This page last updated: May 29th, 2002

The Caterham 21 Register

The Caterham 21 register is not only still here, it's actually starting to achieve its goals. Over time I have managed to add details of more cars and owners, at last had some (very welcome) help from Caterham and the second "gathering" is almost upon us. An increasing number of us manage to keep in touch using the internet and the 21's mailing list at http://www.se7ens.net/.

Calling all Caterham 21 Owners

We are holding a second and hopefully bigger gathering this year. Once again, it is at Castle Coombe. We will be meeting up at the Triple C Action Day on Saturday, 15th June 2002. Look out for the Lotus Seven Club Somerset and Wessex area, probably amongst lots of Sevens and Lotus's. We are aiming to start gathering quite early to take advantage of the track time available. If you want to take part, please do drop me a line. However, the more the merrier so we won't be turning anyone away on the day!

What happened last year?

We had our first 21s Gathering on Saturday, 1st September 2001 with seven cars there which is over 10% of the whole production run. It was a great chance to meet up and see more than two 21s in the same place at the same time.

So what is going on with the 21?

It is a sad fact that the Caterham 21 will never be the popular sports car it deserves to be. The Seven (on which it is based) is still one of the benchmarks of motoring after 40 years (and anyone who has owned or driven one will know why), but Caterham never worked out what they wanted to do with the 21 and so left the design too compromised to be attractive the the mainstream market, yet lacking the raw edge demanded by Seven owners. If they could sort out some of the issues, they might have a viable product, which they would need to market (something they never really did with the current model - I suppose they are too used to the Seven just selling itself). However, as the 21 was launched at the same time as the Elise - and lost out because of this - they would have to work out where to position the "new" 21. The sports car world is even more crowded now than it was then.

As one of the first 21 customers I'm sad to say that - as a result of some major life changes over the couple of years - I was using Emily less and less, and she now has a new home. You can read about her here, though I've yet to finish the write-up.

If you remember the original web-site, there was a lot more information on it. Some of this will be added back as time passes, but I'll try to keep stuff up to date (or at least, make sure it is not likely to go out of date quickly). At present the "register" has less than a dozen cars on it, some of which are just sightings with no owner details. If you want to be involved in future events I'd like to hear from you.

Currently I know of the following 21s:

Red with 2.0 Vauxhall power (Paul's car - very quick)
Blue 1.6 SuperSport (Dave F's car - the first customer 21)
Yellow 1.8 VVC (Emily - the first 21 VVC and Jack's car)
Metallic green 1.6 SuperSport (Urs' car, the only one in Germany)
Honda Passion Orange 1.8 VHPD (Craig's car)
Metallic green 1.8 VVC (Rob's car)
Metallic red 1.6 SuperSport (David L's car)
Honda Passion Orange 1.6 SuperSport (Jonathan's car)
Blue pearlescent 1.8 SuperSport (Neil's car)
Metallic burgundy 1.8 VHPD (David H's car)
Yellow 1.6 SuperSport (John's car)
Purple 1.6? (Leigh's car)
Metallic green one seen in Cambridge 1998
and various Caterham demonstrators and show cars

Since 21st February 1998, this page has been visited times.

If you are interested in the 21 please email me at andrew.edney@virgin.net.