At Home Mechanic

Regular reader Dave Darling wrote to tell me:

"There are a whole lot of (Lotus) Seven replica kits around. Grassroots Motorsports magazine (or their sister pub, Classic Motorsports, I forget which one) did a comparo of a half-dozen or so of them earlier this year. They even threw a real vintage Lotus 7 for grins."

I did some research and discovered that there are at least two kit car companies in the United States that offer a Lotus Seven clone. One is based upon General Motors S-10 pick-up truck mechanicals and features a pushrod V-6 engine. The other is based upon the guts of the Mazda Miata and its DOHC four banger. Both kits seem to be reasonably well engineered. And it is possible to coax a lot of power of either the GM V-6 or the Mazda I-4 with commonly available after market parts.

All of this new information changes my attitude toward the Lotus clone kits. I had previously said that I was leaning toward the Cobra kit from Factory Five, which has been demonstrated to be reasonably easy to put together and results in a fairly close interpretation of the original cobra with some cleaver modern revisions. The Cobra evokes a visceral reaction from most observers; it fairly bulges with muscles and suggests that it could deliver a brutal beating on unsuspecting drivers who do not respect its power potential.

More importantly, like a duckling that imprints upon the first creature it encounters out of the nest, the Ford-powered Cobra grabbed my imagination at and early age and sparked my first interest all things automotive as a child. I was born to be a Ford fan; the family cars were all Fords, Grandpa drove a Ford, the new Ford Mustang was wowing the country and Ford-powered Cobras were kicking Ferrari hinny on the sports car circuits of the world. The ultimate achievement in Ford-dom was the sexy Cobra roadster hand built by Carroll Shelby's company in relatively primitive conditions in Los Angeles.

But there was another facet to my Ford fascination; there is a English tinge to all of this. Dear old Dad and all of his family were born in England. The Cobra was only Ford-powered; the body came from the AC car company of England. And the Beatles were raising America's consciousness of all things happening with our cousins over the sea.

Over in England another small time car builder and racer was tinkering with Ford power in a factory that was little more than a glorified barn. Colin Chapman's Lotus Motor Car Company was turning out clever little racecars, sporty roadsters and built-it-at home kits that used a variety of sturdy Ford four-cylinder engines. Most important of all, Chapman's Lotus racecars were using Ford power to dominate racing at the Indy 500 and Europe's Formula at the same time. The closest a consumer could come to driving an open wheeled Lotus was to build a Lotus Seven roadster from a kit. So while the "American" Cobra was the ultimate in my boyhood consciousness, the Lotus Seven from England was certainly on my mind.

So knowing that the Lotus Seven kit is equally available as the Cobra kit I have to reconsider my previous decision to lean toward the Cobra. From an assembly point of view, the more basic Seven is an easier to construct and the smaller size of components makes it easier for a lone workman to muscle the parts into place. And size would be a big factor for me because I have limited floor space in my suburban garage to assemble the kit.

Secondary considerations would be that the Seven would be easier for my lead-footed fiancee to drive, as she is a petite lady. The racing clutch on my 1.5 litre Honda is challenging enough for her; the clutch on a five-litre Cobra engine would probably beyond her comfort level. And it would not be fair to her if she were physically excluded from driving the new toy car in the garage. And the Seven kits and all the parts needed to complete the car are a lot cheaper than the corresponding Cobra kits. It is possible to drive a complete Seven kit car out of your garage for less than ten thousand dollars. Ten thousand dollars barely buys you the kit for a Cobra and realistically needs nearly twice that much money to put it in driving trim.

At this point I am a long ways from making a final decision about building a kit car. I have not mentioned that I have a bunch of other important life events coming up in the next year or so, including purchasing a new home, getting married and sending my oldest off to college. All of these considerations will be factored into the decision process and I will be sure to share that process with all of you.

But if you had to choose between a Cobra and a Seven, which would you build?