Caterham Superlight R500

Super-light speed champion!

• Lightweight Kevlar bucket seats

• Fully adjustable race suspension

• Removable Momo steering wheel

• Carbon fibre dash with gear-change lights

• Optional launch control and sequential gearbox

There’s only one thing you need to know about the new Caterham Superlight R500: it can do 0-60mph in just 2.88 seconds. That’s it, argument over. Oh, actually, there’s something else – it’s British! And we should all feel proud about that as the R500 can out-accelerate show-off Italian machines such as the Lamborghini Murcielago and Ferrari Enzo.

This is pretty remarkable considering that the Caterham doesn’t have a massive V12 engine, but a 2.0-litre unit from a humble Ford Mondeo. Okay, it’s been tuned to deliver a healthy 263bhp, but the real secret of the R500’s supercar-slaying performance is down to the fact that it’s the motoring equivalent of Nicole Richie.

Caterham has pretty much removed every last ounce of unnecessary weight. It has no doors, roof or windscreen, and certainly no air conditioning or satellite navigation. As a result, this back-to-basics retro sports car tips the scales at just 506kg, which gives it a power-to-weight ratio of 520bhp per ton. This eclipses that of even the mighty £800,000 Bugatti Veyron. The R500, by contrast, costs a far more reasonable £36,995. So it’s thrifty and nifty. Thnrifty!