday usability

If track days are your thing, there are faster and cheaper Sevens available. But for road use, the CSR’s dynamic repertoire takes some beating.

With that 210bhp shifting just 620kg, performance is optimum – but not too ballistic – for enjoyable A- and B-road hustles.

There’s a surprisingly rich seam of torque from low revs, but, thanks to the throttle’s long travel, it takes a few miles to fully appreciate how strong the engine is in its upper reaches as you keep it on the boil via the ultra-short-shifting ’box.