The car was put on the road again, but was later taken apart – this time to allow friends of the owner to make copies of various parts of the car. Lotus Seven had become a popular race car in Rhodesia and those who could not get their hands on an original attempted to make clones.

This could have been the sad end of the story. But when the owner was approached by a persistent person (guess who…) 30 years later, a “find-as-many-parts-as-possible” game started. Four weeks after the first contact the beauty was to be seen on the owner’s lawn.

In other words, quite a daunting task to put her back to life. Since quite a number of the original parts were missing or had been modified, I have spent the past two years collecting all the necessary parts for the restoration. It has been absolutely essential for me to buy as few newly produced parts as possible. When I have failed to find used period parts, I have tried my best to find new-old-stock parts. Perhaps the most difficult part on the whole car to find – the Smiths speedometer – needed no hunt for. Luckily this gauge came with the car, along with the ammeter and oil pressure gauge. I have also been lucky to find an original water temp gauge. And thanks to Lotus Seven Historian John Watson in England, SB1619 also has the original Springall steering wheel, as seen in the early pictures of the car.