Steve Winterberg's 1967 Lotus Seven
1968 Series Three SB2339
powered by a 1963 Mk13 Cosworth Twincam
UK

The other car in the pics below is a Chevron B1 prototype - 1 made and about a half dozen B2's. Mark Hales the racing driver journalist did a back to back at Oulton Park. A 'What if" article should ensue for the Daily Telegraph - What if the B1 took off instead of the 7? sort of thing. I don't think the B1 was built with the intent as a 7, it is just such a pretty car that it caused Mark Hales to want to write about it in a wistful 'what if' way. Mind you at 6 foot I couldn't get in the darned thing as the ergonomics are far worse than Chapman's and the intent if they go into production as a trackday car is to widen and lengthen the body tub for modern carcasses. They are thinking of producing it with a glass fibre over tube chassis version with a single cam engine for track days and occasional road use at around UKP25K in kit form

I have a Cosworth Mk XIII in my 7, of 1963 vintage, with L1 cams, cossie rods and pistons. Tis only a 4 bolt tuftrided iron crank (to keep it within homologation regs at the time) but has been doweled. Best ET 12.49 at Blackbushe and 12.99 at Santa Pod not bad for a 1963 twink eh? Did a 5.18 0-60 at Brooklands a couple of years ago too. Got the fastest terminal speed at Moreton in Marsh International in early 90's for standing eighth mile too. It has a standard after market roll bar of the time made by John Aley, again bought from Caterham but in black vinyl.

It was motor bikes as soon as I could, my dad used to collect them, we had a back garden full of pre-war AJS, BSA, Matchless, Norton, DKW, even an Ariel square 4 with a Watsonian sidecar, a BMW and my favourites, a 500 Royal Enfield Brooklands Bullet, and post-war 650 BSA Rocket Gold Star and full race 175 BSA Bantam. I bought the 7 on receipt of the compensation from an motorcycle off involving tintops!

Have owned the car since 1971, bought from David Wakefield at Caterham. Here's a couple of snaps, red livery circa 1973, blue livery 1992 and the last on the front cover of the Uxbridge Auto Show flyer 1998, when I changed the livery I had the roll bar recovered to match the new seats and carpet. What a poseur eh?

So it seems a "Seven" was the next logical progression... There were loads of 3 wheelers produced all over europe, BMW, Isetta, Messerschmidt - brilliant they were too! As kids we used to push an old engineless one up to the top of the south downs just for the freewheel ride back down again. Took all morning to push the thing up - about 4 miles - and 5 minutes back down at high speed - till we rolled it and my mates Dad smashed it up with a sledgehammer - the mate who broke his arm and thigh having been trapped under the dash!

These pics show the bitch of an o/s engine mount having dropped the engine an inch or so and following 're-engineering' to miss the dry sump pump. Don't you just love the low profile headlights? Blimey, how sad is that, I've got over 300 snaps of the thing starting from ripping it apart after the recovery from Spain!

I had the wings and nose made by a young lad just outside Leicester (who a pal of mine uses to make up bodies for the 1930's Brooklands Riley Trial cars he builds for rich dudes) and he made them using the old S3 glass fibre as patterns, in fresh air without a buck of any kind which is pretty magic!

It is a pretty little beastie eh, better than I hoped. The plan is to stay polished ali and not paint it. I'm afraid I take no credit for the engine - for the first time in my life I shipped it to Vulcan Eng and asked them to fettle it top to bottom. They gave me a price then got so enthusiastic about the condition of it having expected it to be a dog like most 1963 Twinks are by now, that they tooth belted the water pump drive pulleys, swapped the cam sprockets for vernier, big valved the head and repainted it in Ford/Lotus colours of the day at no extra charge! Oh and remodelled and polished the inlet and exhaust tracts... All I had asked for was a rebore, new bearings and a refresh!