"Bill McKee" wrote in message
m...


snip

Yes the original Elite. You realize it was kit car?

Yeah. It was like those kit boats of the time. The chassis was two
fiberglass tubs that you glued and screwed together. g

A wonderful little car. 'Can't say much for the 1100 cc Climax -- it wasn't
their best -- but it was fine for that light little car. There's a
suspension story, BTW: McPherson-type struts on the rear, which were called
"Chapman struts."

The Lotus and I think the Lotus Super 7's were sold in about 7 pieces.
Avoided a huge British tax hit. Loophole was closed after a couple years.

But they still sold them that way for a number of years. I came within an
inch of buying a Super 7 America as a kit in '67, rather than the Midget I
wound up with. Tom O'Brien was our Lotus dealer in NJ. Remember him?
National FP champ in an Alfa Giulietta. I bought one of his engines for my
own Giulietta roadster -- which I blew up at Old Bridge Speedway. sob...

BTW, my old college roommate, who lives near Tyler, TX, has one of the 55
Lotus Super 7 Mk. IV's that were smuggled in through Canada. It's not the
preferred Lotus 7 but it's the rarest. His was Lotus's Chicago Auto Show car
in '71, IIRC.

--
Ed Huntress