Before F1. Piers Courage’s Lotus Seven

[DeanG]

...SB1347 was once owned by British Formula One drive, Piers Courage. It was purchased as a kit from Lotus in 1961 by Piers’ father...

 

http://thegaragista.com/2012/10/25/before-f1-piers-courages-lotus-seven/

 

One period photo and several of the restoration including one with Sir Frank Williams

[twobone]

That car is now my desktop photo. Its just so clean and delicate.

 

Can you imagine the 4 wheel drifts you can get going with those skinny tires!

[ayseven]

Wow!

[escondidoron]

Its just so clean and delicate.

 

 

+1 to that. I was fortunate to be able to inspect it up close and personal at the FoS this past summer:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8024/7547738212_4f323ca6f9_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7114/7547736616_de66911987_b.jpg

 

Can you imagine the 4 wheel drifts you can get going with those skinny tires!

 

 

Can't say for sure. But I did get to see it in action:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7128/7548355358_040b2a3d43_b.jpg

 

I also got to meet Neil Wakeling, the owner. He was very friendly and provided a healthy bit of background on the restoration. I found this very enlightening since the chassis number of my Seven is SB1351, only four units hence from this car.

Edited November 3, 2012 by escondidoron

[danilo]

Lovely restoration. Thanks for the photos. Nice to see what a basic Seven looks(ed?) like. A simple light, even elegant construction .

Perhaps because of the infamous A series engine / gearbox, drum brakes, skinny wheels /tires.

A refreshing contrast to the typical over the top, current versions.

[The Stig]

Beautiful, I keep looking at he images. I agree very refreshing to see such a simple original car.

 

Not sure the water bottle is quite in period though.

[rikker]

Did you get to see what the gauges were in front of the passenger ?

[ihckb2]

I would guess the gauges in front of the passenger as speedo and fuel gauges.

So much room under the bonnet with that little engine.

[escondidoron]

Did you get to see what the gauges were in front of the passenger ?

 

Yes, and I made some notes so that I would be able to remember for confirmation of the layout in my own car. The gauges on this car are, in order left to right, ammeter, speedo, oil pressure, tachometer and coolant temperature. No fuel gauge on the early cars. The small 2" dia gauges are AC Delco and the larger 3-1/4" gauges (speedo and tach) are Smiths. Based on this configuration the car has some optional equipment. Obviously, due to the "custom built", or should I say, customer built, nature of the cars, there are likely some cars out there that were built in-period in different configurations. So a regular production gauge layout does not really exist. However Series 1 & 2 cars were equipped with only a single 3-1/4" gauge in the standard kit equipment lists, this being the buyers choice of either a speedo or tachometer. The three smaller gauges were all "standard". If a second 3-1/4" gauge was ordered it was fitted to the instrument panel in front of the passenger.

 

Fuel gauges didn't join the regular production equipment lists on Lotus Sevens until the Series 3 cars, starting in '68, at which time there was a significant re-design of the gauge layout with speedo and tach both placed in front of the driver. Also, on Series 3 cars, the oil pressure and coolant temperature gauge were combined into a single housing with two dials, one on top and one below. So they still had two large dials and three smaller ones, albeit with more information displayed.

Edited November 17, 2012 by escondidoron