KITS AND PIECES — LOTUS SEVEN BACK STORY
IF IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY, THEN THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST SINCERELY FLATTERED CARS ON THE PLANET
The Lotus Seven, already featured elsewhere in this issue, became one of the most iconic sports cars of the classic era, yet it was little more than a sketch on the back of a fag packet for the designer it came to epitomize. Many versions of this car are produced to this day, in almost every country in the world. Most are sold as kits, but many are built from scratch using an instruction book and a few lengths of steel tubing. Thanks initially to a gentleman called Colin Chapman, they were produced with a Lotus badge on their skinny bonnets. Originally, Colin called it a ‘Clubman’s Sports Car’, but it quickly became known as the ‘Lotus Seven’.
Although designed after the Lotus Mark VI, the Seven was actually launched after the Mark VIII (1954), the Mark IX (1955), and the Mark X (1955). Colin was a prodigy when it came to automotive design but failing to count consecutively evidently didn’t trouble his genius.
Seven begins to bloom
The Lotus Seven was launched at the 1957 British International Motor Show at Earls Court as a replacement for the Lotus Mark VI. It was the Mark VI that brought attention to the fledgling car maker due to its success in club sprints and other races. Launched in 1953, the VI was the first competition Lotus to be built in any numbers. The little kit car went from strength to strength until production numbers passed 100. Production of the Mark VI finished in 1955, and development of the Seven started a short time later, but Colin got distracted by other projects — namely, the Mark VIII, IX, X, and so on. In actual fact, design number seven was supposed to be a pure Formula 2 racer but, due to the aforementioned distractions, was never built.
By the time Colin that was thinking about the Seven again, the number of projects had advanced to 15.
However, due to the ongoing demand for a successor to the VI, Colin looked back through his scrapbook and picked the Lotus Eleven chassis to be the basis of what would eventually be called the Seven. The attractive and streamlined Lotus Eleven body, designed by Frank Costin, was removed, leaving the tube-frame substructure, which was neatly panelled to give the basic Seven shape.
At the official launch of the Seven at the Earls Court motor show, the actual car was quite conspicuous by its absence! Instead, in its place, the Lotus Elite took pride of place on the stand. The Seven was only displayed in brochure form, as Colin did not rate it as much of a priority as the Elite. He never looked on the car as anything other than a bread-and-butter project. In later years, when talking about the Seven, he said that it was the type of design you could “dash off in a weekend”.
Needs must …
It was actually the Seven that kept Lotus afloat in those early years. The Elite proved difficult to productionize and the steady production of Sevens in kit and fully built form kept the company in the black. It was sold with a 40hp (30kw) Ford 100E engine, giving the car less than sizzling acceleration of just over 16 seconds for 0–100kph, but a low centre of gravity and genuine cornering agility made the Seven the car to beat at hill climbs and club racing events. When production of the Series 4 Lotus Seven ceased in England in 1973 (it continued in New Zealand until 1978) the 0–100kph time would be down to a tasty 5.4 seconds.
Another season, another flower
The Series 2 Lotus Seven was released in 1960. The most obvious difference was the addition of a fibreglass nose cone and wing guards. All other changes were evolutionary and helped to reduce production costs. This model’s main claim to fame was a regular guest spot on the TV programme The Prisoner, which starred Patrick Mcgoohan. The Prisoner car’s distinctive green body and yellow nose cone quickly became a favourite colour scheme with home builders. Patrick Mcgoohan was actually presented with a Caterham Seven painted in Prisoner colours in 1990. It was chassis number six, this number being the name of the character Mcgoohan played in the show. Incidentally, the other automotive co-stars in the series were the Mini Moke taxis, which actually had a lot more screen time than the Seven.
Getting back to our story, by 1966 Lotus had won the Formula 1 World Championship twice and was producing successful upmarket road cars such as the Elan. Several people were now making their own Clubman Sprint cars in a style clearly derivative of the Lotus Seven but Colin wasn’t bothered. He didn’t really see the car in his future, as he and Lotus were moving upmarket. He had never really been enthusiastic about it, but, surprisingly, there was still demand for the model and a steady stream of them was still going through the factory doors.
The year of 1966 was deemed a good time for the car to pass into history as it had been in production for almost 10 years; it had made its mark
A move towards Caterham
The year of 1966 was deemed a good time for the car to pass into history as it had been in production for almost 10 years; it had made its mark. That is possibly where it might have finished if Colin had not given in to pressure from Graham Nearn of Caterham Cars. Colin agreed to continue manufacturing the car on the understanding that Caterham would take over the Seven’s sales, marketing, and support.
The Series 3 was released in 1968 and proved to be superior to its predecessor. A new range of Ford Crossflow engines had arrived on the scene. The old, and now hard to source, Standard 10 rear axles were replaced with much stronger Ford Escort Mexico axles. The new 1.6 engine brought the time for the 0–100 kph sprint down to 7.7 seconds. At Clubman racing meetings, the car was still hard to beat.
The beginning of the ’70s was a new era for the Lotus Seven. The car was completely redesigned and then released as the Series 4.