In the 1990s the company made the Caterham 21, a two-seater soft top alternative to the MG F and Lotus Elise, (which both sold many more units).

[citation needed] With 2007 marking the 50th year of continuous production, the Seven still enjoys strong support and success in clubman-style racing.

Since 2006 Caterham Cars has been run by an ex-Lotus management team led by Ansar Ali (CEO) and Mark Edwards (COO).

In June 2012 Ansar Ali announced he was to leave Caterham Cars and Graham Mcdonald (the company's former CFO) became the new CEO.

As with its Lotus Seven precursors, Caterhams are constructed of aluminium sheet attached to a tubular steel chassis.

Their extremely high performance is achieved through light weight (less than 500 kg (1,102 lb) on some versions) rather than particularly powerful engines.

As well as a lightweight chassis and bodywork, Caterham Sevens achieve their very low mass through their lack of comfort and safety oriented features such as a fixed roof, doors, radio, air-conditioning, airbags, traction/stability control, ABS, satellite navigation or cruise control.

The Lotus Seven was offered in kit form to allow buyers to avoid new car tax in the UK.

Subsequently, Caterham continued offering cars in 'complete knock down' (CKD) kit form as the tradition of hand building your own Seven was well established amongst enthusiasts.

Today, all Caterham Sevens are still offered in kit form in the UK except the CSR (Series 6) model.

Typically the engine and transmission are sourced separately as a unit – often from Caterham – but all other components (including frame, suspension, differential, driveshaft, interior, wiring and instruments) were provided in kit form.

In the '60s, the original Lotus Seven was sold only in kit form in both the UK and the US, in order to evade the very high taxes on complete new cars that were not assessed on automobile parts.

International demand has increased dramatically in part due to the addition of a F1 Race team and the changes in Caterham's structure focusing on the distribution of the Seven worldwide.

The Caterham dealership closed after the premises were sold for development and the showroom relocated to temporary facilities in Crawley.

The Leafield site also accommodated the Caterham F1 team, which moved from its original base in Hingham, Norfolk and competed in Formula One between the 2012 and 2014 seasons.

[9] Mechanically the 21 was very similar to the 7, using a modified 7 spaceframe chassis with a new GRP roadster-style body, including a wrap-around windscreen and fold-away fabric hood (convertible top) manufactured by Oxted Trimming Company.

The CSR was launched in 2005 following extensive research and development by Caterham with the objective of creating an improved Seven.

However a number of performance upgrades such removing the windscreens and lights, widetrack front suspension and uprated dampers are allowed, as is professional team support.

Some minor modifications are permitted to the car, including fitting a rear anti-roll bar and sticky Avon CR500 tyres.

The R400 is a 220 bhp Cosworth powered dedicated race car with a Quaife six-speed sequential gearbox replacing the standard Caterham unit used in the R300.

The 'basic' CSR set an unofficial time of 1.17.4 on the BBC Top Gear test track at Dunsfold, placing it ahead of many of the world's most expensive performance cars.

In the early '90s, Caterham started using powerplants from other sources, with the least expensive models using 1.4-litre K series engines from MG Rover for the base model, and Vauxhall engines including full race versions of the 16 valve 2.0XE "red top" as fitted to 1990 Vauxhall Works Touring Cars.

A 250 bhp (186 kW; 253 PS) Caterham JPE (Jonathan Palmer Evolution) briefly held the world record for production car 0–60 mph times (at 3.4 seconds) until it was bettered by the $1.2M McLaren F1.

However, the partnership evidently came to an end with the collapse of MG Rover, with the 2005 model introducing a Ford Duratec engine.

Independent companies such as Quaife do offer replacement gear kits for the T9 as well as sequential boxes for those with a racing fever and the need for a more robust transmission.

The most extreme engine/chassis combination available from the factory as of 2013 was the 620r with the 310bhp / 297Nm engine,[16] bringing the car's 610 kg (1,345 lb) from zero to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 2.79 seconds.

[17] The previous model also held a production car world record for zero to 100 mph (160 km/h) back to zero at 10.73 seconds (faster than many modern family saloons can reach 60), set on 27 April 2004.

For a starting price of £24,995 (2017), entrants get a modified Roadsport kit (a factory-built option is available for extra cost) with a sealed Ford Sigma engine and 5-speed gearbox.