Caterham C102 (Rumor)
The upcoming Renault Alpine model was
supposed to be co-developed together with Caterham, but after a falling out
between the two companies, the French automaker bought Caterham’s share in the
Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham joint venture.
Consequently, Renault continued to
develop its own variant of the car, without any input (or saying) from the
British company. Naturally, that left us with more question than answers,
wondering how Caterham’s vision might have looked like, but and thanks to Drive
– the design studio that sketched the car – we can finally wrap our head around
it.
Drive decided to share the story of the model that
was destined to be the future Alpine’s sister car – if the Caterham/Renault
joint venture lived on.
The saga started about 5 years ago when
the company had a meeting with Caterham. Initially, the two firms were working
on a similar project, but “aspirations changed” with Renault stepped in with a
new package.
While the engineering part was developed
at Caterham and Renault, Drive’s design team was headquartered at the Renault
R&D base in Guyancourt, Paris, within the Alpine face of the complex.
There, the two design teams shared space, and soon enough the C120 and AS1 clay
models came to be. Sadly, Drive's vision, although close to being realized,
never came to be as Renault pulled the plug.
According to Mark Przeslawski, lead
designer at Drive, the C120 was created to embody the spirit of the Caterham
Seven – a car with a cult following and an iconic design. The mid-mounted
engine layout was new to the British car maker, moving the whole concept away
from the instantly-recognizable two-seater, forcing the designers to evoke
Caterham’s heritage in different ways.
Source : Carscoops
