photo: me and the original tank circa mid 1970's - nice shirt huh?

Anyway with a pocket full of cash I set out to buy 'Tank' and quickly ended up with a Lotus Royal Blue S4 car, It had a standard Ford1600 GT 'x flow' engine and compared to the 'S' was a beast to drive, Spitfires, Morris 1000's and MGB's were easily blown away, hopefully I gave the saddo's who drove those awful cars palpitation's every time I approached & overtook, such was 'Tanks' performance prowess, in two years I was never overtaken, never beaten at the traffic light GP, what a machine - however by now I'd grown used to the 90BHP engines performance and craved for MORE, at that time there was one upgrade possible ­ the legendary Lotus Twin Cam engine, these however were like Hen's teeth, and my search for one took almost 7 month's scouring 'Motoring News', the cost of a hen's tooth - £200, a king's ransom in them days. The TC transformed the car, it's aural delights known to petrol-head's & performance nut's worldwide, the following 3 years were magic, they included the hot summer of '76 which hasn't been surpassed since. Bit's of fluff came and went, their hairdo's not liking 'Tank's - wind in the air performance, did I care, not one Iota. 3 more years of TC abuse followed, to upgrade performance further, there were no options remaining for Tank, and it was with regret I sold it. I bought a big Jap bike - Wrong, but that's another story.

photo: my Dutton Phaeton S3

Over the next several years I yearned for another more powerful tank, the bike was OK but the car I was driving - Opal Manta wasn't. At about this time I met Bon, she had a Tank resistant hairdo, the first one I'd encountered ­ cool!!, and not long after that I acquired my Dutton, that was 19 years ago, I'm sure everybody in South Wales Kit Car Club knows my Brook-land aero-screened Dutton well, I love it, and will never sell it, though deep down I always yearned for another real 'Tank'.

As an aside I know many people in the Lotus 7 club sneer at Dutton's and similar Kit-cars, which really is a shame because the Dutt gives me as much pleasure and fun when driving as does a 7, for a fraction of the cost, it's also now considerably rarer than the much copied S3 Lotus/Caterham.

I bought it's not a Lotus clone or a copy, but a sports car in it's own right, though clearly the inspiration for it's design was the S4 Seven.