Orange in both name and appearance, you can't miss the Zolfe. Although it sounds faintly Dutch, the company is British and the engineering of the Orange, first announced way back in 2006, is now being handled by one Jez Coates. Jez is considered by many to have been as instrumental in the development of the Caterham 7 as Chapman himself, having led the engineering team at Caterham for over 20 years and spearheaded the creation of the JPE, the Superlight R500 Evo, the 21, the wide-bodied SV and the revolutionary CSR.
Leaving Caterham for a new challenge in 2007, Jez set about bringing the basic Zolfe Orange design up to the performance bar he set at Caterham. In simple terms, that means that Project Splitwheel needs to be paying attention to what Jez and Zolfe are up to!
Originally bike engined, the Orange is now powered by a 185bhp 2.3 Ford Duratec engine, front-mounted in a traditional RWD spaceframe chassis (painted orange, naturally) which claims to be exceptionally stiff due to FEA (finite element analysis) simulation. Looking around the car, lots of Caterham touches are evident, from the gauges, switchgear and seats to the small Seven-like wheels and sticky Avon CR500 tyres.
The styling is perhaps an acquired taste, but undeniably British. With a kerb weight of around 700kg and a price under £30k the Zolfe is bang in the middle of Lotus Exige territory. Although it doesn't sport any truly revolutionary features, the Orange looks like it may fill the large gap in the marketplace left by TVR for powerful, lightweight, traditional, British front-engined sports cars.
We'll be tracking the Zolfe's progress over the next few months, as well as getting Jez's views on what Project Splitwheel should be doing and the analysing what went wrong with the Caterham 21.
mais ce serait bien 
