Caterham RS news - Mad Cat' disease - 2008

The word 'mental' tends to be bandied around a little too easily, affixed to everything from children's TV presenters to gently warmed superminis to telemarketing staff who wear jauntily coloured ties.

But this is genuinely, arm-chewingly, wolverine-jugglingly mental. This is the RS, the most powerful Caterham ever and just about as close as it's possible to get to pure, distilled lunacy.

You want numbers? You can't handle the numbers. The RS is powered by a 2.4-litre aluminium V8 that develops 380bhp in naturally aspirated form. But who cares about naturally aspirated when you can have supercharged? 500bhp+ supercharged, with peak power arriving at a mind-bending 10,000rpm.

Assuming you don't find a wall/tree/portal-to-another-dimension first, that'll take you to 60mph in less than three seconds and on to a top speed limited to 150mph. Limited, we assume, by at least a cursory regard for one's own mortality.

Another number for you: 520kg. That's the kerbweight of the RS, thanks to a diet programme that extends to a carbon fibre interior, Kevlar seats and even lightweight hosing on the cooling system.

Which means that the supercharged RS develops more than 1,000bhp per tonne - twice that of a Bugatti Veyron and right up there with the equally daft Caparo T1.

You'll be delighted to know that the RS gets a limited-slip diff, as well as traction and launch control in what we fear may be a futile attempt to get all that power down on the road. Perhaps more telling is that Caterham provides a two-day driver training course when you order an RS.

One last number for you: 115,000. That's how much an RS will set you back in sterling pounds. That is, patently, an absurd amount of cash for what is essentially a go-kart with a passenger seat. But jeez, do we want to drive it. On a track lined with pillows and duck down and marshmallows, please.