According to Autocar, the Kent-based sports car company, currently owned by former Lotus executive Ansar Ali and owned by private equity firm Corven Ventures, is considered to have found a great deal with AirAsia which is believed to invest funds into Caterham and put in place some ambitious product plans in order to develop new models.
The new deal should be made official around April 27 when Team Lotus will be present at Duxford airfield for an event.
Fernandes at this moment has a court dispute with Lotus Cars over the use of the name in Formula 1. According to Autocar sources, no decision has been made concerning the fact that the Caterham name will be involved in any way in F1 or if it’ll appear on F1 cars in the near future.
At this point, in the Caterham model range, the Superlight R500 model is currently one of the most powerful cars in their range. The vehicle features a 2.0 L engine capable of producing 263 bhp (196 kW) at 8,500 rpm with a maximum torque level of 177 lbs ft (240 Nm) at 7,200 rpm.
The cars weigh in just 506 kg (1,115 pounds) with the 6 speed manual transmission and 516 kg (1,125 pounds) for the version with the sequential gearbox. Taking into consideration the car’s engine output, the power-to-weight ratio is 520bhp-per-tonne. This aspect offers some extreme performance managing to accelerate from 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in just 2.88 seconds and the maximum speed is set for 150 mph (240 km/h).
Suspension features adjustable double wishbone with roll bar for the frond and de Dion axle located by lower A-frame and Watts linkage for the rear.
Brakes incorporate a twin circuit split front/rear with low level warning system. Available as options are launch control, the sequential gearbox, carbon induction airbox, race damper package, lowered floors, data logging stack dash instrumentation, heater, track day rollbar, battery master switch, interim catalyst bypass pipe (for the race track only) and full roll cage.
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