Search for:
  • Home/
  • Kit Car/
  • At $4,750, Could This Lotus Seven Reproduction Be The True Offer?

At $4,750, Could This Lotus Seven Reproduction Be The True Offer?

Nice Price or No Dice: Lots Seven Replica

The Lotus 7 was probably the world’s finest-cherished package auto. Today’s Pleasant Price tag or No Dice 7 is an homage to that original. Let us see if its price can make it honorable in its very own proper.

Person, I have to say, you viewers appear to be to be emotion fairly limited with the hard cash this week. Everything I have thrown at you so far has been batted down in a No Dice reduction. That includes yesterday’s aesthetically compromised 2003 Honda Civic Si hatch.

The seller deserves a shout-out for actually detailing all of the car’s flaws and witchiepoo warts in the ad. But for quite a few who contributed in the comments, these injuries, accompanied by the car’s $8,800 inquiring selling price, were being viewed as an insult. As a end result, it fell in a decisive 88 percent No Dice reduction. That would make this, so much, a whole week of losers.

undefined

Let’s see if a small Lotus blossom can reverse the tide and deliver residence a win. We’re ending this 7 days with a reproduction of a Lotus Seven part car or truck, a model that has had notable results in the many sorts of its afterlife — improved fortunes than the business that birthed it did with the initial edition over the several years. Seriously, I guess that if you tallied up all the Caterhams, Westfields and dozens of other kit, ingredient and change-vital carmakers popping out 7 homages due to the fact Lotus killed off the model in 1973, the total would outnumber Lotus’s output in excess of the same time period. Of program, which is each parent’s dream — that their children reach larger heights than they did.

undefined

The Seven reached perhaps the finest top of any car in that it is now not only a staple of boutique carmakers but has develop into a cherished desire job of Do-it-yourself builder as nicely. Those people endeavours have been so preferred that the “Locost Seven” identify has identified its way into the lexicon of the automotive earth.

Today’s car or truck is claimed to be a Lotus Super Seven duplicate, and just about all of the proportions and pieces appear ideal for this kind of a car. It does sport tire-hugging cycle fenders in the front instead than the flowing wings you may possibly have been anticipating. Both would be correct, as would the somewhat cobbled alongside one another visual appeal. The Seven was often about minimalism and creating-do with what you have. What the builder of this Seven seemingly experienced, was a 1974 Triumph Spitfire. According to the ad, which is what served as the donor vehicle, featuring up the 1300cc motor, four-velocity gearbox and from the seems to be of it, the steering column and entire front suspension as nicely.

undefined

The seller does not point out whether or not the rear is sprung through the Spitfire’s swing axles or if there’s something a small a lot more buttoned-down undertaking that career. What we are informed is that the tiny Triumph four is seemingly excellent for 60 horsepower at the again wheels, and that it suffers from a misfire when underneath load. The vendor blames that on the car’s getting expended a few of a long time in storage. The induce could be anything at all from a fatigued gas pump to the ignition details floating at substantial rpm. It may possibly make for a enjoyment undertaking to suss out the problem and occur up with the deal with.

undefined

The motor sits beneath a polished aluminum hood and behind the now-iconic Seven nose cone, which has been painted a classic yellow. That is accented with swaths of British Racing Green on the fenders and much more bare steel just about everywhere else. Time period-appropriate tulip-model alloy wheels and actual leather-based straps on the bonnet entire the picture.

undefined

The vendor says that the auto is also modest for anybody over six feet tall, and honestly, it genuinely looks a lot more like something you’d strap on your foot to go skating than one thing you sit in and generate. If you do healthy, you’ll be faced by a picket dashboard equipped with a total set of gauges and quite remarkably, a locking glove box. Porsche ground mats make for a posh touch. Also, as is noticeable from the images, this is a ideal-hand travel auto.

undefined

The seller endorses the car for autocross, but notes it is registered for the highway and even retains a very clear title. It’s remaining offered in California, and its age can make it emissions-exempt in that point out. It will come with a claimed 3,300 miles on the odometer and a price tag of $4,750.

What’s your take on this replica and that incredibly authentic asking price tag? Does that make this a 7 you may roll? Or, is that much too a lot for something this modest and type of rough?

You determine!

Monterey, California, Craigslist, or go in this article if the advertisement disappears.

Aid me out with NPOND. Strike me up at rob@jalopnik.com and deliver me a fastened-value idea. Bear in mind to incorporate your Kinja manage.