John Gault
Michigan, USA
SB1100 1700cc

Currently a 1700 c.c. 150 hp engine from Caterham with a Sierra 5 Speed and an RX-7 axle narrowed to fit the skinny fenders (tried to save weight but ended up at 1137lbs). New aluminum head is being prepped to help with the weight issue and searching for a aluminum bell housing also. The anal-ness of my desire to end up with a weight of 1000 lbs has caused me to start rifle-drilling all the bolts that hold the engine parts on. If the time spent on the 7 doesn't get me fired or divorced I'll be surprised!

The Story: A friend and I borrowed a van and trailer back in the 70's to drive down to Atlanta, Georgia to purchase SB1100 (found it in an ad in Autoweek (I believe) back when it was a newspaper). The car was a beat up racer with holes in every panel and the left rear fender showing the results of an axle departing the car at some point and time. The 105E, 997c.c. engine had an MG starter wedged in so naturally didn't work (though we were promised that the car ran!) Too excited to finally have a real Lotus 7, we packed it up on the borrowed trailer and brought it back to Hazel Park, Michigan (my residence at that point in time) only to find that the motor was toast (shades of now!).

The car came with spare axle shafts and hubs but after seeing the carnage of the first axle break I put that on my list of things to replace. New fiberglass pieces were ordered from the East coast and that is where the project stopped. Marriage, a son, life then divorce (Thankfully!), another home, time to pay it off then remortaged to finally get the Seven restored.

Started in the year 2000 with a resto shop in St Clair (I was living in Marine City) seemed like a good idea until they moved to South Carolina and took the car with them (with my approval) but when nothing happened in a year my friend from the original trip and I went down to retrieve it. Got back with the Seven on Sept 9, 2001 and then my job became 100 hour work weeks and the poor Seven was put on hold again. Finally got the chance to contract with a shop in Roseville but that went down the tubes when the mechanic left for a shop of his own. Desperation setting in I looked to Caterham for a source and found Jim Constas (the local distributer for Caterhams) in Milford who said he could do the restification.

(photos May 10, 2008--first gathering of Lotus Seven Club of England--Michigan, USA area)

As a result the car is more of a hot rod than a resto with a Caterham style dash, the 1700 c.c. 150 hp crossflow engine (from Caterham), the Sierra 5-speed (also from Caterham) and a RX-7 axle that was narrowed 10 inches to fit the original narrow fenders. Reason for the color (now BMW Pepper white) is that I have a history book on the Seven and it has a photo of my Seven on a trailer being readied for shipment to the U.S.! Scraping the Orange paint off the tunnel revealed the original white paint so... Wife number two said I should've painted it red since it such a death trap (she likes trucks) and it needs to be seen. Found out that white is highly noticable! Even the law likes it! (the one time I got it on the road before the engine seized) (no tickets). That's the short history as I know it. Have a replacement chassis plate but isn't installed yet (it's still at Jim Constas'  home) but should have it back in a few days, the frame number is still there on the one tube that I told all three restore companies to not touch.