It’s now 10 years since drive were designing for an iconic marque – Caterham. With the Caterham C120 now being mentioned in Russell Hayes recent book Alpine – French Speed and Spirit, here is the background to Drive’s involvement with Mark Przeslawski’s insight.
So where did it start for us at Drive? It goes back 5 years to an initial meeting with Caterham in Hethel, Norwich. The unique project became a distant memory as aspirations modified with the introduction of a partner in major manufacturer Renault, a totally recent package and advanced aluminium construction. Because the engineering package was developed at Caterham and Renault bases, Drive’s design team were seconded to work on the Renault R&D headquarters in Guyancourt, Paris, forming a crucial conduit for the Anglo-French alliance.
Arriving at Renault, Drive’s close team of designers and digital modellers with Caterham’s studio engineers, were allocated space inside the Alpine facet of the complex, an impressively large studio with several clay plates. It was some of the exciting environments to work in, with the presence of a few of the Renault concept greats dotted across the place; the Alpine A110-50, DeZir, and Twingo to call a number of.
Sharing the studio space, facing one another were the C120 and AS1 clay models, two cars showing great potential with their two respective design teams working on them. If I could sum up your complete studio atmosphere, including the Alpine team, it could be passion. Passion was what drove these concepts forward.
The Drive design team lived, breathed and dreamt C120, flying out to France within the early hours of Monday morning and returning on a Friday evening for six consecutive months. Some weeks were tiring, stressful and infrequently deflating, with our attempts on the French language appreciated, even when laughed at by the canteen staff. Our commitment, comradery and keenness pulled us through each time, to be a part of history, participating in something that may bring a British sports automotive brand right into a recent era. The sad demise of the three way partnership was a nasty dream. For a very long time we couldn’t imagine that with all the hassle everyone put into the project and with it so near being realised, there can be no exciting moment of that first drive.
So enough about our emotions….what of the automotive itself?
Biased I could also be, but I imagine there isn’t a doubt that that is an awesome looking automotive, with unbelievable proportions and pure surfacing. So how is it a Caterham? What defines the character of a Caterham? At Drive we aren’t only a hired arm that pulls cars, we extract and develop core brand DNA, establishing a transparent aesthetic direction that our clients understand and may incorporate of their brand’s future.
Establishing this recent brand aesthetic was no easy task. Caterham was clearly defined by the Seven, a automotive with a cult following and essentially unchanged from the unique design. To begin with the C120 was to be a totally recent package, and one which a Caterham has never used before – a mid-mounted engine. This already moved the vehicle far-off from the immediately recognisable visual cues of a Caterham 7 (long bonnet, front engine), so we knew we’d need to evoke that Caterham feeling in other ways. We were also aware that the C120 was to be an on a regular basis automotive, in addition to a weekend toy, geared toward taking over the more premium market of Porsche, Audi and BMW. With this in mind the language the automotive spoke was critical, this was to be the road within the sand for Caterham; a fresh modern interpretation of a historic brand.
The automotive is designed as a whole entity from front to back, a holistic approach. Starting with the general proportion, it’s lithe, nimble and carries no extra weight whilst remaining visually planted in stance. The front rakes back from the long-lasting Caterham nose to a brief rear overhang. The arch lines communicate a few of the iconic Caterham 7 design gestures, the mixture of the long diving front agile arch line and the rear pert, perfectly poised line evokes the same feeling you get from taking a look at a 7. It looks alive, on its toes and able to be driven.
The automotive also looks like a whole entity, it just isn’t a case of projecting design features on the side rear and front which may often make cars look disjointed, features and graphics encompass the wheels, giving it visual strength and a way of purity, a holistic approach.
The front displays an approachable face, not too aggressive, but a well-balanced and open eyed character that evokes the identical feelings you get from the 7. It’s serious enough to not be taken evenly. All the pieces works together to deliver maximum performance whist interpreting the Caterham design philosophy for the twenty first century. All the pieces is there for a reason too, from the central grill, splitter and side intakes, designed for function hinting at influences from Caterham motorsport, equivalent to their former Formula 1 division.
Following down the side of the automotive, the long-lasting side exhaust and graphics that you just commonly see on most 7s is interpreted by a graphic that follows all the best way from the central nose through to the side intakes and onto the body side. The surfaces and body side is all about losing as much visual weight as possible, with surfaces sculpted away whilst retaining a way of beauty and tension. Moving towards the rear the stance of the automotive is exaggerated to indicate the facility moving through the rear axle, with large arch blisters further enhancing this visual width.
The rear completes the strength of the automotive, hinting on the DNA of the 7 in a really modern and crisp way. Lamp positions are high as is the integrated spoiler, not only gain higher performance but to provide the automotive a way of agility. Easy, clean lines make up the rear to further emphasise as much visual width as possible. Heat exits at the bottom of the rear screen and under the rear floating lamps, were all obligatory to administer heat for the mid-engine package. Moving lower down, the number plate is positioned inside the diffuser trim allowing the upper surfaces to be as clean as possible and retain a few of that Caterham 7 box like rear end feeling.
Working with the Alpine team was a pleasure, we had our moments in fact, whilst fighting for certain design features and gestures that related to every of the cars providing much discussion and debate! For a program that relied heavily upon financial necessities of sharing the entire running platform and customary parts equivalent to lamps, the result’s two concepts that side by side have a very different attitude, stance and feeling. Quite an achievement.
Sadly what you might be seeing here is barely a cut-off date and just isn’t the finished article, I can inform you… it only got higher! While you see those unbelievable shots of the Alpine darting across the Alps or parked within the Italian sunshine at Villa d’Este in Lake Como….. imagine the Caterham C120 hammering through the roads of Norfolk or poised within the automotive park on the Linton Travel Tavern!
Day dreaming – the way it might need looked had it gone in to production.
I could probably carry on talking about this automotive, the design and just how special we feel it’s, for an eternity. It was a landmark project for Caterham, Drive and our team; something none of us will forget and I only wish you can see on the road.
#AlpineA110 #CaterhamC120
Images courtesy of Caterham Cars
This Article First Appeared At www.drivedesign.co.uk
