Parking Brake on passenger firewall?

[Kess]

I am looking to become a 7 owner once again. I have missed some good cars and so the search goes on. I found this car on Ebay 1980 Lotus Super Seven SUPER SPRINT 1700:

Here is the link:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/?cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649&item=330727725929&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT#ht_500wt_1182

 

It looked like the parking brake was mounted on the passenger firewall. I asked and it is in fact mounted that way. This seems very odd to me. A photo is attached. Has anyone heard of this?

 

Gary

[Jon W.]

I believe that e-brake location is fairly standard for Lotus 7s and their successors over the years. Standard frame's cockpit is too narrow for it to be next to driver's or passenger's leg.

[Guest Terry]

All the early Caterham chassis had the ebrake on the firewall.

[CrazyCanuck]

Makes for a good ice-breaker when giving joyrides to damsels....

[MHKflyer52]

Think about where the original 7's steering wheel was and the location of the e-brake handle then becomes clear and yes the early Lotus 7's and Caterhams did mount the e-brake in that location.

[lgb240]

That's where it is on my '74 caterham

[wemtd]

Hmmm. Maybe I should move my parking break to this more historically accurate position!

[coffee break]

My 1995 Caterham chassis also has the parking brake located on the firewall. This one is a RHD, so the laver is in the left side. It may have been some Federal regulation the moved the lever between the seats.

 

Carl

[Martin H]

Having owned a Caterham in the UK I can confirm it was absolutely normal to mount the brake on the passenger side up until about 2002 (if memory serves). Would always make you laugh when you tightened up your harnesses only to realise you hadn't released the brake - well, maybe it made you laugh the first couple of times....:banghead:

[11Budlite]

Caterham updated the chassis and suspension, and moved the handbrake from under the dash to the driveshaft tunnel in 1996. There were probably some other minor updates as well.