Just to my taste
06/11/2025
I like butter spread thickly on bread, with lots of jam on top and two spoonfuls of chocolate powder in my milk cup, please. I like classical music when it touches me, when the emotions are overflowing, instead of light chamber music. I like it loud and intense, forceful and clear, sometimes simply extreme. I seriously thought that age would mellow me down, but I was wrong. It was all pure autosuggestion. Nothing has changed. Instead of leaning back in peace, taking it a little easier and letting the younger, more dynamic forces take the lead, I recently found myself once again drawing on the full potential at full speed, standing out and being acoustically present. Not a trace of restraint.
The reason was that I was allowed to drive a Caterham again after years. I sold mine 11 years ago and thought that was the end of it, that the youthful exuberance was over. But far from it! As soon as I put one of these on again - it feels like wearing surgeon's gloves - the old feelings returned. The sound is addictive, the response on the steering wheel allows you to steer the Caterham Seven like a dream, the engine hangs on the throttle as if the throttle valve were attached directly to your big toe. This car is like thickly spread jam with a bit of bread on top, like drinking chocolate, so rich that the spoon gets stuck in it, like when Lynyrd Skynyrd starts the guitar solo in the song "Free Bird" after the sluggish intro - which makes up almost half of the song. Unfortunately, I forgot about it for a short time, but this ultimate driving experience returned last weekend in an impressive way. And I will be able to enjoy it more often again in the future.
Yes, I admit that as a journalist I should report in a balanced way, assess things objectively and make informative judgments. But I hardly manage to do that here. I'm biased. Worse still, anyone can come along and claim the opposite, but the car that Colin Chapman spent almost a long Sunday evening constructing, which was ready to drive after just a few weeks, is my benchmark for the pure essence of driving pleasure. The Seven is actually just fun to drive, but in highly concentrated doses - and therefore exactly to my taste!
