2010 Caterham Roadsport 125

The Roadsport 125 is in many ways the modern equivalent of the original 1973 Caterham. Where that had a 1.6-litre Ford Kent Crossflow engine, this has the contemporary equivalent in the form of a Sigma unit of similar capacity.

Back in 1973 few cars had five forward ratios to choose from and the Ford Bullet box gave the Seven only four, but the Roadsport has a Ford Type 9 gearbox with five speeds, making it easier to keep that twin-cam four valves per cylinder Sigma engine singing.

More powerful Sevens have been built, and some have higher levels of trim than the Roadsport, but for the genuine experience and feel of a latter day Lotus Seven, this is the model to go for. And this one has a far more interesting history than most.

It was used by QinetiQ, a leading defence, science and engineering company formally owned by MOD. The firm is a world-centre of excellence in research and development, and acts as catalyst for fast-track innovation, offering outstanding experimentation facilities, technical, engineering and scientific expertise. QinetiQ used this Caterham to develop the Q Shift gearbox (high performance low cost gear change technology) at the highly secure Farnborough site by some of the brightest engineering minds available, over many years.

The Q Shift gearbox is a sequential unit designed to be built at a far lower price point than equivalent sequential gearboxes currently commercially available (a Quaife unit, for example, is around £6500).

After many years of development the new gearbox was complete (and a thing of beauty being milled from solid aluminium billet) and the development car no longer needed. No changes to the structure of the Caterham were made, as the development gearbox occupied the same space as the original. The development gearbox was retained by QinetiQ.

The current owner is a QinetiQ employee, who says:

‘When I realised the Q Shift gearbox development had been completed and the car was to be sold, it felt like an opportunity I couldn’t miss, as I love a project.

‘So I rang around some specialists and settled on Matt Blyth Motorsport, who runs many cars for the Caterham Academy, and had the skills necessary to bring the car back to stock.

‘Together we agreed a full inspection and standard fresh gearbox were needed, so piece by piece the whole car was gone through, disassembled and refreshed as needed, this took many hours and parts (the invoice can be found in the history file) and cost around £4000. With the car now fully sorted and a fresh MOT it was time for a new owner.

‘This is a low mileage well specified Caterham, fully refreshed with a unique past. It has a few exterior marks here and there but I’m assured this is normal due to the very thin aluminium and exposed nature of the car. Apparently it’s one the cleanest they’ve seen.’

This Seven’s striking blue and silver paintwork is in excellent order, especially when you bear in mind the car is 12 years old, but there are some minor faults we spotted walking around it. There’s a slight scuff mark on the nearside tip of the nosecone’s silver section, a small paint chip near the front of the rear wheelarch on the passenger side, and another towards its rear. There’s also some really light corrosion on the tiny satin black windscreen wiper arms and blades. The paint is also slightly damaged on the section normally hidden by the bonnet – this is invisible with it fitted. None of these faults would be difficult or expensive to rectify.

This Superlight spec wheels are in good condition with only very light marks that may well polish out, and a full set of excellent Toyo Proxes tyres pointing to the car’s track and fast road heritage, which is also apparent in the battery cut-off switch at the base of the offside windscreen frame.

The equal length stainless steel tubular exhaust manifold has heat discoloured but still gives the car an elegant and purposeful look, and under the lift-off bonnet panel the foam air filter element looks slightly tired. Some of the alloy components, the alternator for example, have surface oxidisation, but generally this area presents very well indeed.

The hood doesn’t fit particularly well but this doesn’t really matter as it’s against the Caterham Code to put it up anyway. Caterham owners always drive with the hood down, even in a full blown blizzard. It’s a bit like postmen always wearing short trousers even in mid January.

There’s a slightly incongruous Rover badged ignition key, a hangover from the Caterham’s long association with the Rover K-Series engine, which the Ford Sigma unit deposed.

The Caterham branded Luke harnesses’ motorsport validation expired in 2014, but this is of little consequence to road users and they remain in perfectly serviceable condition.

A trick looking and ultra lightweight carbon fibre dash is spoilt slightly by a wonky temperature gauge, but this is five minute fix, while the tiny Momo steering wheel means you’ll feel every twitch of the front suspension.

A Focus gearknob would look horribly out of place in a Seven and there’s a gorgeous Caterham alloy part fitted, barely peeking through its hole in the transmission tunnel – maybe the January weather is too cold for it.

Superlight suspension with Bilstein coil-over damper units features at the front, with De Dion rear suspension with a Watt’s linkage and A frame location.

The brake discs have surface rust from lack of use, but they’ve just sailed through an MoT test and a few miles on them will have them looking much better.

The current owner states: ‘Although the initial service paperwork was lost and is probably still sitting in a desk somewhere, during QinetiQ’s ownership the Seven’s servicing was fastidious, with the car being fully checked before and after each test, and I’ve seen pages and pages showing this, and the notes from the development, which unfortunately cannot be released due to GDPR and intellectual property issues.’

There is a two page article included with the Seven’s history file that details the development of the QinetiQ Q Shift sequential gearbox and this car’s part in that. The car retains a QinetiQ asset tag attached to its dashboard.

The history from the Caterham archivist says, ‘Car #32191 is a 2010 Academy Car that was factory built in January 2010 and registered on 1st March 2010. The car briefly competed in the Caterham Academy on track in 2010, one of 3 bought by a company to compete that year. Caterham have sold the car twice, first in December 2011 and again in October 2013. From 2013 the owner was a leading science and engineering company, who purchased the car to develop “high performance low cost gear change technology”, who fastidiously maintained the car and used it to develop a prototype gearbox.’

This is an extremely low mileage Seven with a special history and a great spec. We expect enthusiast interest to be very high.

Our estimate for this car is £16,000 - £22,000.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; we are open weekdays 9am-5pm, to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.