CarBrandLogos archive · Lotus · 1957
Colin Chapman's argument that everything not making the car faster should be removed.
Discover the storyPhoto: Brian Snelson · CC BY 2.0
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Lotus Seven, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
Colin Chapman had been building competition specials since the late 1940s, and the Mark VI had proved there was a market for a car sold as a kit to be assembled by its owner. The Seven, launched in 1957, was the refinement of that idea and the most complete expression of Chapman's engineering philosophy, which was that lightness solves more problems than power does.
Lotus Super Seven 1970 A2 · Bernardi638 · Public domain
02
The structure is a multi-tubular space frame with riveted aluminium panels acting as stressed members, clothed in cycle wings, a nose cone and essentially nothing else. There is no boot to speak of, no weather protection worth the name, and the driver sits with legs stretched under a dashboard almost at chest height. Engines came from Ford and Coventry Climax, and none of them needed to be large, because the whole car weighed less than the average family saloon's body shell.
Birkin Lotus 7 · Bull-Doser · Public domain
03
Selling it in component form had a second purpose beyond the enthusiast market: in Britain a car supplied as a kit escaped purchase tax, provided the manufacturer was careful not to supply assembly instructions. Lotus supplied disassembly instructions instead, to be read backwards. That loophole closed in 1973 with the introduction of VAT, which was one of the reasons Chapman lost interest.
First car · Bexim · CC BY-SA 3.0
04
The Seven dominated club racing for years and appeared, memorably, in the opening titles of The Prisoner. Four series were built at Hornsey, Cheshunt and finally Hethel, the Series 4 of 1970 adopting a fibreglass body that purists disliked. In 1973 Chapman sold the rights to Caterham, the largest Lotus dealer, which reverted to the Series 3 shape and has been building it ever since. Between Caterham and a long list of imitators, the design has now been in continuous production for well over sixty years, which is a strange fate for something conceived as a weekend racer.
At a glance
Produced
1957–1973Designer
Colin ChapmanBody
roadsterTechnical specification
Badge at launch
This is the marque emblem that accompanied the Lotus Seven's era. The full identity timeline is documented in the brand archive.
Explore the logo history →From the journal
Lineage
Contemporaries from the 1950s
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