pp. 70+ , Illustrated #0516

The Lotus Seven, in its original guise was created by Lotus founder Colin Chapmen in 1957. The iconic Seven model continued in a new life as the Caterham Seven from 1973, when Chapman sold the manufacturing rights to his biggest dealer, the Caterham Sports Car company.

It has been continually evolving ever since and in 2000, the larger SV and CSR chassis cars were announced. With people getting bigger, this was an important engineering upgrade, as the original Seven was designed for Chapman’s, 5’ 7” frame. The new SV chassis can accommodate drivers of up to 6’ 7” in height.

This development was crucial for Australia, as Australian Design Rule (ADR) regulations changed, making the original smaller Series 3 chassis no longer compliant.