Caterham->ke1252 is one of those love-it-or-hate-it kinds of automakers that make cars that are fast but not necessarily user-friendly. In the UK, the Caterham lineup is vastly popular, but in the States, it only sells a small number of vehicles, via its Caterham USA arm, to folks looking to hit the tracks.

With the Caterham Seven->ke3209-based R500 getting ready to see its final days of production, Caterham is now planning its successor. Evo had a short interview with Caterham’s CEO, Graham MacDonald, in regards to the future plans with the Seven and if you are good at reading between the lines, a huge announcement may have been slightly leaked.

Evo brought up the potential of using the SP/300.R’s->ke3750 305-horsepower, supercharged 2.0-liter engine the Seven, which Caterham is committed to building for the foreseeable future. MacDonald responded with “Potentially, yes. I would love that, of course – especially if we took the next step and made it an R600.”

This would lead any warm-blooded human to the fact that the R600 is already on the tip of Caterham’s tongue and will likely see the light of day. MacDonald also addressed that installing the 2.0-liter would not be a straightforward process, as there are big cooling system issues that Caterham engineers would have to sort out, among other details.

With Caterham also looking to build more user-friendly vehicles – you know, ones that you can actually use on government-owned pavement – this R600 may even become that friendlier Caterham that ever traditional sports car company fears.

With its traditionally low prices and extreme performance, Caterham could really shake up the sports-car world, should it choose to build a more street-friendly R600 with the SP/300.R’s engine. Unfortunately, this is all purely speculation and reading deeply between the lines of a potentially ambiguous statement… But that’s what we do best! Additionally, the “Supercharged” teaser that Caterham released recently also lends a little validity to this potential scenario.

We’ll keep an eye out for any more announcements on the potential of the R600 and the possible use of that nasty 2.0-liter engine sitting in the Seven.

.