Caterham Rising

[Red Baron]

Caterham rising
Saturday, January 07, 2012

Keeping the drive experience pure, fun and affordable.
It’s a line that Ansar Ali puts across with conviction.

As the boss of Caterham Cars, he sees a clear path to the future that’s pivoted on such values.

Come 2014, Caterham Cars, now part of the Caterham Group mothership, will be producing a new line of sports cars it promises will become accessible to a wider spectrum of people.

“We will be doing two-seater sports cars that are more usable,” says Ali, 49.

“They will have doors and air-conditioning, while still keeping the drive experience pure, fun and affordable.”

The niche sports car maker was formed almost 40 years ago and started building cars in the spirit of the Lotus Seven.

The Caterham Seven has striven to stay true to Lotus founder Colin Chapman’s obsession to “add lightness” as a defining feature in its minimalist sports cars.

Caterham Cars today is a one-product company that’s seeking to break out of this limitation.

The Caterham Seven is its mainstay, comprising the Classic, Roadsport, Superlight and CSR variants, and they have sustained the company all these while, with 500 units made a year.

It achieved a record profit of £1 mil (RM5mil) in 2010. Not bad for a specialist car builder that is now part of Tony Fernandes’ expanding Caterham empire.

But increasingly it has become more dependent on exports, which today form 55% of its revenue. Its biggest export markets are France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Ali admits that Caterham Cars is an obscure brand in Malaysia now “but I think in 12 months especially with Formula 1, a lot more Malaysians will know what Caterham is.”

The new cars coming in 2014, to be made in collaboration with Caterham Technology and Innovation (CTI) - an engineering unit under the group - will remain in the RM150,000 (38.000€) to RM400,000 (101.000€) price band it currently sells the current models in Malaysia.

Ali is quick to say that producing the new crop of cars is not a case of dumbing them down for the mass market.

“There are going to be exciting things going on at CTI: How do you make F1 into an affordable road car?” says Ali rhetorically.

“It can be around the ride and handling, it can be around the suspension and how to manage heat."

“The important thing is the Seven will remain. We will continue to invest in it… in a way that’s our ‘Porsche 911’, our iconic car ,” says Ali.

“We are probably the only manufacturer at the price band we are targeting with genuine F1 DNA.”

Ali also said it is entirely possible for Malaysia to contribute 5% to 10% of its global sales volume after 2014 by leveraging on its core strength and those of the Caterham Group.

Last month, Caterham Cars made its first foray into Malaysian motorsports with the launch of the Superlight R300 Championship at the Sepang International Circuit.

The event has already established itself as one of the top motorsport series in Britain and Europe.

With a proven 175bhp Ford Duratec 2.0-litre engine and dedicated race chassis, the R300 Championship is currently the ultimate Caterham Seven series.

“The purpose of the race series in the next two to three years is to get the brand recognised in Malaysia,” says Ali.

Apart from the bread-and-butter Seven, Caterham will also reveal to Malaysians the all-new Caterham-Lola SP/300.R next year.

The track-focused car made its global debut in January and is Caterham’s first all-new model in 17 years, featuring its first mid-engined offering and a new supercharged version of the Duratec 2.0-litre engine.

With 300bhp and a sub-600kg kerb weight, the car is able to go from 0-100kph in 2.8s, a second faster than even the Lamborghini Aventador. Only 25 units will be made a year.

According to Ali, the SP/300.R, which goes on sale this year, has drawn “a lot of online interest from Malaysia.”

Recalling how his company became part of the Caterham Group, Ali said he approached Fernandes with a business proposal. At the end of 45 minutes, it was a done deal.

“He didn’t waste any time!” says Ali with an incredulous laugh.

“He was trying to get Lotus...and clearly there were some big obstacles in the way."

“My view was that I could give him a pretty iconic brand. We could start from scratch, build a company really the way we want to build it with relatively little baggage and little initial investment.”

Motorsports has always been associated with high participation cost.

But not if Caterham Cars can help it. It has teamed up with local outfit Thunder Asia Racing Team to organise the R300 Championship from May 25.

It marks the starting point for its greater involvement in Malaysia and elsewhere in Asia with staunch support from the Malaysian maverick leading the group.

“We are going to change some of that elitism,” says Ali with a confident glint in his eye."

Bron: http://star-motoring.com/Features/Focus ... ising.aspx

[electroshock]

GT ? doors ? airco ?
ik dacht pas gelezen te hebben dat ze het downsizen letterlijk namen,
met the caterham cart :
http://life.caterham.co.uk/motorsport/c ... ing-series

[Red Baron]

Da's enkel om Lotus daar ook het vuur aan de schenen te leggen

http://www.lotuscars.com/news/en/lotus-racing-karts

[electroshock]

Tussen de 7 en de SP/300.R moet die wagen toegevoegd waaraan Tony Shute nu sleutelt...

... maar hij heeft nog hulp nodig :
http://life.caterham.co.uk/news/experie ... r-required

[co-driver]

Een 'basis' model die minder kost dan de 'goedkoopste' Elise ....motor voorin , rearwheel drive ,LOOKS GREAT FUN ....(vroeger met een Corolla AE86 gt gereden , naast de Mazda MX5 is er niets op de markt die zoveel sideway's fun voort brengt voor dergelijk budget )

LAAT MAAR KOMEN

[electroshock]

Ansar ALI is terug huiswaarts vertrokken richting Norfolk (Qudox Consultancy Limited, géén idee wat die doen: "Management consultancy offering hands on expertise in sales, channel management, corporate strategy, marketing, change management and business performance. ", een firma gestart op 2 juli van dit jaar en aan het adres te zien lijkt mij dat zelfs eerder te slaan op een éénmanszaak die hij van thuis uit uitoefent). Enfin na eerder 6 jaar bij ford, 5 jaar bij Lotus en 7 jaar aan het roer bij Caterham zette hij er om welke redenen dan ook een punt achter.
Zijn laatste woorden als MD laten (te) weinig doorschemeren wat er gaat gebeuren.

http://life.caterham.co.uk/md-column/fa ... -ansar-ali

Zie ook:

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/06/24/ansa ... -caterham/

De nieuwe CEO, Graham MACDONALD, is al gestart. En werkte al jaren voor Caterham. Was al aangekondigd vorige maand:

Graham Macdonald announced as new CEO of Caterham Cars.

Caterham Group, the parent company of Caterham Cars, Caterham F1 Team, Caterham Composites and CTI (Caterham Technology & Innovation) has today confirmed that Graham Macdonald, previously CFO of Caterham Cars will step up to the role of CEO after current Chief Executive Officer Ansar Ali leaves the business by mutual consent.

Graham has played an active role with Ansar in helping create Caterham Cars into its modern-day guise as a core element of the Caterham Group and will now lead Caterham Cars as CEO.

Ansar will leave his post as CEO after leading Caterham Cars following a management buy-in which assumed control of the business in 2005 from the Nearn family who originally founded Caterham Cars. Ansar oversaw a program which initiated a fundamental shift in the engineering focus of the business, a move which revitalised the legendary Seven range. He also oversaw the long-term stability of Caterham Cars, building on its historic spirit of innovation, entrepreneurial endeavour with a core motorsport base and dedicated to the notion of serving the ‘unserved’, making racecar performance accessible to everyone.

Ansar has now decided to move on to new challenges and Caterham Group thanks him for the integral role he played in building Caterham Cars into a globally respected automotive brand and helping form Caterham Group in its present-day guise. Tony Fernandes, Caterham Group Chairman, said: “I want to take this chance to thank Ansar for everything he has done for the Caterham brand over many years. Without his leadership Caterham Cars would not be the world renowned, profitable business it is today and we would almost certainly not be working under the Caterham name if he had not initiated the discussions with us that led to the enviable position Caterham finds itself in today.

“Now we move on to the next phase of the expansion of Caterham Group and Caterham Cars. Graham is the perfect person to take over and lead the company and his experience and dedication will help us make a smooth transition into the next chapter of the Caterham Cars story.”

http://life.caterham.co.uk/news/telegra ... om-the-top

En Tony SHUTE zou nog steeds bezig zijn aan de nieuwe Caterham ,
al lekt daar niks van uit.
Ook hier niet :

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default ... ryId=26039

Tony FERNANDES laat duidelijk niet in zijn kaarten kijken.

(En als ze nu gewoon eens een dakje zetten op de SP/300.R en een beetje meer grondspeling,
beats the Exige V6 Roadster maar dan in reverse order ... )
Enfin, 'the smooth transition' waar FERNANDES het over heeft, is alleszins veel minder opzienbarend dan de wissel bij Lotus. Daar is de Bahar-pagina niet omgedraaid, maar eerder uitgescheurd. Uiteraard een switch van een heel andere dimensie.

[fastcooki3]

Wees voorzichtig in je uitspraken op het vlak van Caterham; ook zij doen het met 32% minder. Voor een klein bedrijfje als Caterham is dat een zeer serieus cijfer.