Few cars are as endearing, or as enduring, as the Lotus Seven. Launched an incredible 67 years ago, the car is still in production courtesy of Caterham, and it’s still as sought after as it ever was. Perhaps even more so.
Colin Chapman began developing a successor for his Six in July 1957, and just two months later he had completed the first Seven, which made its debut at the September 1957 Brighton Speed Trials. Using an updated version of the Lotus Six chassis with disc brakes, Dunlop tyres, and De Dion rear suspension, the car took second place in its class at Brighton, then won its class the next day at Prescott. A queue of eager buyers quickly formed.
One of the keys to the Seven’s brilliance was its affordability, and though Chapman hadn’t skimped when building the prototype, production cars would feature drum brakes and a live rear axle, while power would initially come from an 1172cc side-valve Ford engine instead of the Coventry-Climax unit of the initial car. That meant 40bhp instead of 75bhp, but with a lightweight chassis and alloy body panels keeping the weight below 400kg, 80mph was still on offer, along with 0–60mph in 16 seconds.
The Seven could be assembled at home, making it eminently affordable. A ready-built example was priced at more than £1000, but construct it yourself and the cost plummeted to just £536, thanks to a lack of purchase tax on kits. Most buyers opted for the kit, which contained every part needed to put the car together; Chapman didn’t want sub-standard cars being built, so he supplied the right bits from the outset.
Over the next 16 years, the Seven would evolve, along with the variety of engines and transmissions available. The S1 was replaced by the S2 in 1960, which in turn was superseded by the S3 in 1968. This lasted until 1970, by which point things had been shaken up at Lotus, with the introduction of the Seven S4. A radical departure from what had come before, the fourth iteration of Lotus’s lightweight sportster was essential if Lotus was to survive.
While the Seven sold well throughout the 1960s, by the end of the decade its maker was losing around £110 on every example sold. Lotus Components was a subsidiary of the main company, and it was responsible for producing the Seven as well as customer racing cars. At the end of the ’60s, this subsidiary had a new boss, Mike Warner, whose first job was to put it on a sound financial footing.
Warner commissioned Alan Barrett to design a Seven that was simpler to build than the labour-intensive S3, and it had to be made in bigger volumes. The S3 was expensive to produce because of its hand-made tubular chassis and aluminium panelling, and while alternatives were considered, such as using a modified Elan or Formula Ford chassis, the decision was made to go for something completely fresh.
By taking a clean-sheet approach, it was hoped that markets previously out of reach because the Seven didn’t comply with regulations might now be open. Not only that, but by improving comfort, refinement and weather-proofing, buyers of more mainstream sports cars from the likes of MG and Triumph might just opt for a Seven.
Barrett came up with a couple of different proposals for his updated Seven, which from the outset was going to be made from fibreglass, in a bid to keep costs to a minimum. Very neatly, the S4’s structure consisted of just two key mouldings: the self-coloured outer bodywork and a central section that made up the cockpit and scuttle. All that needed to be added to these were the two front wings and a single-piece front-hinged bonnet.
Weathershield was commissioned to come up with a much better folding roof design, while there were now sidescreens with sliding Perspex windows. All pretty crude compared with an MG Midget or Triumph Spitfire, but this was a big leap for the Seven.
Meanwhile, Peter Lucas had to devise a new chassis; his solution was a spaceframe with flat steel panels spot-welded to it, and a folded pressed-steel crossmember at the front. Unlike previous Sevens, much of the S4’s strength and rigidity came from the bodyshell being bolted to it.
From the Seven’s introduction, Ford running gear was the most popular, and the S4 continued this tradition. Alongside 1300cc and 1600cc Kent engines there was a 115bhp twin-cam option, which could be tuned to give 125bhp. All cars came with a four-speed manual gearbox taken from the Corsair, and there was an Escort rear axle. Suspension was courtesy of coil springs and telescopic dampers all round, while there were disc brakes up front and drums at the back.
As soon as it was launched in March 1970, the S4 was critically acclaimed by everyone who drove it. Motor said: “It hasn’t lost any of its appeal as a fun car; in fact the more aggressive shape of the new body would, we think, do far more to win friends and influence people than the old one.” Loving its performance, economy, agility, and build quality, the lack of practicality was Motor’s only bugbear, aside from the £930 asking price, which was a touch on the high side.
This asking price was essential though, if the Seven was to be profitable, and sure enough the S4 did make Lotus around £150 for each car sold. Even better, demand was such that Lotus was churning out 15 S4s each week, which was the most Sevens it had ever produced. But ultimately none of this mattered, because Lotus had already decided the Seven didn’t fit in with its aspirations to move upmarket. It saw its future in posher and more profitable fully built models like the Elan and Europa.
By July 1971. the decision had been made to kill off the Seven S4, although it would take until October 1972 for the stocks of parts to be used up. By this point, no fewer than 664 Seven S4s had been made, but the story wasn’t quite over, because Lotus dealer Graham Nearn, of Caterham Cars, opted to take over Seven S4 production, albeit at the much-reduced rate of just one per week. Such low volumes didn’t work for the myriad companies that supplied parts, however, and by June 1974—after it had built just 38 S4s of its own, 30 of them with twin-cams—Caterham switched to Seven S3 production, variants of which are still its bread and butter to this day.
