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Lotus Seven Magazine Features


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I thought I'd start a thread listing magazines that have Lotus Seven content in it. I'm sure I have some more but it'll take some searching.

 

Classic and Sportscar, 7/91 - Buying guide S1-S4, Twin Cam SS featured in photos. Per Martin's thread.

 

Classic and Sportscar, 11/94 - Nice drive report of a Series 1 through the UK countryside with various Lotus related stops.

 

Classic and Sportscar, 5/00 - Lotus Seven Comparison, S1-S4, with an added feature of a Superlight R500.

 

Classic and Sportscar, 10/07 - "Best Ever Sports Car?" Another nice comparison of the S1-S4 models.

 

If anybody would like to add to the list that would be great. It'll give me something to search for on Ebay or the next swap meet! :)

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A few I've collected over the years from Road & Track:

July 1961: Lotus Seven America road test. List price was $2897 and a whopping 40 HP.

Oct 1970: Lotus Super 7 Twincam road test.

Nov. 1984: A Street-Fighter Racer. A look back at the Lotus Seven

Jan. 2008: Lotus Seven Chronicles. Peter Egan reunites with his former 7 at LOG 27.

Lotus & Caterham Seven Gold Portfolio 1957-1989 by Brookland Books. Over 50 articles covering mainly Lotus and Caterham but Westfield, DSK and Donkervoort as well.

 

I've got a ton of articles covering Caterhams, but didn't want to make the list too long.

 

Mike

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There are several Brooklands Books Seven magazine road test compilations.

 

I think this is a current list:

 

Lotus Seven 1957-1980

Lotus Seven Collection No. 1

Lotus Seven Gold Portfolio 1957-1973

Lotus & Caterham Gold Portfolio 1957-1989

Lotus Caterham Seven Gold Portfolio 1974-1995

 

In addition, here's an Osprey Classic Marques book that hasn't been mentioned:

 

Lotus Seven and Caterham, by Andrew Morland

 

In 1978-1980, before Brooklands started publishing its road test compilations, I was spending time in Washinghton, DC, and in the evenings I would go to the Library of Congress, get a stack pass on the pretext of doing "transportation research," and go deep in the stacks for 2 or 3 hours each evening to search out the volumes of the British Autocar magazine and Motor magazine, and review and copy Lotus Seven articles and tests. The best magazine was Sports Cart & Lotus Owner, from the late 1950's-early 1960's. The raw enthusiasm for new Lotus models was really infectious.

 

I made Xerox copies of all of those articles, some of which have later appeared in the Brooklands books. Unfortunately the Xerox process at the time was not very good, and the copies are not the best. I've got them all in a ring binder somewhere....

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A Freudian slip in my last post above -- the really great Brit enthusiast magazine from the late 1950's was "Sports Car & Lotus Owner," not "Sports Cart & Lotus Owner" -- no, it was not about Morgans!

 

I believe this magazine, when it was first published, was simply named "Sports Car." But after the Lotus Six and the early Lotus competition cars appeared, the name was quickly clanged to add "Lotus Owner," and it became, for a time, the one place where you could get all the latest Lotus news and road tests. All the "Lotus-specialist" garages advertised in this magazine, including the little racing shop and dealership at Caterham-on-the-Hill in Surrey.

 

In its focus primarily on one make of car, SC&LO preceded such widely-circulated publications as Excellence and Bimmer and other single-make magazines by several decades.... too bad it didn't survive.

 

Single issues of SC&LO are sometimes available from booksellers in UK (and I guess on eBay), and they make fascinating reading today -- a window into the sports car world of the late 1950's that no longer exists....

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  • 4 months later...

Road & Track, 3/91 - "New England & Seven" Peter Egan's tour of New England with a Caterham De Dion borrowed from Chris T at Sevens & Elans.

 

Road & Track, 2/92 - "Track Time" Peter Egan's write-up on the restoration, preparation, and racing his 1963 Lotus Super Seven at the Monterey Historic races.

 

Thoroughbred & Classic Cars, 9/95 - Nice write-up on S1-S4, with sections on design, driving impressions, owning & restoring, and buying.

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