Well, things went pretty fast, and I am almost unexpectedly finding myself the proud owner of a very Vintage looking Super 7. As I said in the previous post, it is not a "real" pre 1972 Lotus, but rather what is known as a "PreLit" Westfield, a 1986 kit that was finished up in the early 90's.
PreLit refers to the litigation that took place in the late 80's when Caterham threatened to sue Westfield for making kits too close to the original Lotus design, and won. PeLit Westfields are almost identical to the original, with aluminum body and hood. Post Lit Westfield are covered in fiberglass, and for a "plastic hater" like me, that was a big deal. Even better, the body was never painted.
The original car had a 1340cc Ford engine. This one has a 2 Liter Toyota with a 5 speed transmission.
I rode the car all the way from North Carolina in one day, and that was a little rough, but really not that bad. We stopped in Asheville for lunch, and sneaked it into Biltmore Estate to shoot some pictures:
The car is a perfect fit for me: 6ft, 180lbs, size 34 waist, size 10 shoes. Shorter people will have a hard time reaching the closely spaced tiny pedals, taller people will be cramped, and bigger feet will hit two pedals together.
It is very easy to drive, at least for people used to stick shift. The wheel is tiny, but yet easy to turn, the steering is very precise, the shifting smooth, the car almost perfectly balanced , with easily handled oversteering.There is no real need for double clutching, but I do it anyway because it sounds good...
It corners like a demon, especially since I replaced the old dried up Yokohama tires with a set of much stickier Uniroyals. I put semi synthetic oil in the motor to flush out whatever was in there, and will go to the best full synthetic next week.
It's a blast!
PreLit refers to the litigation that took place in the late 80's when Caterham threatened to sue Westfield for making kits too close to the original Lotus design, and won. PeLit Westfields are almost identical to the original, with aluminum body and hood. Post Lit Westfield are covered in fiberglass, and for a "plastic hater" like me, that was a big deal. Even better, the body was never painted.
The original car had a 1340cc Ford engine. This one has a 2 Liter Toyota with a 5 speed transmission.
I rode the car all the way from North Carolina in one day, and that was a little rough, but really not that bad. We stopped in Asheville for lunch, and sneaked it into Biltmore Estate to shoot some pictures:
It is very easy to drive, at least for people used to stick shift. The wheel is tiny, but yet easy to turn, the steering is very precise, the shifting smooth, the car almost perfectly balanced , with easily handled oversteering.There is no real need for double clutching, but I do it anyway because it sounds good...
It corners like a demon, especially since I replaced the old dried up Yokohama tires with a set of much stickier Uniroyals. I put semi synthetic oil in the motor to flush out whatever was in there, and will go to the best full synthetic next week.
It's a blast!
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