
The 170 R will hit 60 miles per hour in 6.9 seconds and max out at 105 miles per hour. Speaking of which, rolling stock is 14-inchers on 155-section Avon ZTZ tires in front with disc brakes, 165-section in back with drums. A five-speed manual gets power to the rear wheels. As one expects of a Caterham, one must take to the skies of rpm to achieve max output, all the horses not loosed until 6,500 rpm, torque peaking at 4,000 rpm. The resulting 170 horsepower per English “tonne” provides the model’s name. Both are powered by a new generation of the turbocharged 660-cc three-cylinder Suzuki engine from the 160, making 84 horsepower and 86 pound-feet of torque. There two-trim range starts with the 170 S, the relatively luxurious version, and ends with the paperweight 170 R. It earns the honor of being the lightest Caterham of all time, 50 kg (110 pounds!) lighter than the 160, and on top of that, the dimensions have shrunk ever so slightly thanks to new front and rear fenders over thinner tires, making the 170 comply with Japan’s Kei car regulations. That’s partly how we’ve got the new Caterham 170, an entry-level flyweight jitney at just 440 kilograms (947 pounds) in its lightest 170 R form.


At the end of March this year, VT Holdings bought Caterham outright, not only safeguarding the flow of product, but getting more products tuned to Japanese tastes. The Japanese dig themselves an old-school lightweight English roadster, the previous entry-level Caterham 160 said to have been requested by VT to feed local demand. Since 2009, VT Holdings was the Japanese importer for Caterham Cars.
