COMPLETE: Customer's Slant-Six Powered Lotus Super 7 (Seven Contest)

[tigeraid]

A late entry into the Super 7 contest.

Man was this a fun build. Challenging but fun. Once I figured out how to cut half of the damn chassis and body out to fit the engine, the rest went rather smoothly!

This is the same customer that I built the 427 SOHC Galaxie and road racing Falcon for in the past, so he lets me have a little creative control of the project. He just said he wanted a Slant Six Super 7 painted gunmetal. We ended up with Dupli-color Metallic Charcoal with clearcoat, and I added a blower to the Slant Six to make it a little more substantial.

What's funny is that the engine sits WAY further back than the original Cosworth four, so the weight distribution is likely better, and the center of gravity isn't ALL that much higher since the motor's lying on it's side! The engine is a Ross Gibson resin kit, which btw is AWESOME and comes with everything you could want. I had to make my own bracket for the alternator to re-route the belt for the blower. Engine is Dodge Hemi Red, the blower is a 4-71 from an AMT '32 Ford kit. The distributor is wired, but since it's near the bottom of the engine on the passenger side, there's no way to get a really good shot of it. Carb and air cleaner are from my parts box, and I fabricated the rear-mounted plenum behind the blower out of styrene block. Master cylinder is also from my parts box.

Wheels are from a Fujimi Mine's Lancer Evo VII, grey Dupli-color primer with clearcoat on top. The suspension is box stock though I did add rear disc brakes from my parts box, and ran some brake hoses up front. Front coilovers were painted silver then detailed with a red Sharpie.

The interior also required a lot of work--the original bench seat isn't at all modern or attractive, so I took one of the sets of seats from the Mine's Evo VII kit, sanded them down a bit on both sides to narrow them, and they just barely fit. The trans tunnel required a lot of reworking, and a shifter from my parts box. The dash was converted to left-hand-drive and a gauge cluster was added from the parts box too. Harnesses are masking tape painted red with Simpson decals and photo-etch belt buckles.

The rollcage took a lot of time and effort using styrene rod and candle flame to bend it (see the WIP), but turned out pretty good--I googled "Caterham racing" to find reference pics, so it's fairly close to competition Sevens. It was painted primer and clearcoat to match the wheels. Taillights are also from my parts box.

The body still requires minor touchup paint (around the rollcage mount points, and the mini-windshield)... I also still want to detail the wheel centers, and I have to drill out the end of the side exhaust. Just wanted to get some pics done of the car for the customer. Comments welcome.

[voyageur]

Hi John,

neat idea....but with that heavy gauge rollcage the center of gravity will not really be that low ;-)

[tigeraid]

Originally Posted by voyageur

Hi John,

neat idea....but with that heavy gauge rollcage the center of gravity will not really be that low ;-)

Hah... maybe it's chromoly?

[ata]

Nice. The rollcage looks authentic in style, it looks like the rollcage used in racing Super Sevens.

But you have 2 of the tires the wrong way on the rims, the driver's side front tyre and the off-side rear tyre, the thread seems to be the wrong way, which is easily seen as you don't have any fenders in front and the rear fenders are so narrow compared to the tires. So you just have to turn the tires around...

[tigeraid]

Originally Posted by ata

Nice. The rollcage looks authentic in style, it looks like the rollcage used in racing Super Sevens.

But you have 2 of the tires the wrong way on the rims, the driver's side front tyre and the off-side rear tyre, the thread seems to be the wrong way, which is easily seen as you don't have any fenders in front and the rear fenders are so narrow compared to the tires. So you just have to turn the tires around...

Ya, someone else noticed that too. I'll fix it.