Caterham CSR Twenty 2025 review – £80k for Caterham’s ultimate road car?
Caterham's CSR Twenty costs almost £80,000 – a hefty chunk more than a similarly-specced 420. Is it worth the premium?
While the Project V signposts a silent, electrified future for Caterham, the new CSR Twenty is a celebration of the British sports car marque’s past and present. As well as celebrating the 20th anniversary of Caterham’s most sophisticated CSR chassis, this is also, per Caterham’s promise, the ‘most premium’ Seven ever. CEO Bob Laishley says it’s built for ‘longer distance road trips’. To look at both inside and out, it’s still every bit the bare-bones, insectoidal sports/track car that we know and love. How can it possibly meet that brief? We drove it rain, shine, on motorways and on proper roads, to find out.
A few special touches mark out the CSR Twenty against your usual Sevens. Notably, the two-tone Union Flag grille set within that 620-spec nose and the silver stripe running the length of the car. This Kinetic Grey and Dynamic Silver livery is standard, though you can add a load more colour should you desire. There are also new 15-inch ‘Vulcan’ five-spoke wheels that come wrapped in Toyo R888 rubber. Look closer and you’ll see the ‘CSR Twenty’ logo on the right rear wheelarch, itself featuring optional carbon shield plates.
The CSR Twenty exclusively uses the wide body and is as easy a Caterham to fold yourself into as they get. That’s not saying much, especially with the canvas roof buttoned in place. If weather conditions allow (warm and dry is better for those tyres, too), the roof being off makes everything much easier, as you lower yourself two-footed into the footwell. Familiar in-depth Caterham rituals remain, like raising and lowering the roof and making sure your harness straps are within reach before you’re seated. Adjust accordingly and buckle in.
Inside, reminders you’re in a CSR Twenty are aplenty. Soft, spongy leather and alcantara trim lines the central tunnel and seats. There’s thicker carpeting and an exotic satin carbonfibre dash, to which tactile toggle switches and your vital dials are attached. A numbered CSR Twenty plaque sits between the seats, while there are logos on the five-speed gear shifter and the dials ahead of the driver. Look out through the windscreen over the leather Momo wheel (alcantara optional) and you see the sculpted carbonfibre wheel fairings hiding the track-biased tyres from view. At night, the standard LED lights are welcome too.
The CSR Twenty’s Duratec heart awakens with a splutter and chunter, vibrating the whole car as it does. NVH be damned, for Caterham’s best road car. The option of directing the heater’s efforts would be nice and noise-cancelling earbuds are your friend over good distances at speed. We’d say a sixth gear would be nice too, if not for fear of a low-rev drone.
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Between the tiny wheel and lack of power assistance, the steering remains weighty, though it comes to life the instant you get the 620kg Caterham moving. As does the ‘road’ suspension, the compliance of which relative to your expectations of a Caterham being noticeable instantly. The CSR Twenty flows across changeable English roadways, riding better than some high-performance German saloons. Even a wintery two-hour top-down motorway schlep from Dartford to Suffolk didn’t stop us from taking a quick lap of some of our favourite local roads before parking up.
On a more enthusiastic drive you discover that the compliance doesn’t come at the expense of capability. It’s a Caterham after all. Instead, the CSR Twenty is tight and linear through direction changes, gradual and sudden. It has a combination of talents that has you relishing a spirited drive on a wider variety of roads in more kinds of conditions than you’d expect.
On dry country sweepers under the chilled rays of winter sun, the Toyo R888s come to life, the grip and dialogue building as they warm through and the miles flow beneath you. On greasy roads under overcast skies, they simply won't bite, so you need to watch your step. Likewise, the brakes, which need a few seconds of friction heat to wake them up. Thereafter, the four-piston grippers and vented discs do a great job.
The choice of the 210bhp 420 powertrain is inspired and tops off the CSR Twenty’s offering as the ultimate Caterham road car. This engine isn’t possessed of the high-tech hum of a hot naturally-aspirated Honda mill but it’s brimming with character and anger, with synaptic throttle response. The CSR Twenty is a rapid machine thanks to its 340bhp-per-ton but it’s not so fast that you can’t enjoy it. Between the compliant platform, exploitable, responsive performance, pedals that are perfectly judged in terms of positioning, weighting and action and the joy of the short-throw five-speed manual shift, this is a car that you can revel in on the road without tempting litigious fate. The ratio of thrills per miles per hour is perfectly judged.
The CSR Twenty is an impressive device for road driving, but you have to query the price. The CSR Twenty’s upgrades are similar to what Porsche offers with its GTS-badged sports cars, minus an exclusive engine. That means that instead of plumping up £79,995 for this, you could spec up a narrow-chassis 420 with most of what makes the CSR Twenty the best road-going Seven, for a £20,000+ discount. That money buys you exclusivity and bragging rights, which for the dedicated and well-heeled in the Caterham community, will be enough.
