Heaven is a Seven
by Joel Lipkin
Agility, performance, innovation and elegant simplicity are some of the words that describe the street and race cars built by Lotus over the 50 years since Colin Chapman registered the first home-built Lotus in the UK. In my opinion, and with the possible exception of the new Elise, no car models produced by the factory exemplify all of these traits better than the S1 and S2 Seven. It's certainly hard to think of more satisfying and affordable vehicles for both street and vintage track use.
My own 1964 S2 Seven is driven regularly on the street (CA registration "SUPER 7") and also manages to find its way to several local vintage track events each year. The car was originally imported in kit form as an SCCA racer. The kit was assembled by Bob Challman, Ecurie Shirlee Corp., Manhattan Beach, CA, one of the first importers of Lotus cars in the US. Bob maintained the Seven while the first owner, Joe Ward, successfully campaigned it in West Coast SCCA events in the mid 1960s. Joe's impressive record includes 21 starts with 13 firsts, 3 seconds, 3 thirds, 1 fourth, and 1 DNF. In those days the Seven would regularly embarrass much bigger and more powerful machinery on the tight CA circuits like Del Mar and Cotati.
Fast forward a few years, and the Seven finds a new home and a new role as a local autocross champion in the San Francisco bay area. The new owner was Dean Watts. Dean still lives near my home, and he is an active vintage racer (Porsche Abarth); but he fondly remembers the heady days of driving the almost unbeatable Super Seven he campaigned in parking lot events in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Seven found another northern CA home with Chuck Bobrink, who also enjoyed using it to trounce the local autocross competition. Unfortunately, Chuck passed away at much too young an age. His widow, Joan, decided to hold on to the Seven for a few years while it sat in a garage (on its trailer).
Meanwhile, various members of my local Lotus marque club, the Golden Gate Lotus Club, who knew the car and its history tried in vain to convince Joan to sell it to them. The timing, and maybe the potential new owner, never seemed quite right to her, so the Seven sat for nearly 5 years. Eventually I heard about it, and, as luck would have it, when I showed up Joan was ready to sell to the right buyer. It took a little discussion and convincing, but I knew after just one look at the car that "Lotus fever" had claimed another victim. A little bit of haggling and I quickly became the proud new owner.
As an engineer and former SCCA racer, I knew there was a project in my future. I just didn't know how big it might be. Everything I could see looked OK, and it seemed that the Seven was treated reasonably well in its mostly competition service. Indeed, thanks to Joe, Dean and Chuck I have a rather complete record of the Seven's exploits, including receipts for service, parts and insurance over the years. Imagine my envy when I learned that the Seven and its trailer had a $100 deductible, off-track insurance policy in 1965 with a premium of $54 a year! I also found an invaluable 8-page hand-written competition record that Joe provided to Dean. Reading Joe's notes is almost like reliving those days of simple, low-key racing that we've all heard about but maybe never experienced.
But now it's my turn to contribute to the Seven's history. I couldn't drive it off into the sunset just yet, though, because it was sitting on a set of very flat Goodyear Blue Streaks (still mounted from its final autocross event). But since it was already on its custom-made trailer there was no drama getting it to and in my garage, about 20 miles from where Joan was storing it.
The restoration process to make the Seven road and vintage race ready then turned out to be fairly straight forward. The motor (pushrod Ford/Cosworth, 1340 cc, non-crossflow, twin side draft webers, with a serial number that matched the chassis plate) turned over freely enough,but would certainly benefit from some freshening. Surprisingly, the electrics seemed solid (in spite of the Lucas heritage), and thankfully there was no sign of serious rust in the Seven's delicate, thin-walled tube chassis. But there were lots of details to deal with. Rebuilding the hydraulics was an especially important one because they had become home for some local fauna while in storage. Fortunately, all it took was lots of TLC, Girling rebuild kits, and braided steel lines to get the brakes restored to Lotus standard (also known as awesome).
By reading up on some Lotus lore and talking with fellow Lotus owners, I learned about some of the typical "weak points" of the Seven design. That made it easy to incorporate a few preventative measures into the restoration process. These included reinforcing the original Triumph TR-10 rear axle, extra "beef" for the rear engine mount, and aircraft quality nylock fasteners throughout. The suspension bushes were also a bit tired, but not too difficult to replace.
Lots of things had to come together, but after just a few months of nights and weekends over the winter "off season" the Seven was ready for the road. Oh, did I mention right hand drive? Yes, this is a very original Seven, built the way Colin Chapman had intended, so driving it on this side of the pond did take a bit of adjustment. Nevertheless, I managed to avoid some missteps, and eventually put about 200 road miles on the Seven. This was a very convenient way of sorting and gently breaking it in before its first vintage race outing--Steve Earle's '89 Wine Country Classic at SPIR.
The weekend began well enough as we sailed through tech inspection with no write ups. (Of course, it probably helped a little that I was an SCCA licensed scrutineer a few years back, so I know how to get a car through its first tech inspection.) The story was different on the track, however.
Although it was great fun to be on the track again, and the Seven behaved well in the first practice session, the fun abruptly ended when we came to an unceremonious halt while negotiating turn 7 in the middle of the second session. I was surprised because there was no warning, but I was able to get to a safe spot to wait for a tow. When the session was over, I tried to restart and was surprised again when the motor fired and ran just fine. All indications were normal, so I drove back to the paddock. Lucas gremlins--maybe. I changed a few things in the ignition system, but nothing seemed to need it. The Seven always started eagerly and could be driven around the paddock without incident.
The next track session also started out fine until the same thing happened in the same place. The Seven restarted again after the session and I hastened back to the paddock to rethink this mystery.
An especially nice feature of Sevens is that they are very simple--if you do not have gross motor problems, and you do have fire and fuel, they usually run. Since the electrics seemed OK, the logical next choice was the fuel. It took only a minute or so to find that my almost new fuel filter was nearly completely blocked by rust from my reconditioned, original fuel tank.
This problem had not shown up during my 200 road miles, probably because the light cornering loads did not stir up the rust enough for it to get to the fuel pick up. But rust was everywhere in the tank now, so another fuel filter would be only a temporary fix. Fortunately, a fellow competitor just happened to have a spare fuel tank for his Seven, and with a little refitting, I was ready for the race Sunday afternoon. After all that had gone before, the race was uneventful and the Seven took the checker in fine style.
There have been more than 20 race weekends for me and the Super Seven since that first outing. The venues have ranged from Riverside to Portland as well as all the northern CA tracks. A few driver errors made some of these weekends less memorable than others, but the Seven only seems to get better with age (a few judicious improvements and upgrades over the years have helped too).
Driving my Super Seven on either the road or the track is always exciting and more than a little nostalgic because of its history. I even think I can sense its eagerness to perform and carry on the tradition. Yes, the Seven is a true no-compromise sports car--all kinds of mechanical noises mix with a high-strung exhaust note and the wind in your hair/helmet, while your backside does most of the shock absorbing. That's what we call Happy Lotusing in the Golden Gate Lotus Club, and the Seven delivers it in giant, smiling doses.
-30-