(Thu 29 Oct 09)

Sports car manufacturer Caterham has announced that its founder, Graham Nearn (pictured here with actor Patrick McGoohan) has died at the age of 76.

Nearn set up a Lotus dealership in the Surrey town of Caterham in 1959, and fourteen years later he persuaded Lotus founder Colin Chapman to let him taken on production of the classic 7, which Chapman had decided to abandon. Nearn based the Caterham on the Series 3 Lotus, rather than the more modern but uglier Series 4, and this has remained the basis of all Caterhams ever since - including the short-lived 21, which had a much more modern and flowing body design but was essentially the same car underneath.

Caterham was able to continue the 7's great tradition in motorsport, and used the provocative "too fast to race" slogan for many years after the car was banned from competition in the Production Sports category for the simple reason that nothing else could keep up with it.

The company moved to Dartford in the 1980s but retained the name of its home town. Nearn eventually took more of a background role, passing on control to his son Simon, before the family eventually sold the thriving concern in 2005.

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