Description
Imperial War Museum | Duxford, Cambridgeshire
9th April 2025 - 9:00AM
1970 Lotus Seven S3
No Reserve
Registration No: ALF 999H
Chassis No: SB2596
MOT: Exempt
One of less than 350 S3 Lotus 7's built
Fitted with the rarely seen Holbay-tuned Ford engine
Only two owners from new, with the first long-term owner from new until sold by H&H to the current owner in 2016
A motoring icon, the Lotus Seven was introduced at the 1957 Earl’s Court Motor Show. Stylistically indebted to its MkVI predecessor, the newcomer featured a spaceframe chassis and aluminium bodywork fabricated by the Progress Chassis Company and Williams & Pritchard respectively (both companies being near neighbours of Lotus). A multi-tubular affair, the Seven’s structure was, in many ways, a simplified version of that which underpinned the marque’s highly successful Eleven sports racer. Designed for fast road and / or competition usage, the newcomer could be had with a choice of Ford ‘sidevalve’, BMC A-Series OHV or Coventry-Climax OHC engines. Available in factory finished or self-build guises, the Seven was expensive compared to the plethora of specials on the market at the time but altogether more accomplished. Only in production from September 1957 to June 1960, the impact of the Lotus Seven S1 was wholly disproportionate to the approximately 243 examples made.
More information to follow.
