Caterham moves up a gear in celebration of its 50th anniversary

Caterham has long been famous for its uniquely British, lightweight sports cars. In fact, it was in 1957 that Colin Chapman launched what was then called the Lotus 7, taking as his inspiration the unusual design concept of “adding lightness”. Due to the combination of powerful engines and very low mass, the cars have always offered phenomenal performance and the sort of power-to-weight ratios and agile handling that make engineers at the bigger car firms weep.

Now in celebration of its 50th anniversary, Caterham has taken these guiding principles to a different level. Enter the X330—a one-off, supercharged model that at a stroke puts this stealthy matt black concept car ahead of both the Bugatti Veyron and the McLaren F1 in terms of power-to-weight ratio. As the name suggests, by adding a supercharger to the standard 2.3 litre engine, the X330 produces 330bhp.

Like most concept cars, the X330 is being used as a way of testing ideas and technologies that may or may not filter down into the production cars. One area that it will be used to test is the viability of alternative fuels, including bioethanol. But the really good news is that there are rumours that Caterham may even put a version of the X330 into production sometime in the not too distant future. You have been warned.