Group build: Lotus Super 7 CC

[Scuderia.]

Well here is my entry for the group build. I’m calling it a Super 7 CC, the ‘CC’ standing for Colin Chapman. I was tempted to call it a Superlight CC, but then thought it would be like saying ATM Machine, so I dropped the Superlight.
As you have probably worked out by now the car is going to be light, which means light weight materials and only the bare minimum. No fat heavy V12s or V8s, this baby is going to have the standard inline four. No alloy body either, carbon fibre all the way – Colin would expect nothing less.
So to start the process I cut off all the wheel arches and cleaned the body up. I then made a bunch of templates so I could cover the entire chassis with cf decal. I paid special attention to the decal orientation and to hiding any joints. The outer section of the body is covered in only two separate pieces which join on the small section above the rear wheel well.
The first pic shows the basic chassis covered in cf, with the roll bar and standard seat sitting place. Because most of the car is going to be fairly dark, I decided to paint the seats with tamiya light/sky blue to make them stand out.



The next pic has the nose cone and bonnet in place along with the suspension. I managed to cover the nose cone in one piece without make any cuts and got the decal to settle down nicely. After about and hour of playing around I was pretty confident there would be no problems so I relaxed. There were a few tiny wrinkles just under the emblem location and I thought they would pull tight when it dried so I didn’t work them out. However, when the decal dried they remained and I couldn’t get rid of them after much trying. I could have left them as they were small, but they frustrated me every time I saw them. So I cut a semi circle decal with the weave going in the opposite direction and placed it on the front of the nose. I have not covered the bonnet yet as I am going to have to make a few changes so it will sit correctly.



I didn’t really like the engine colours in the instructions so I chose my own. The block is painted in tamiya titanium gold and a most other parts are painted in titanium silver. The carbs were done in metallic brown and the exhausts were done in alclad and then heat treated. I also gave the engine a wash which has been quite exaggerated in the pics. I also replaced the bolts with some brass ones from sakatsu. I haven’t been able to find a series of good pics from various angles for this car with the same setup. There are so many different variations, so I am just going to guess where most of the wiring goes.







These last pics show the car with the engine sitting place. I still need to clear coat the cf with ts13 and then polish it, so it will be a little while before I can glue the engine in place. I’m going to try to resist adding too much detail so I can hopefully get this finished by the deadline. When was that again by the way?

[88Porsche944]

Impressive work. To answer your question the deadline is 3/21/07

Keep us updated.

[rod_k2]

Originally Posted by Scuderia.

Well here is my entry for the group build. I’m calling it a Super 7 CC, the ‘CC’ standing for Colin Chapman. I was tempted to call it a Superlight CC, but then thought it would be like saying ATM Machine, so I dropped the Superlight

Looks Super! Super x7!

[OrangeR]

Good Job on the CF and engine!
I really like your approach on it.

[MPWR]

Cool, another one!

Spectacular work with the CF! It definately keeps with Chapman's no weight philosophy. The engine looks great also. I would have recommended converting it to a Crossflow (essentially just swapping the positions of the carbs and spark plugs) as it's a more modern and powerful configuration, and is much more likely to be seen in a modern 7- but as it's already painted up so nicely it may not be worth the surgery.

As for wiring, there's not much you need to add to a Sidevalve or Crossflow Kent. You've got the plug wires and fuel line from the regulator to the carbs. Add two coolant lines to the radiator, the clutch cable from the master to the slave on the lower left side of the flywheel bell, an ignition coil and maybe the battery cable to the starter and that should be plenty.

[Scale-Master]

Very sharp, I like it a lot! - Mark

[deltableh]

Great carbon work... I think! It's kinda hard to see the details, but I can see which direction the weave is going in, and there aren't any wrinkles, so it looks great to me.

[klutz_100]

I like the c/f concept very "Lotus-ish"

Engine looks very nice but can't you get a bit closer when taking your photos?

[Scuderia.]

Well it's been a while a while between posts, and I missed the deadline, however I am nearing the finish line with this build. The main additions have been the replacement of the brakes and wheels. The wheels are 14inch rs watanabes from fujimi and the brakes were larger discs that I took from an Alfa Giulia. Unfortunately I forgot to take some pics of them, and there was a fair bit of stuffing around to make it all work. They are not yet attached and will be permanent when done.
The belt kit is 1/20 from perfect parts and really looks good. The buckles have so much detail. I initially had some simpler ones, but they didn't look the part and seeing as how the cockpit is exposed I went to the extra effort and cost and used the PP set.
I also had my first go at machining some parts on the lathe at uni. I didn't really know what I was doing, but they turned out ok I guess. The most obvious part is the fuel filler which has a little wash in it. Haven't decided if I will keep it yet.
I hope to have updates soon and get this baby finished soon, but I am pretty busy so will see how it goes. I was hoping to be the first finished at one point.

[klutz_100]

Looking very nice!

[godfather23]

Fantastic CF-work!

[gionc]

Very nice!

[auw12]

Very cool!!!! I love it!!!

[kanedge]

This is really good. Nice work on the CF and the wheels are cool.

[Ferrari TR]

Very nice.
Good to see an update on another of the lost 7's.