Caterham has signed a deal for its Academy cars to use engines from the Renault-Geely joint venture

Interesting news alert for those fond of teeny tiny British sports cars. And that should be all of you. Caterham has signed a deal with Horse Technologies that’ll see the cars of the 2026 Caterham Academy series use new engines.

Now, Horse Technologies is apparently a subdivision of Horse Powertrain, and Horse Powertrain was set up in 2024 by the Renault Group and Geely. Both of those companies are 45 per cent shareholders, with Saudi oil company Aramco taking a 10 per cent share. Unsurprisingly, Horse focuses on hybrids, internal combustion engines, synthetic fuels and hydrogen.

And so, the new engine for the Caterham Academy cars will be the 1.3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder known as HR13. Yep, that’s the engine originally designed by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance and used in cars like the Qashqai, the Megane, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and many, many Merc, Renault and Nissan crossovers.

Of course, the direct injection engine will be tuned by Caterham Motorsport to suit the race-spec Seven, and we’re told it’ll produce 130bhp and 130lb ft of torque in the Academy car.

It’s also worth noting that although the cars for the Caterham Academy are race-prepped, they’re also road legal. So, is this a sign Caterham will start using Horse engines across the board when its current supply of Ford Sigma units runs out? There’s no confirmation just yet, but we wouldn’t bet against it.

“The Caterham Academy has successfully introduced more than 1,400 rookie racing drivers to motorsport in the UK over the last 30 years,” said Caterham boss Bob Laishley. “We’re very pleased to confirm our new partnership with Horse Technologies and look forward to working with their team on the introduction of this new turbo engine to our competitive rookie series from next season.”