lotus seven

The Lotus Seven was the successor to the Lotus Mark 6 and was in production from 1957 through 1972. It was introduced to the public at the Earls Court Motor Show in London in October of 1957. Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, had designed six other Lotus’s; this vehicle being his seventh. Part of the vehicles success was its light-weight construction and powerful engines resulting in great performance, handling, and response times. It went from zero to sixty in around 5 seconds and had a top speed of about 100 miles per hour. Chapman used to refer to the vehicle as a ‘four wheeled motorbike’.There were few amenities, the seats were not adjustable and there were no doors. The car sits very low to the ground. While sitting in traffic, the driver measures about as high as most vehicles wheel-wells. The front suspension was an independent A-arm while the rear was a live axle located by twin parallel trailing arms and a diagonal link. The body was constructed of a steel tube frame with aluminum bodywork and fiberglass fenders. Cast-iron drum brakes were used to stop the vehicle. Initially a worm-and-nut steering was used but was quickly replaced with rack-and-pinion.The cost of owning the first sevens was £587 (around $1640). They featured a Ford engine producing 40 horsepower and a Ford gearbox. The first few years of its development saw improvements to the suspension, transmission, and engine capacity.Series IF, introduced in 1957, had a length of 129 inches and a width of 53 inches. In 1958, the IC Series was introduced and had a length of 132 inches and a width of 58.30 inches. The engine was a Coventry Climax FWA 1098 light-alloy, four cylinder power-plant that produced 75 horsepower. The transmission was the BMC Austin A30 4-speed manual with optional close-ratio gears. The 1A AWD America Series was introduced at the close of 1959. 37 horsepower was ascertained from the BMC A-Series 948 cc. four-cylinder engine. The United States versions were dubbed the Seven America and were equipped with Austin-Healey Sprite engines outputting 43 horsepower. In 1960 the Series 2A and 2F were introduced. These 2A’s featured a BMC A-Series engine and a BMC Sprite 4-speed manual gearbox. The American versions were given a 948 cc. or 1098 cc. engine. The 2F Series featured a 100E Ford engine and Ford 3-speed gearbox. This was later exchanged in favor of the Ford 105E 997 cc engine and 4-speed Ford Anglia gearbox.Probabily is the most influent track car of the all car history,because today an r500 continue to be one of most fast car on the track ,isn’t an car the lotus seven is an legend!

1960-Lotus-Seven