It just occurred to me that there are probably more than a few of you that don't have the slightest idea what a Lotus/Caterham/Locost 7 is. Basically, it is a small, front engine sports roadster built with an emphasis on performance through light weight. It has a multi-tubular space frame constructed primarily of 1" tubing. The bare frame weighs little more than 100 lbs. The body is best described as minimal. There are a few fiberglass pieces such as the fenders, scuttle (cowling for us Yanks) and nose cone. The rest is simply aluminum sheet metal pop riveted to the frame. A complete, road ready 7 will weigh in at about 1200-1500 lbs. depending on running gear and extras. Colin Chapman, the designer of the original Lotus 7, had such an obsession with light weight that there was a running gag among Lotus fans about it. The gag went something to the effect that Chapman would build a new car and then proceed to lighten it by removing one tube at a time from the frame until the frame collapsed of it's own weight. Then he would put one tube back. All joking aside, light weight was (is?) sort of a Lotus trademark.
Sevens have been built with all manner of drive trains. The Lotus used running gear from English Ford and BMC as well as others. Locosts have been built with every imaginable power plant known to man. I have seen everything from 2-cylinder Citroens to LS-1 Chevys. Jack McCornack of Kinetic Vehicles in Cave Junction, Oregon, built one with a Kubota diesel tractor engine. Last I heard, MAX (Jack's name for his Kubota 7) was getting better than 75 mpg and Jack is still refining the design in an attempt to achieve 100 mpg+! The current crop of Japanese engines seem to offer the best features for my project. The only problem is, they're almost all front wheel drive. Now, this is not an insurmountable problem, but it's more than I care to tackle right now. The best source for front engine, rear wheel drive is either sports cars, SUV's or trucks. I have decided to select my donor from the sports car realm as I want my 7 to have independent rear suspension and 4-wheel disc brakes, so the Miata is my first choice. You could also get these features from a Honda S-2000, a Mazda RX-7 or some of the older Japanese sport sedans.
So now I spend a lot of my time window shopping E-Bay & Craigslist for old, worn out Miatas. I'm also still scrounging materials for my chassis table, but things are slowly coming together. I have found a local source of steel tubing that has decent prices, and since it's local, shipping will be no problem. So that's good news!
Well, that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by. More to come.
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