I opened my inbox this morning to be greeted by a press release from Caterham, and the first line encompasses everything I associate with the fabulous Seven: “If we asked you to name a vehicle that has been in production for over fifty years, had a minimally altered design and was highly manoeuvrable - we know exactly what you’d be thinking”

However, the next line threw me a little. “No, it’s not Seven. It’s the Puma HC2 helicopter, and you won’t believe what we’ve been up to…” Cue me thinking they have been dangling examples of their iconic car from an RAF helicopter for some kind of publicity stunt, I was wrong. Very wrong. What they have been doing is much cooler than that. 

You see, Caterham and the Royal Air Force (RAF) have unveiled a very special one-off car, built using the skin, interior and other components from a Puma HC2 helicopter that has come to the end of its service life, paying tribute to this remarkable aircraft. Yes, that’s right, Caterham has built a kit car using an RAF Puma as a donor vehicle.