After my first love of motorcycles waned with the English weather, my entry into four wheels was a 1963 Sprite.  I made the mistake of buying it from an ex-motor mechanic.  The things you could hold on a car with wood screws is mind boggling..... but even wood screws are ineffective on rust, so I soon found an appreciation for fibreglass. 

Of course this immersed me into the sometimes wonderful world of fibreglass cars. 

Conveniently fibreglass has been the chosen media for kit and race car builders, of which England’s cottage industry has shown no shortage over the decades.

So if nothing else, the rust bucket Sprite pointed me firmly in the right direction.

Through my late teens and early twenties I managed to own a good variety of these English kit cars.   The list was pretty extensive and included a large assortment of: Lotus cars - Super 7, Elan, Europa then Ginetta cars - G4, G12, G15 along with TVR, Gilbern, Clan Crusader, Marcos, Davrian, Cox GTM and at one point there was even a beach buggy that would wheelie...... but that’s another story !

What all this did for me was to make me realise just how special Lotus cars are, the Super 7 and the Elan, in my opinion have to be two of the best sports cars ever made. 

The 7 for it’s no nonsense approach, makes no excuses for what it is.   Produced to be an affordable bare bones thrill of a car to drive, that’s exactly what it delivers in all it’s forms of evolution.

There have been too many 7 copies to count over the last 50 years, but in my mind the original 7 is still the best .... a car with soul ..... Beware !

I hope you enjoy Lotus7.com

Tony Ingram

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