Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Login
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • Motorsport
    • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
    • LAKESIDE DTC RESULTS
  • Magazine
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Galleries
  • Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Archives
7-banner

The Story of a Lotus Seven…..thus far.

By John Barram.

SB2282 is a Lotus Seven which left the factory in 1968, fitted with a black, Jim Clark memorial, Lotus badge. This car is one of the last few hundred of the much loved spaceframe Sevens to be made by Lotus.

By 1968 Lotus were making changes to engines, rear axles and more cosmetic matters, as you do during production if you are Lotus, and then they began production of the series 3 cars. This car came with a 1600cc crossflow motor, instruments grouped in front of the driver, Cosmic alloy wheels, an external fuel filler, an air scoop to cover the down-draught Weber carburettor and carpets and other improvements.

The car was first registered in England on 22 Jan 1969. Documentation shows that the Seven had six different owners and passed through two car yards in the UK from 1969 until early 1987.

In about March 1987 the car arrived in Adelaide for Paul Charal in South Australia who had arranged to import the car privately from England. The Seven was soon road registered and in April 1987 the car was issued with a CAMS Log Book for competition.

Paul was soon a regular competitor in the car at SA. tracks. Around this time a few changes were made to align the car with the earlier S2 Sevens which had been rampant on Australian race circuits since the 1960’s with the fitting of a non-crossflow Cosworth Spec. engine with twin side-draught Weber carburettors and narrower rear guards.

Paul raced the car at Mallala, and A.I.R. and did sprints at Victor Harbour. The car was also used in a number of tarmac rallies including The Grand Prix Rally of 1987 where it won Post Vintage Thoroughbreds under 3000c.c.
Around 2007 the car was sold to a William Beckett in Kingston ACT along with a few pallets of spare engines, gearboxes, bonnets and mud guards. The intention to restore the car did not happen and the Seven along with its spare parts were sold to Jeff Thomson on 22 April 2014 along with documentation of its life to that point.
Jeff Thompson was a jeweller and had raced a Lotus 18 and Lotus 20 when they were at their best. He also owned a Seven in his earlier years. Now, later in life he was very keen to restore a road going Seven to concourse standards.

Jeff’s restoration began with a complete strip down and the frame had rust in some of the lower tubes. The alloy skin was removed and the frame sand blasted. Surprisingly for a car of this age there was no evidence of previous frame/accident repairs but there were cracks showing in the nickel bronze welding.

Brisbane craftsman Ken Gray did the frame repairs and the manufacture and fitting of all new alloy panels. Most of the fibreglass panels were also repaired or replaced.

Jeff lived an hour out of Brisbane and when the body work was completed and the car painted it was decided to bring the car to John Lungren’s workshop at Thornlands for final assembly, closer to the people and parts for Lotus Sevens in Brisbane.

Many new parts were sourced from England as the assembly progressed. The engine was built by Peter Larner Engines in Melbourne. The gearbox was rebuilt by Greg Bray in Brisbane.

The car went home to Jeff’s place on 28 March 2018, with minor trim work to be completed but ready for registration. Sadly, by this time Jeff’s health was in decline and he passed before the car was registered.
Gary Wrenn bought the car from Jeff’s estate and began to share his life with the Seven. Gary also is a man of high standards in car preparation and as the paintwork had sustained some damage and other parts were less than perfect, he took the six fibreglass panels and had their shapes perfected and all repainted by a leading auto body shop. It is much better than new.

On 22 September 2019 Jeff’s dream did come true with the Seven winning awards for the Best Seven and the Best Lotus Overall at the Queensland Lotus Club annual concourse at the All British Day at Tennyson.

The car is still in perfect condition but now Gary has health problems and has decided the Seven should go to a new custodian for the next stage of its life.

In-the-snow-in-UK
Seven-in-UK
At-Mallala-1987
At-Mallala-1988
Sprint-at-Victor-Harbor-2004
Assembly-at-John_s
New-alloy-skin
Jan-2022
Jan-2022-2

[Show slideshow]
Last throw of the dice 60 Years of Magic

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

kevs-banner

EMRs, Gallery 2022, Homepage

Kev’s Big Day Out

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

Random images

McL_27 Mike-Driscolls-DType 12-Over-hill-and-dale 15-Martin.jpg MG_7635 zephyr-wagon 10.Sandy-Mike IBT5 IMG_6509 IMG_8776 Jenny-Murphy McL_25 McL_22 121_2149_IMG 121_2133_IMG IMG_4385 IMG_4401 IMG_4400 IMG_8932 Lotus_Only_Track_Day_at_Mount_Panorama_Bathurst_Februar_2018-430 IMG_6078 Garry-Pitt-heading-down-the-mountain-by-SDPICS Des-Hill-by-SDPICS The-Fellas Group-8.12-Lifting-a-wheel-at-Eastern-Loop-A-Stevens IMG_2467 Liam, Darryl, Joe Mica Steenstrup 2006 BMW I30 - 2 DSC_5334 vb-Ken Philp Organisers-Norma-Peter_gw MG-8187 Simon with Peter emr-3 Allan, Craig & Colleen 20151208_205336_LLS No problems for Bond and the Lotus Elan S1 Interior IMG_8511 IMG_8495 IMG_8448 GIC27-Fire-lighting GIC2 IMG_9149 IMG_0088 IMG_8926 IMG_0292 Fish_out_of_water P1060095 main-31 main-30 main-1 IMG_4871 P1010412 IMG_3937 IMG_7428 IMG_5218 IMG_3706 26b 6_Drivers_being_briefed DSC_1543 Arthur_on_his_way_to_a_win IMG_5641 P1050573 Club_Lotus_Dec_08_006 IMG_3638 P1020754 P5250032 IMG_7998 DSC03852 DSC03844 Zaids-Exige 1-Early-arrivals Packed and Ready 2000-crowd-scene-spot-the-young-Murphys Dick Some_of_the_Cars_1 20200315_110230 Martin and Rob - On Route Camp-Philp barrys-exige Fossys-XTR2 unnamed-3 image2-1 Jasons-menacing-Caterham lots-of-chrome-on-show main-18 The Winners Rob Luncheon-Feast mg-racer-1 IMG_9095 IMG_6160 alfas la Ferrari main-43 IMGP8448 IMGP8602 Trophy time The Cool Cars

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios