My Seven Story: An Austrian Perspective

Our first My Seven Story of 2022 sees us head over to mainland Europe with Manfred and the delights of Austria. He has put all three of them through gruelling road trips and even used a 1 of 60 model for a very special occasion. Having admired the Seven from afar, it didn’t take long to scratch that itch; not once, not twice, but three times.

How did you first hear about the Caterham Seven, and what made you purchase one?

“I owned a Lotus Elise. In our local Lotus Club, I learned a lot about Lotus heritage, especially about the iconic Seven, which then naturally lead to the Caterham Seven. As we have a passionate dealer nearby my home, I did my first test drive and purchased immediately. My Caterham adventure started with a stunning orange 485 SV. After a while my driving style told me that it would make sense to calm down a bit, right at this time you came up with the Seven Sprint, I was one of the lucky ones to catch a Sprint in misty blue, what a beauty!”

It looks like you have been on some very scenic drives. What are your most memorable trips?

“The first one was a four day-trip to South Tyrol, inhaling more than 150 hairpin bends, some snow, some hail, and a lot of fun. The second one was a trip to Switzerland via Tyrol and back via Germany, more than 1600 km in just three days!”

“The ‘special moment’; I was the driver for my daughter at her wedding, of course, we had to go with the Sprint, a very special moment in my life for obvious reasons!”

You mentioned you had to ‘calm down’, how did you find going from a 485 to the Sprint, especially going from SV to S3 chassis?

“Getting familiar with 485 was a ‘trip to the edge’ (you know what I mean), so I thought it might be better for me to reduce power and race attitude to focus more on style, heritage, and ‘all senses driving’. The S3 chassis was a bit of an issue due to my height, ultimately leading me to my third and current Caterham, my Super Seven 1600 SV which is the perfect match for me!”

Any plans to explore other models?

“I am curious what comes up in regards to a BEV drivetrain as this might become an attractive addition to the garage, but never instead of my Seven!”

A bit more about Manfred’s Caterham:

Model – Super Seven 1600

Colour – Vintage Green with Firecracker Yellow noseband and strip

Engine: 1.6 Sigma – 135bhp

A big thank you to Manfred for his #MySevenStory. We’re always on the lookout for stories to share, if you have a Seven story you’d like to share – please get in touch with our team via marketing@caterham.com with a picture of your Seven and little information about what you’ve been up to for your chance to feature on the site.