Driving the Kari special

Driving the Kari special
Two decades ago, plans were afoot to make these Caterham / Lotus 7 replicas right here in India. The late, great S Karivardhan bought the tooling for the DAX Caterham from the UK and began putting together the production line for it before the air accident led to his untimely demise
As far as I am aware, only 3 of these were made and today I had the absolute privilege of driving one of them on the eve of Generation Speed
On this example the old pushrod engine has been replaced by the 1.6-litre Formula 1600 single-seater engine. Makes an incredible noise and is plenty fast. Around 140bhp to haul 600-odd kilos. Do the math.
Rear-wheel drive. No power steering. Raw, unfiltered, unplugged. Wind in the hair - literally. It's a driving experience you do not get any more. Legislation - for good or bad - has killed off cars like these. The feels. The sensations. Your palms and your arse feels every grain, every ripple of the tarmac.
Talkative and communicative to another level
And to think that if all had gone to plan these would have been made in India!