27 cars, no screens, no excuses — Caterham's purest Seven heads to Japan

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Caterham Cars Japan has launched sales of the Seven 340 Supersprint Edition — a Japan-only limited run capped at just 27 cars. The price is fixed at ¥12,496,000, or roughly $77.9K at the current exchange rate.

The whole point of this car isn't headline horsepower. The Seven 340 uses a 2.0-litre Ford Duratec good for 172 hp and 174 Nm, hits 100 km/h in under five seconds and tops out at 209 km/h. By modern standards those numbers don't shock — until you remember the mass: the S version weighs around 560 kg, the R around 540 kg. That's why every «extra» kilo here matters more than another 50 hp in a conventional coupe.

The Supersprint Edition nods back to the Seven Sprint and Seven Super Sprint of the 1960s. Nobody buys these cars for infotainment or driver assists — they buy them for open wheels, a low-slung stance, the noise, the wind and a direct line from pedal to steering wheel to road. Against a Toyota GR86, a Mazda MX-5 or even a Porsche 718, a Caterham like this looks less versatile, but more honest: it isn't trying to be an everyday car.

For the Japanese market, a 27-car run is almost collector territory. Deliveries are scheduled for winter 2026, giving buyers time to decide whether they really need a proper analogue sports car priced like a well-specced premium crossover.

The downsides are obvious upfront: the Seven is cramped, loud, impractical and asks more of the driver than any modern sports car laden with electronics. That's the whole point. While the rest of the industry piles on batteries, screens and assistance systems, Caterham keeps selling the old formula — less mass, fewer filters, more road.

Cars like this rarely get bought on rational grounds. People buy them because almost everything else has become too heavy.