Welcome to the world of Lotus, where the news is never dull.

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Just 118 examples of the China Limited Edition Evora GTE will be put on sale, with each car featuring a numbered plaque inside marked with the China Limited Edition insignia.

The interior features more leather and carbon fibre, but according to Lotus the GTE’s performance remains undiminished. The same 444bhp 3.5-litre supercharged V6 engine provides the GTE’s motive power, making it the most powerful Lotus road car ever built.

When the Evora GTE was initially revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September, demand was so high that the company sold its planned 114 production schedule within days. Much of the demand came from China, hence the reason why Lotus chose to increase production and offer a special version for the car’s biggest market.

Lotus CEO Dany Bahar, was in China at the car’s launch, together with Lichen Zhang, President & CEO of Lotus China. “As the top potential market for sports car brands, China is a vital part of the five-year revival plan we announced 18-months ago. We are committed to bringing our unique products, distinctive style and rich history to China to provide Chinese customers with diversified and personalized product choices” said Bahar.

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Meanwhile back in Malaysia, new owners DRB-HICOM issued a denial that the famous British brand was for sale or about to go into receivership.

DRB-Hicom’s communications chief, Salaiman Yahya, said that contrary to reports, the British company will not be put into administration. It is currently undergoing an operations audit as part of the Malaysian business’s governance process, and did not know the source of speculation that it was selling the brand to China’s Youngman.

In a statement he said that DRB-Hicom was still supporting Lotus Group “both financially and management-wise” and confirmed that “DRB-Hicom has identified one of Proton’s senior management personnel to take up a position in Lotus Group in an effort to strengthen its management.”

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Finally, under the headline ‘Lotus Raises IndyCar Commitment’, the car maker seems to have done exactly the opposite.

Following the first three races of the season, Lotus undertook a strategic review of its position to decide what course of action would be in the best interests of IndyCar and the teams it supports. With the unanticipated difficulties caused by the widely reported change of ownership (to DRB-Hicom) and the subsequent restrictions on resources, the company has admitted that it was unable to continue supplying the regulatory ‘five’ engines during 2012.

Whilst their IndyCar engine has shown promise, it remains under-powered, compared to the opposition and minimal testing has resulted in reliability issues. Even so, a top ten finish has been an impressive start to their IndyCar campaign.

Consequently the company has made offers (of compensation) to Bryan Herta Autosport LLC and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing LLC to end their agreements, which means that Bryan Herta Autosport will no longer participate in any races as a Lotus team, whilst Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will race one more time in Brazil next weekend.

Randy Bernard, CEO of IndyCar has promised to help Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Bryan Herta Autosport in securing engines for the remainder of the season, but he said “..he supported Lotus’ decision.”

Going forward, Lotus is excited to be working closely with Lotus HVM Racing, the original partner team and Lotus Dragon Racing, who delivered Lotus’ best result so far this season.

Claudio Berro, Lotus’ Director of Motorsport, said: “..I’m delighted with our solution and I can assure everybody that the actions were taken after careful consideration and will assist in ensuring the brand’s high racing ambitions and the high expectations of the IndyCar community are realised.”

The M Performance model range, is closer in concept to Audi’s ‘S’ models, where their RS models are positioned head-to-head with BMW’s M cars, so the Concept M135i is not a replacement for the 1 Series M Coupe, even though both cars look to use similar powerplants with over 300 bhp.

BMW M Performance models have noticeably increased agility over standard models, more controllable handling characteristics and a more emotional design, although the front spoiler, rear valance, side skirts and stripes can all be purchased individually from BMW’s M Performance catalogue.

Powered by a straight-six petrol engine featuring M Performance Twin Power Turbo technology, the Concept M135i features large air intakes, an M sports braking system and 18-inch M light alloys with a double spoke design.

The Concept M135i will only be on display during the Geneva motor show press days (6 – 7 March 2012), so please don’t journey over if that’s your only reason for attending.

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I’ve noticed plenty of discussions following the announcement which centre on various conspiracy theories – the deal represents the first step in a global Pay Per View (PPV) strategy designed to kill-off free-to-air access, or that private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners (63.4% shareholders in Formula One) is set on packaging up the business, ready for a sale.

Eddie Baker, the man responsible for F1 Digital back in the early noughties was quoted on jamesallenonf1.com as saying, “It’s the most significant moment for F1 since the advent of satellites.”

“It gives him (Bernie) the ability to be able to do whatever rights deals he feels are right without limitations,” said Baker. “That means he can assess every opportunity, he can react to every opportunity, he can move with the times in perhaps a way that we were not able to do in the past.”

It gives him (Bernie) the ability to be able to do whatever rights deals he feels are right without limitations

Formula One is a hugely attractive sport for anyone with a technology or engineering focus. There’s no sport more innovative and none as demanding. It should therefore come as no surprise that FOM has entertained discussions with many advisors over the years, and I had my chance to share a few ideas with Eddie and his team during 2010/11.

Following the Tata/FOM announcement last Thursday, I got in touch with Eddie on his way back from the launch in London, to check that I wasn’t saying anything out of turn.

So the following are my thoughts (not his) about some of the potential opportunities created by a global IP network, which might help a few more people understand how the deal benefits viewers as well as Formula One’s main stakeholders.

The context

I have been involved in a few technology projects in my time, including the first 3G trials here in the UK, various large-scale network solutions and if you’d like to know more about how Bluetooth came to be, then I’m your man. So let me quickly start with the technology and then move on to some of the business implications of this deal.

From Satellite to cable broadcasting

The deal mentions Tata’s global backbone network (TGN) which is one of the largest submarine cable networks in the world. This is exactly what it sounds like, cables laid across hundreds of miles of ocean by undersea vessels, designed specifically for the task.

There have been cable networks on the sea-bed of most major oceans since the 1840′s, but the practice really took off in the 1980s when fibre-optic cables were developed. Prior to this, transatlantic cables required huge voltages to overcome their electrical resistance and numerous repeaters which would distort the transmission and limit available bandwidth. British companies initially led the way (giving birth to big names such as Siemens and Cable & Wireless), but now most are built by consortiums who then lease out their capacity to service providers.

Most people assume the internet is one big global network which everyone is attached to, but in fact it’s a virtual network connected by common protocols, and composed of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks including ‘parts’ of these backbone networks between continents.

Tata Global Network

Tata’s global network for Formula One is significant for several reasons; fibre-optic cable networks can transmit data at much higher speeds than satellites (terabits per second compared to only megabits per second).

Tata will spend much of the first year defining service levels, migrating legacy systems, putting in place security protocols and reducing the cost of broadcasting

They also offer much lower latency (delay between requesting data and receiving a response), so they are better suited to real-time broadcasting and interactive gaming. This is a key factor in the deal, which I will come back to later.

Another benefit of MPLS (the mechanism used to connect data being transmitted) is its ability to easily combine data packets arising from different protocols, which will make it possible to combine data from different sources (e.g. race broadcast, advertising, branded content) on the fly (i.e. during a live broadcast). Another key factor.

Initial changes will be invisible to the end-user, Tata will spend much of the first year defining service levels, migrating legacy systems, putting in place security protocols and reducing the cost of broadcasting core programming from around the world, but it opens up several new commercial opportunities for Formula One, should it choose to take advantage of them.

The opportunity gap

Many people are worried about the decline in free-to-air live broadcasting (such as the BBC) and a sense that Formula One is planning to milk its audience of loyal fans through a series of pricey pay-per-view schemes.

Whilst I’m not privy to their current plans, it’s worth bearing in mind a couple of things; the nature of Formula One as a business, and where additional value can best be generated.

Formula One as a business

Formula One in the scheme of things, is a relatively small business – totally dwarfed by the brands who make up its core sponsors. The business (excluding teams) brings in around $1.7bn in revenue each year, of which around $700m covers operating costs and a similar amount is paid out to the teams. With fewer employees than your local supermarket it’s a pretty lean business and yet highly profitable.

Race-hosting fees have taken over from the sale of television rights as Formula One’s biggest source of revenue, with race promoters paying F1 around $30m per race – contributing $600m – $700m to the pot.

The 2011 Formula Money forecast estimates that revenues could rise to more than $3bn by 2016, principally from an increase in fees charged to host each race.

To put those numbers in perspective, America’s NBA generated over $3.8bn in basketball revenues during 2011, with players receiving $2.2bn of this. Major League Baseball generated $7.2bn, whilst NFL football raked in $9.0bn in 2010. Those are national sports, without access to the wealth of emerging world nations like China and India.

Despite a TV audience in 2011 of 527 million viewers, Formula One is a B2B (business to business) operation – fans are an asset rather than a source of revenue – and Formula One’s competitive advantage is based mainly on CEO Bernie Ecclestone’s success in pulling together lucrative multi-year deals.

This is great quote which sums up the role fans play in Formula One’s business model, “If you’re not paying for something, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.” [Source: Andrew Lewis quoted in Eli Pariser’s Filter Bubble]

But with such a huge audience (which dipped slightly last year), Bernie must wince when he sees upstarts like Facebook generate revenues of $3.8bn – and yet most commentators still harbor concerns over Zuckerberg’s success in monetising the social network’s 850 million user base.

Most race venues lose money and are subsidised by their governments, whilst the rest of Formula One’s revenue comes mainly from corporate hospitality, trackside advertising, sponsorship and TV licensing.

A B2C business such as BSkyB, who took over the broadcasting of Formula One in the UK this year, generates more in ‘profit’ each year than Formula one’s total income

A B2C business such as BSkyB, who took over the broadcasting of Formula One in the UK this year, generates more in ‘profit’ each year than Formula one’s total income, but also needs around 17,000 employees to perform its operations.

Therefore the idea of Formula One centralising its race coverage and charging under a pay-per-view model, is about as likely (in the short term at least) as Ed Miliband becoming the next Prime Minister.

Bernie has no interest in running a consumer marketing business and has succeeded over the years in building a low-risk business, where others (teams, sponsors, TV companies and venues) carry the main burden of investment.

It’s a unique (and very attractive) business model and is unlikely to change anytime soon. Nevertheless, Formula One is a long way from being the most valuable sport in the world, and there is still a considerable amount of latent value in its existing business model – so why change it?

New income

Whilst the growth in Formula One’s income is being driven by the fees charged to host each race, there’s an ‘elephant in the room’ that cannot be ignored.

If global brands and governments are contributing most of Formula One’s revenue, how much value do they receive in return? – beyond the intangible benefits through association and the modest exposure of their logo on a 200 mph billboard.

Each race viewer would need to contribute at least $30 each, in order to keep Formula One as fuelled up as it is today, and yet carmaker General Motors spent nearly 3-times as much ($4.25bn) as Formula one’s total income on its advertising in 2011. How much of that spend do you think went into Formula One’s pockets?

In fact, given Formula One’s position as the most advanced and elite motorsport formula in the world, how many car companies actually use the sport as a marketing platform for their products? You can probably count them on one hand.

Even GM’s marketing spend pales in comparison to FMCG brand Procter & Gamble (P&G), which flushed a cool $9bn into shifting deodorants, nappies and washing powder during 2011.

If Formula One were such a great marketing platform, then we’d see a lot more of these brands diverting their spend to reach its audience.

That was the catalyst for my own involvement a few years ago – we knew that advertising was a declining business model with content marketing (branded high quality material) emerging as the future. So the question was how could we build out the infrastructure of Formula One to enable direct and highly targeted propositions to be offered to brands?

If Formula One were such a great marketing platform, then we’d see a lot more of these brands diverting their spend to reach its audience.

Part one in this process was the move to HD broadcasting last year. Part two was envisaged to be co-content creation.

Despite the public perception, moving Formula One into the HD era was not simply a matter of increasing the bitrate of transmissions, races had been recorded in sufficiently quality for many years, instead Formula One had been working hard on the process of embedding meta data within the broadcast stream on the fly.

This opens up the prospect of different packets of content being mixed together during a live transmission (i.e. camera angles, viewer polls, sponsored content) offering broadcasters the chance to sell targeted propositions to their ad buyers.

The addition of Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), as announced in last week’s Tata Communications deal, provides the delivery mechanism to enable this just-in-time assembly and distribution of content along a series of dedicated pipes.

Such a capability would also allow major sponsors to offer branded versions of the race coverage to their own audiences (rather like a digital magazine programme) – hence providing a more tangible return on their investment and bringing new money into the sport.

Take a look at the steps already made by Johnnie Walker, who sponsor the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, or Shell and Ferrari – they’re producing some great supplementary content, despite the prohibitions of Formula One’s licensing model.

Not once did we discuss audience-based monetisation, because the opportunities available from sponsorship are far greater and play to the strengths of Formula One as a business.

General Motors spent nearly 3-times as much as Formula one’s total income on its advertising in 2011

The most important benefit I see for fans is the opportunity to rebalance the sport, reducing its dependency on drivers bringing money into a team and thereby enabling F1 be the ultimate meritocracy for driving talent (as it should be).

If we reduce the need for teams to cover the cost of their drivers – who let’s face it, are the stars who attract the audience in the first place, then we get even closer competition, a better spectacle for viewers and a more attractive prospect for brands to associate with. Sports like the NBA already do this for players, so why not F1?

Now, of course I could be proven wrong and find that Bernie takes the business on a complete tangent, but I very much doubt he will. The stability of Formula One over the years has come from it displacing its liabilities into the hands of its business partners whilst tightly controlling its content.

Tata Communications are the newest member in the team, and are tasked with the job of providing Formula One with the tools it needs for the future.

Will the sport’s owners chose to use these tools to make Formula One the most attractive (and valuable) sport in the world? Time will tell. But that’s certainly the ambition.

Engine power is expected to be in the region of 320 bhp (BMW have just said over 300 bhp at this stage), together with around 330 lb-ft of torque. So it’s close, very close to the numbers produced by the 1 M.

But of course it’s not an ‘M’, not a real one – it’s an ‘M Performance’ 1 Series, which means it’s slightly less performance oriented and easier to live with on a daily basis.

Rather than receiving a bespoke engine, engineered from the ground up ‘only’ for an M car, these ‘M Performance’ models are enhanced and optimised mainstream BMW’s but using the expertise gained by the BMW M division from decades of motor racing.

Confusing isn’t it?

There’s more to an M Performance BMW than the engine though, BMW say “..they have noticeably increased agility, precisely controllable handling characteristics and an emotional design.”

In the case of the Concept M135i that means a modified suspension and M sports braking system, which is perfectly adapted to match its increased road performance.

Besides the uprated engine, suspension and braking, the M135i shows of the new range of M Performance Parts (as seen in the video above). These include three-dimensionally designed flaps for the air intakes, lower section of the rear apron finished in Dark Shadow metallic, double exhaust tailpipes with a dark chrome trim and Ferric Grey coloured mirror caps.

There’s little more to say at the moment, but we’ll bring you further insights as they are revealed in Geneva.

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The 27-year-old Frenchman and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia (31) are joining the Volkswagen Motorsport squad effective immediately and will spend the next 12 months shaping development of the Polo R WRC for Volkswagen’s 2013 entry in the World Rally Championship.

Ogier, who finished the 2011 WRC in third place for Citroen, was Junior WRC Champion in 2008 and hotly tipped to usurp his more illustrious team mate, Sebastien Loeb.

Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, who will drive the Volkswagen Polo R WRC in 2013.

‘Volkswagen is the number one in Europe and will soon be number one in the world,’ said an exuberant Sébastien Ogier on his arrival in Hanover. ‘I’m sure that they’re going to compete with the goal of clinching the WRC title, and I’m happy to be part of this from the outset.’

And co-driver Julien Ingrassia stresses with self-confidence: ‘We’re looking forward to a team with a fighting spirit and the determination to win. Anything’s possible!’

‘I am very happy about Sébastian Ogier and Julien Ingrassia joining us,’ says Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management for the Development Division. ‘Both of them are important pieces of the puzzle on our way towards building a successful team in the World Rally Championship. It is also a mark of confidence for our team if such a strong pairing opts for a new team in the WRC that is still in the process of being developed.’

Motorsport Director Kris Nissen adds: “We are proud that such a successful and quick duo as Sébastian Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia have decided to join Volkswagen. The aim of putting a competitive Polo R WRC on the road for them as quickly as possible will additionally drive our team. We look forward to working with them and are hoping for many victories and titles in the future.’

Two-time world rally champion Carlos Sainz was instrumental in the contractual negotiations with Ogier and Ingrassia. Sainz who has thus far led development of the Polo R WRC, will stay on as expert adviser to the Volkswagen team. “For me, Sébastien is one of the world’s three best drivers,” praises the two-time World Rally Champion (1990, 1992) and 2010 Dakar winner.

Produced by Castrol EDGE, the documentary explores the idea of mental and physical strength providing an in-depth look at the skills and strength required for Ronaldo to perform at the very highest level.

Naturally, being Castrol EDGE, there is an automotive purpose to the exercise – the company will use the marketing of the documentary to highlight it’s high-performance motor oils – which their tests show to be up to 40% stronger than a leading competitor.

Ronaldo is in Madrid today for an exclusive premiere of the eagerly awaited documentary, in which the Real Madrid and Portugal star takes on a series of challenges, including trying to blast one of his trademark free kicks through a wall of glass and going head-to-head against an elite sprinter in a test of his speed and agility.

The footballer will be arriving in style later this afternoon, pulling into the venue in an Audi R8 Spyder driven by Carlos Sainz – winner of the 2010 Dakar Rally who is also an avid Real Madrid fan. Ronaldo will then officially launch proceedings which will see the documentary, which includes expert insights from Arsene Wenger and Fabio Capello, screened to over a thousand football fans inside the venue.

So how will Ronaldo respond when faced with the most extreme challenges? Take a look at our teaser videos (below) and tune into Sky Sports 2 at 8pm tomorrow evening.

Film Teasers

Twelve months later, Peugeot stole the headlines with its futuristic looking EX1 Concept, which demolished the humble MINI E setting a new record time of 9 minutes 1.338 seconds. We still sniggered a bit, because despite the EX1′s race car looks, Renault’s conventionally powered Megane Trophy hatchback proved recently that it could lap some 54 seconds faster than Peugeot’s trumped-up milk float..

Well, the laughing just stopped.

Although whether it’s entirely fair to compare a pukka-racecar with conventional road cars is a moot point, but we’re no longer talking about getting round on a single charge, neither do we feel inclined to dig out any more dairy-product jokes..

Toyota’s TMG EV P001, with an 100% electric powertrain and Jochen Krumbach at the wheel, has just set a new lap record of 7 minutes 47.794 seconds – that’s quicker than a 380 bhp Porsche 911 Carerra S.

Prior to the 29 August record run, TMG’s ambition had been to become the first electric vehicle to break the eight-minute barrier and this was achieved comfortably on a day when the notoriously changeable Nürburgring weather stayed fine, although track temperatures were relatively low.

Using two electric motors, the TMG electric powertrain has a top speed of 163 mph, which combined with 800Nm of torque enabled the TMG EV P001 to achieve impressive speeds on the challenging Nordschleife track.

The TMG EV P001 is based on a Radical chassis which was then modified by TMG and the new lap record was completed on road-legal tyres, using the complete Nordschleife track. Lap times were verified by independent observers.

Pascal Vasselon, TMG’s Technical Director, said: “The goals for this project were twofold: obviously we wanted to set a new EV lap record and I am very pleased we could achieve that so comprehensively. On the other hand, we also wanted to learn more about the operation of our electric powertrain in extreme circumstances; in motorsport there is no more extreme circuit than the Nürburgring.

On the record lap the TMG EV P001 performed better than in testing due to the improvement we already could make based on that experience. We have enhanced our electric powertrain development thanks to the information our engineers have gained and our future EV products will benefit from this project.”

Nice, now all they need to do is add the sound of a high-revving V8 and enthusiasts will be queueing up to buy one.

Mini E – 9 minutes 51.45 second lap

Peugeot EX1 Concept – 9 minutes 1.338 second lap

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Following his podium finish at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Jenson flew back to the UK on Sunday evening, ready for his demonstration run through the streets of Manchester the following day. Button also treated one lucky Vodafone customer to a thrilling drive through Manchester city centre in a McLaren MP4-12C, and ended the day with an on-stage, public Q&A appearance.

From Friday to Monday, Vodafone customers and up to 3 of their friends were give the chance to access the Vodafone VIP Fan Zone in Albert Square, which hosted a bespoke Go Kart track and a number of interactive F1 experiences, including a pit stop challenge, the opportunity to sit in the McLaren Mercedes car, an F1 simulator and an exhibition of race suits and helmets. Throughout the weekend there was also a pit garage in the forecourt of the Hilton Deansgate hotel in which customers were given tours.

This three-day celebration was part of Vodafone’s initiative to give more people the chance to experience F1 first-hand. Previous Vodafone events have taken place in central London and at the McLaren Technology Centre in Surrey, so this was the first (of hopefully many) regional tours for the team.

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If you were in the crowd, then perhaps you can find yourself in the pictures below. If you’d like a high-res version for personal use, then send us an email using the ‘Feedback’ form on this page or via a mention on Twitter at @DriversRepublic letting us know which picture you are in.

Hi-Res Image Downloads (just click on a link to automatically open a download panel)

The number on the link refers to the position of the image in the gallery below. If you’d like to request an image that is not currently listed, then please contact us with details of the image you’d like and we’ll add a link below.

[download id="1"]

We’ve also been observing the differing levels of engagement with videos on SkiddPlayer especially for the less-obvious viewers, such as women or those people in their golden years (50-70 year olds).

I’ve written before about why these groups are more valuable than many marketers realise, but to quickly recap – women are most influential in the final buying decision of a car, but often passive and disengaged in the early stages, this makes them harder to reach because you’re unlikely to find them with their nose in a car magazine or voicing their opinions on an enthusiast forum but very valuable nonetheless.

Meanwhile core enthusiasts tend to hold pretty firm opinions on which brands they like and it can prove quite expensive to challenge those preconceptions, the floating buyers (i.e. those without a fixed affiliation) on the other hand are unlikely to spend much time thinking about a car brand until such time as they choose to buy.

That’s where video comes in and for car makers such as Audi seeking to grow their customer base, it’s a great medium through which to influence these undecided buyers.

The Race

What’s this got to do with Audi Sport at the Spa 24 Hours?

Well, perhaps the best answer is to watch the videos below. Although motorsport is a specialist subject, many millions of us enjoy watching it – however most written coverage can feel intimidating to the casual viewer, hence the increased popularity of online video.

The following series of 4 videos tell the story of the Audi Sport Team WRT as they prepare and then compete in the Spa 24 Hours – we reckon they’re some of the best content we’ve seen from a car maker with a great balance of humour, passion and drama.

A quick update on the Spa 24 Hours before you watch the videos. Audi were victorious against GT cars from twelve other manufacturers, underpinned by their top DTM drivers Mattias Ekström and Timo Scheider. Audi led 22 of the 24 hours, with the winning #33 R8 LMS capturing the lead at the start of the tenth hour and holding it until the chequered flag. Just after midnight three R8 LMS actually occupied the first three positions, but due to incidents during the night the other two factory cars finished up 4th and 14th.

We’re getting used to seeing Audi’s Head of Audi Motorsport, Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, in an emotional state at the end of each Le Mans 24 Hours and you’ll witness the same display of emotions in Episode #2 of the race coverage below. If you get a spare 20 mins to watch them all, then they’re well worth the effort.

Audi: The 24 hours of Spa – Qualifying

Audi: The 24 hours of Spa – Before the race

Audi: The 24 hours of Spa – The Race Part 1

Audi: The 24 hours of Spa – The Race Part 2

Audi Race Experience

If watching these has whetted your appetite, then subject to scraping together sufficient funds it could be you in the driving seat next year. The Audi Race Experience offers customers the opportunity to contest races with the Audi R8 LMS themselves – and on request even accompany professional race drivers.

The vehicles are prepared and fielded by one of the world’s most successful sports car teams: 6-time Le Mans winners Reinhold Joest and races include the VLN feature round at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. If you’d like to find out more, visit the Audi Driving Experience website.

This latest Supersport model is derived directly from the race car that competes in the highly-successful Caterham Supersport championship, the road-going edition borrows all of the track version’s performance essentials and then, for good measure, is fine-tuned for the road.

Caterham Cars engineering director, Mark Edwards, said: “The SP/300.R was our first brand new model for 15 years. But the Supersport is all about our roots. The Seven was born out of motorsport and this new model illustrates the values – accessibility, affordability and unadulterated fun – that have made Caterham the iconic brand it is today and which will ensure the Seven’s continuing global success.

“We’ve built faster and more powerful accelerating cars before, but the Supersport’s character, value and low running costs have generated a machine that will excite sportscar fans, including those on a budget.”

Priced from £19,995 (incl tax) in self-build form, the 140bhp Supersport carries a Caterham Motorsport-tuned 1.6-litre Ford Sigma engine, five-speed ‘sprint’ ratio gearing, lightweight flywheel and race-prepared suspension with CR500 Avon tyres on 13” wheels. The Supersport like other Caterham models promises a raw and unadulterated driving experience, which will be at home both on the road and on the track.

Equipped with a motorsport-honed limited-slip-differential and gearing with sports driving in mind, the Supersport also features uprated springs and dampers borrowed directly from its race car cousin, stiffer anti-roll bars, track biased dash with integrated change up lights and an aero screen. Composite race seats and a four-point race harness instead of standard seat belt complete the track-inspired experience.

Factory-built, the Supersport will cost £22,995 with enthusiasts able to purchase one in component form for £19,995. Weighing in at just 520kg, the 140bhp Ford powerplant will propel the Supersport from 0-60mph in 4.9 seconds on its way to a top speed of 120mph – making it more than quick enough for most people’s capabilities.

The Caterham Supersport Championship represents the third rung of its ‘motorsport ladder’ and is Caterham’s fastest-growing series. With 14 rounds over seven race weekends, the championship heads to the new Snetterton 300 circuit on 24-25th April.

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