Farewell to a legend: Driving the last Ford Sigma-engined Caterham

Crucially, the Encore snaffles some of the best features from the R-Pack cars, which offer even greater sharpness to the handling without harming everyday usability, as much as any Seven is a daily driving proposition. Sports suspension, a limited slip diff and lightened flywheel are part of the standard specification.

Even with ‘just’ 152bhp the sub-600kg Encore is rapid, easily capable of 0-60mph in under 5 seconds which, if we’re honest, is more than quick enough for any public road. Yet it’s the way the Seven delivers the performance, the car responding instantly and proportionality to every throttle input, the side exit exhaust barking, crackling and popping away inches from your right ear.  

To make the most of the performance you’ll have to make busy with the wristly-quick, mechanically tight Mazda-sourced five-speed manual, zapping it around the gate just for the fun of it and executing perfectly timed heel-and-toe down shifts – braapp-braapp – despite the cramped pedal box.

On typical British B-roads there is simply nothing like a Seven, its dinky dimensions giving you time and space as it zaps fast and flat through the corners. Sitting inches from the ground and with your bum directly over the de Dion rear axle, you feel every movement and attitude shift, the sport suspension sacrificing some of the standard car’s suppleness for enhanced control over larger bumps.