We say For a car that has been knocking around since the mid 1950s, the Seven makes for brutal acceleration and phenomenal handling.Performance There are a few engines available on the Caterham starting with a 1.4-litre unit and working their way up to an enormous 2.3-litre 200bhp unit that can clear 60mph in just 3.7 seconds. While sprint times and top speeds depend on your pick of the Super Seven range, you can rest assured that it will be neck-snappingly fast – no matter what drive train you plump for.Emissions Emissions and fuel economy are surprisingly good on almost all Super Sevens although as you move up the power range, they predictably get worse. They do however benefit from a lightweight design and an uncomplicated driver system that shuns driver aids and energy sapping technologies.Driving The Super Seven is one of the best cars to drive on the road today. It’s powerful, handles beautifully, is agile and offers the thrill of ‘wind-in-your-hair’ driving. It sits low to the ground, has a fairly wide wheel span and tonnes of grip. It’s incredibly responsive, too. Brilliant.Feel It’s probably not a car that you’re going to use to drive for hours on end because it is fairly taxing because of its racing setup, however, depending on your tastes, different Seven models are more suited to long hauls thanks to softer suspension setups.Space It’s a two seat sportscar series and there’s barely enough room for two occupants – it’s cramped and unrefined.Equipment If you go from a normal, everyday road car to the Caterham, you’ll be struck by just how bare the cabin is. There are few mod cons and instead the interior features only the necessary dials and speedometers. Fortunately there is plenty of scope for customisation and upgrading if there are some features you can’t do without.Price Pricing for the Caterham Seven starts from a very reasonable £17,860 for the most basic Classic version but that price can escalate to as much as £42,000 even before personalisation options and extras are added on. You do however get a lot of driving for your money.Quality If you get a factory built Caterham Seven and ignore the build-at-home kit cars, quality should not become a problem because relatively low volumes are built and the cars themselves are simple and do not use complicated driver systems or electronics. If you build it yourself then quality will vary depending on your skill.Safety The Caterham Seven is often called a ‘back to basics’ car which basically means it has no mod cons or advanced technology. That affects its safety provision too and there are no airbags or ABS. There is a reinforced aluminium frame and a racing harness but that’s about it.Pros The Caterham Seven is an unbelievable car to drive and near impossible to beat if you want a car for the track or pure driving enjoyment. It’s also fairly cheap to buy and run because of its lightweight design and basic set up.Cons There’s very little in the way of safety equipment and it’s incredibly impractical. Impossible and dangerous to use in the rain and wet because of its fabric roof.Alternatives Lotus Elise