Caterham Super Seven boot space, practicality and safety

Item: Caterham Super Seven (2001 onwards)
Rating: 1
Author: Murray Scullion

2001 onwards (change model)

Practicality rating: 1 out of 51.0

Written by Murray Scullion Updated: 3 November 2022

Not much space
Two different body sizes
Good visibility

How much space is there?

The Caterham is certainly not an everyday car, so practicality isn’t a huge factor for most owners, who have one as a second car they can use at the weekend. Getting in can be tricky if you have the flimsy fabric roof up. It’s simple to unclip but can be difficult to reattach, while the plastic doors rarely fit well.

Getting in can be tricky if you’ve got the roof and the doors on, as the aperture is extremely narrow. Once you’re in it’s pretty snug, and those with size eight feet or above will probably need to use narrow driving shoes as the pedals are very close to eachother.

Anyone much above six foot may struggle to fit in a standard chassis size, but Caterham does offer a large chassis too. This is 25cm longer and 11cm wider. If you’re above 6ft2”, you might just be plain out of luck.

Boot space and storage

Unsurprisingly there’s no stowage up front but there is a very small boot. Space is obviously at a premium, but thankfully a handy flap in the centre-section of the vinyl cover makes stowing a sandwich and thermos flask an easily-accessible job. That’s about the limit of the car’s practicality.

Is it easy to park?

Yes and no. The visibility is superb. It’s very easy to see the corners of the car which helps you pinpoint where to stick it.

The steering, however, is super heavy and there’s very little steering lock. This means once you’ve strained your biceps and triceps into a full steering rotation, the wheels don’t actually move that much, ensuring even the most simple parking might take more than one attempt.

Safety

Not Euro NCAP tested
No ABS
No traction control

Race harnesses will stop you going anywhere in an accident and the chassis is reinforced with aluminium honeycomb.

But this is low volume, back to basics motoring so there are no airbags, traction control or stability control, or even ABS. On the plus side, security is surprisingly good as they come with immobilisers and a steering wheel that is often removable.