A team of Caterham® engineers has celebrated the launch of its lightest ever production car – the Seven 170 – by building it from scratch 450ft in the air on Brighton seafront.
The build, which was completed inside six hours but would usually take one person 100 hours to finish, took place inside the British Airways i360 pod.
Caterham’s most ambitious car build challenge ever happened inside the world’s highest car dealership, supported by Avon Tyres and Halfords Advanced, and represented the first time the Seven 170 had been unveiled to the British public.
It was not only the first time a car had ever been built in one of Britain’s tallest visitor attractions, but the first time a car had been inside the pod at all. In addition, from ground level it was the highest known height a car had ever been built.
Visitors were able to watch the car build take place, using Halfords Advanced hand tools, in the glass viewing platform while taking in stunning, 360-degree views of the south coast and the English Channel.
Standing at 531ft, British Airways i360 is taller than the London Eye, Big Ben and Tower Bridge. The tower and pod of the i360 weighs over 1,200 tonnes – which equates to 2,727 Caterham Seven 170s or 200 elephants.
Caterham Cars CEO, Graham Macdonald, said: “We set the engineers a daunting challenge building the car at such a height, but we had faith they’d complete it – and they did. This will certainly go down as one of the most interesting and memorable places we’ve ever built a car. We hope the public who came down to watch the build enjoyed their first sighting of our lightest ever production car – the Seven 170.”
Halfords Workshop Buyer Emma Bailey said: “As the official tool suppliers of the Caterham Racing series, we are delighted to be supporting this brilliant event. We supply Halfords Advanced tools to all Caterham Race Technicians across five manufacturer-backed championships, meaning hundreds of drivers benefit from our tools that all come with a lifetime guarantee.”
