History - Legend - Stories - For Sale

MKVI - MK7 S1 | SB1000 - 1499 | SB1500 - 1999 | SB2000 - 2499 | SB2500 - 2999 | SB3000 +
important: chassis numbers are as reported by owners -- their appearance here does not guarantee authenticity.

Paul Chichester's Long Lost Lotus Seven
SB1618

I used to own SB1618, It was light metallic blue, right hand drive, with Minilites, full weather gear, it had turn signals and those large rectangular lotus tail lights added before I go it. I purchased it in 1987 from a fellow in Sarasota, Fl. for $4000, drove it home to Atlanta. Right about the Florida Georgia border it started to rain and I stopped at a gas station and put up the full weather gear which had come with the car, got into Atlanta at about 9:00PM in a driving rain storm, driving around 285 the 6 lane circle highway that goes around Atlanta, (that's 6 lanes just in one direction) scared to death I was going to get run over by an 18 wheeler.

As I would pass one of them I could look right under the truck and I saw where if push came to shove (and I had pair in an emergency) I could easily drive under the truck with out messing the top up. Whew, Just put my foot in the gas and got past all of them as fast as I could. My theory has always been if you have the throttle you control what happens, just pay attention. Drove the car for a nice summer and had a great opportunity to buy a 1958 300SL roadster, so with the Lotus as $10,000 trade value and $25K cash I bought the Mercedes, drove it for about 6 months and someone made me an offer I could not refuse for the Benz.

10 or 12 years later I get a call asking me if I would like to buy the Lotus back for what I was given in trade, I said sure and enjoyed it again for another summer. Then put it on Ebay with a bunch of photographs and got a great email from a fellow in England that said he had some photos of my car from the 60s. There was one very unique aspect to my car that made it stand out. There was a metal tube frame that went from either side of the spare tire holder straight up in the air and then joined from left to right like a spindly roll bar, but the car had a roll bar so I never quite understood this feature.

It still had its old British registration number on it of 656-DBE. It seemed the folks who owned the car in England had been quite the campers and used the car to carry their canoe when they went off on their camping trips. Unfortunately did not keep the photos I passed them along to the fellow who bought the car from me.

He wanted to drive the car home to Michigan or where ever it was he was going and I reminded him it was a delicate old car that was fine for me around the neighborhood but I could not guarantee anything. Sure enough he calls me from somewhere along the way wanting me to pay for the truck he had to rent to take it home!

If we want to be devil may care Walter Mittys we all need to be responsible for our own choices! I bought an MGTC in Houston Texas made it as far as Alexandria LA, broke down, I'm not a mechanic, I paid for a trailer ride home. Bought a 1950 Jaguar MK V in Oklahoma City, broke down in Arkansas, paid someone to trailer me home... So, been there done that and didn't cry about it.


History - Legend - Stories - For Sale

MKVI - MK7 S1 | SB1000 - 1499 | SB1500 - 1999 | SB2000 - 2499 | SB2500 - 2999 | SB3000 +
important: chassis numbers are as reported by owners -- their appearance here does not guarantee authenticity.