Here is a lovely photo of 4 Series 4s in front of the English Lotus Seven club bus. Being a member of this club, I knew JWW before this event only by mail and some phone talks. Since my ownership of my Seven (10 years ago now this spring) I have collected all available information about Series 4 Sevens. I also began a worldwide register for the type. John Watson and I shared information. When we arrived at that event, I was glad to meet him personally. He invited us to park just in front of the Club bus and right beside his then current seven.

Over the years I did a sort of rolling restoration. Winter times I was working on parts of my Seven to have it complete in spring again for driving over the sunny part of each year. I now have finished all technical things and my plan from beginning was to "respray" the car when I had done all this. Most owners do it in the other direction: First make it look lovely and then sorting out the technical details. So I will give it a new paint this spring. It will be the bright Lotus yellow - the colour it left Lotus in 1970.

I have owned a 1970 Seven S4 for six years now. Like many others - it was a "child´s dream". Marriage, children and an old house caused my dream to take the 7S4 route.... From the beginning I started to collect any information ´round this model, made contact with other owners and so started a registry for the S4.

My register grew over the years and has reached over 200 entries of "still living" 7S4s. I have many contacts with 7S4 owners over the world and I get many requests for specific information/spares etc.

Fantastic to share this... With my seven its a steady process over the years of restoration/renewing (winter times) and driving/enjoying (rest of the year) etc. as time and money do not limit this (same old story).

By my information, 13 original hardtops have been produced. The design is a Lotus fatory one. As pointed out correctly, it is double skinned -- complex construction. Together with one set of moulds and jigs (out of three) the mould for the hardtop went to New Zealand; I have contact with the current owner. The number of S4 tops produced there is unknown. I can verify that it fits very well to the car. The tops are on the heavy side and takes a lot of space when storing in the garage...

I had the luck to get one of the few original ht4s, which found its way to Germany. The previous owner stored it for more than 25 years (not having a 7S4 for the last 20...). I am looking for the hinges - "the Hillman Imp based parts" - does anyone have a good source for these? I got some photos from a 7S4 owner in Switzerland with the details of these parts which help to identify.

There is no really weak point with the back axle; the only "problem" is a sort of axle tramp when accerelating very hard. It has to do with the design of the used double Watts linkage (different lenght of the pivot points/mounting brackets) and the use of "large" rubber bushes. There was a good article in Low Flying years ago (a reprint of the original New Zealand Club Edition article). My car is running with the 2nd set of bushes within 8 years; - I think this is OK.