Widebody S4 Lotus Seven

[Graeme Farr]

Just spotted this thread. Some years back I had a Steel Bros frame for a wide frame 907 engined car. I did a bit of research and found there were four modified versions made of the S4.

1) The wide body which was just the std TC S4 with wider and more bulbous guards. Pauls one-off one had the odd looking rear spoiler.
2) The 907 engined car with the same widebody guards but longer than the std S4 (the front guards were longer) - there was a yellow one and a red one from memory.
3) The wide framed 907 engined car which was the same length as 2) but wider - there was at least one complete (white) car built and also my frame. This model had a wider nose and cockpit
4) The Escape - which had the different body with the 907 engine. There was the red one in this thread and one owned in Wellington I have seen - it was never quite completed. There was a long article about the Escape in Car Styling magazine-book from Japan.

There were also some 907 engined cars built after production finished by ex Steel Bros staff - one had Viva front suspension.

I was lucky enough to get a tour around the factory in 74 - by David Dixon too! Great guy! Outside he had a red factory demonstrator which he said had won the South Island production sports car championship. That car was sent to Robin Curtis who was the semi-official Wellington agent for them - he did a hand drawn picture of it which was on the Motoraction editorial page for several years. A friend later owned that car in the early 80's - we had great fun in it. (I think Robin briefly had a dark green wide body one as well)

I later had an early S4 7 with the Big Valve engine. My understanding was the first 50 cars came with the BV engine in the package deal from Lotus - and the second 50 had earlier type engines sourced from unused Australia Escort Twin Cam production. In an earlier post Patrick Harlow said the second 50 came from UK Lotus Europa unused engines. This may be right but at that time the Europa would have been using the BV engine and the later Steel Bros car I have seen have all have the pre BV engine with the smooth cam covers.

Bainbridges bought chassis jigs and body moulds and some 907 engines and gearboxes. Steels had bought a large number of 2 litre 907 engines when the UK factory changed to 2.2. There are still some unused ones kicking around in NZ. I vaguely remember hearing the Bainbridge deal was not straightforward and there may have been some dispute - not sure what that was about - perhaps the use of shape as they went on to make the more period looking version.

There are some great photos around of the 907 cars - including some being built inside the factory.

Graeme Farr

Wellington