Photo: Drive Design/Caterham Cars
About four years ago, Caterham and Renault shook hands.
The now-dissolved agreement stipuled that the British and French brands would work together to develop a couple of sports cars in the form of the stillborn Caterham C120 and the soon-to-debut Alpine Whatever-It-Will-Be-Called. In 2014, however, the agreement came crashing down for Caterham.
A statement from the Malaysian-owned British company describes the unfortunate situation as follows: “Renault has increased its stake in Societe des Automobiles Alpine Caterham to 100%, following the acquisition of the interest held by Caterham Group. Renault will now continue to develop its own Alpine sports car to be launched in 2016, as initially planned. Caterham Group also plans to continue with its own sports car.” Very well then.
The Caterham C120 in the adjacent gallery is the car in question and, as it happens, a studio called Drive Design sketched the car. A recent blog post on the Drive Design website tells that the engineering package was developed by Caterham and Renault. The looks, however, are unique to each manufacturer.
The more pressing question is, can Caterham finish work on the C120? According to the statement I’ve mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago, it will. Lead designer Mark Przeslawski adds valuable info on the matter: “What you are seeing here is only a point in time and is not the finished article, I can tell you… it only got better!” That's right, boys and girls, the Alpine Whatever-It-Will-Be-Called will duke it out with the Caterham C120.
However, it remains to be seen if Caterham will use Ford engines or the unit that will go into the upcoming Alpine model. In the top-of-the-line Caterham Seven 620S, the supercharged 2.0-liter Ford four-cylinder is good for 310 horsepower at 7,700 rpm and 219 lb-ft (297 Nm) of torque at 7,350 rpm. It’s a good alternative to the purported 1.8-liter turbo engine of the Alpine sports car, especially if Caterham will be able to keep the weight down.
A statement from the Malaysian-owned British company describes the unfortunate situation as follows: “Renault has increased its stake in Societe des Automobiles Alpine Caterham to 100%, following the acquisition of the interest held by Caterham Group. Renault will now continue to develop its own Alpine sports car to be launched in 2016, as initially planned. Caterham Group also plans to continue with its own sports car.” Very well then.
The Caterham C120 in the adjacent gallery is the car in question and, as it happens, a studio called Drive Design sketched the car. A recent blog post on the Drive Design website tells that the engineering package was developed by Caterham and Renault. The looks, however, are unique to each manufacturer.
The more pressing question is, can Caterham finish work on the C120? According to the statement I’ve mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago, it will. Lead designer Mark Przeslawski adds valuable info on the matter: “What you are seeing here is only a point in time and is not the finished article, I can tell you… it only got better!” That's right, boys and girls, the Alpine Whatever-It-Will-Be-Called will duke it out with the Caterham C120.
However, it remains to be seen if Caterham will use Ford engines or the unit that will go into the upcoming Alpine model. In the top-of-the-line Caterham Seven 620S, the supercharged 2.0-liter Ford four-cylinder is good for 310 horsepower at 7,700 rpm and 219 lb-ft (297 Nm) of torque at 7,350 rpm. It’s a good alternative to the purported 1.8-liter turbo engine of the Alpine sports car, especially if Caterham will be able to keep the weight down.
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