1993 "lotus seven"

[azapa]

Hello Chaps,

I am a Brit. living in Chile for what seems like ever, with a hankering for those old Brit cars. This oddety has popped up: http://www.dollenz.com/det.asp?ID_CAR=266 if you click the picture they enlarge.
What is it? It has the twin cam, double webbers, but can not be a Lotus. I must them be a Caterham? Were the T/C Lotus engines ever fitted by Caterham?? Thanks in advance.

[Boxologist]

doesn't look like a caterham dash. at first i thought westfield, but possibly a true series 3 lotus. i don't understand the year though.

[Roll a 7]

Seems to have some Lotus bits and some other non stock sorts of pieces. Looks to be well turned out. Nice job on the interior if those are dead cow skins.

[New2 7's]

From the pictures it appears/look like a Lotus Series 4

Many of them were built with twin cam motors, but the year of the car doesnt correspond to the period the Series 4's were in limited production.

[azapa]

Thanks for those fast replies. The car is in a local, slightly shady dealership. I would imagine anything that can be wrong will be wrong. But, it may be a fun project car. I will go and look it over at the weekend to see if I can find any plaques that shed light. Keep the guesses coming!

The cost shown in pesos, is about US$17K. I have no other comparison to go on, but if it is in reasonable shape, it "feels" like an OK price.

Thanks again!

[moosetestbestanden]

That's not the Lotus Big Valve head for sure. It looks sort of like the Vegantune that CC sourced when the supply of the Lotus Twincam engines dried up. But that would make the car more like an 83 rather than a 93, provided the engine is a Vegantune and / or it has / has not been transplanted into a later car.

Edit: The only photos of that head I've seen say "Vegantune" and do not have those 4 studs coming through the top. Block was the 1600 Ford unit, just like the Big Valve (a nice engine from a nostalgia pov but _not_ a reliability pov)

I've posted and inquiry (enquiry?) on Blatchat to see if any of the sages there will know more. http://www.blatchat.com, goto the chitchat page and look for a thread "Question from a Brit in Chile"

Hope this helps.

Edit: Definitely not a Series 4. That car looks like this: http://www.amwmag.com/Redaktionell/Lotus/lotus.htm

[Roll a 7]

The nosecone and wings look to be series three sourced. The windshield angle appears to be non stock and the roll bar is an original design, I think. The bonnet does not seem to be from C. Does it have a serial #?

[Boxologist]

From the pictures it appears/look like a Lotus Series 4

Many of them were built with twin cam motors, but the year of the car doesnt correspond to the period the Series 4's were in limited production.

really, looks nothing like a 4.:confused:

[magnusfeuer]

Gascap seems to be on the wrong side... But I am not a Lotus/Caterham historian.

/Magnus F.

[moosetestbestanden]

Some things to look for to see if it's a Caterham:

Body will be aluminum, nose cone & wings fiberglass. Remove the bonnet and look for a VIN number stamped on the frame rail, left hand side top or on bottom of the housing for the brake and clutch hydraulic reservoirs. Remove the boot cover and look for stampings. Arch motors (Caterham's frame builders) stamps the jig number and frame number on the (or a if more than 1) boss for the roll bar.

Then, look here: http://7faq.com/owbase/ow.asp?ChassisNumbers

Check out the rear suspension. Most likely a live axle from that period.

[azapa]

Thanks so much for the feedback. I will get my hands dirty this weekend and take some pictures to post. Any thoughts on the price 17K?? I would imagine that spares and mechanical part re builders are easy to find in my native UK and the US. Can the 4 link suspensions be retro fitted to the backed? Would that be sacrilege??

[moosetestbestanden]

If you haven't already, check out the Blat Chat thread that I mentioned above. There's been some input since I posted it (late last night GMT).

Edit: URL is http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?Id=129282