# OOB Review: Lotus/Caterham Super 7 by Tamiya



## Model Man (Oct 1, 2007)

This model is 1/24. 
There is a 1/12 also by Tamiya. 
And of course, the 1/1 car kit is by Caterham itself. 

Funny that all three should be kits. Also strange is that I got this for ~$30; the 1/12 goes for ~ $300; and the 1/1 goes for ~$30,000 -assembly costs not included. Talk about exponential escalation!

A long and storied production history, this is the car for me.
It's been at least 25yrs since I built a car model and I wanna do this one right. So I will hold off building until the summer or so. In this way I can get some good practice in on the airbrush and gluing tiny-tiny parts as I know this model will require it. 






Any other 7 fans around? Watch some vids on youtube, listen to that engine, watch that performance and you will be a fan as well!

Be seeing you!


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## Steve244 (Jul 22, 2001)

Was this "The Prisoner's" car? oops, nevermind.


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## Model Man (Oct 1, 2007)

It's as close as one can get to The Prisoner's car as one can get. 

McGoohan was insistent that the car be a Caterham (Kate-er-um) and got one of the first produced of this style for the show. It was returned after initial filming sometime. Later on, there is an ep where Number Six gets back home. That car is not the same one. 

I forget what exactly happened to the first, but it was not available. So, they got a second one that was a slightly different build and painted it the same. The first, likely teh second were regular "Caterham 7's". This model is called the Lotus Super 7 as the body is slightly wider than the regular 7 so as to fit a more powerful engine.

The story of this car gets quite twisty and turny throughout it's 50+ yr history. They were originally put together from Fords, Spiders, Lotus parts, and perhaps a couple others, with a custom shell. The company was sold a few times, but retained the Caterham name, though, such as for this model, it's called a Lotus. 

Here's a couple vids I found of this beast that show it off very well. Drool...




















Up until just a few years ago, the full car kit was usually built around one of two engine choices. Just recently, the engine of choice is actually a 1300cc monster from Suzuki's Hayabusa motorcycle (my dream motorcycle!). 

So there have been many changes, but the form, the power, the butt-kicking factors remain essentially the same.


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## Gemini1999 (Sep 25, 2008)

I'd never heard of or seen a Caterham/Lotus Super 7 until a few years ago while watching an epsode of Top Gear. The guys were assembling one "right out of the box" while the Stig was making his way to the raceway in his already assembled Caterham:






I was completely impressed with this car and did some searching around - finding out that you can buy them here in the states as well. If I was only as good about assembling full size cars as I was with model cars....

As for "The Prisoner" - I'd started watching that on DVD earlier this year and what do I see in the opening credits? You betcha!

I love that Tamiya has made a scale model of it - at least I know that I can build this one and it won't take up any room in the garage!

Bryan


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## terryr (Feb 11, 2001)

At the time of The Prisoner Lotus made the 7. There was no such thing as Caterham. Years after Lotus dropped it, Caterham made a copy, and Lotus took them to court. An agreement was worked out and all the various different models evolved from that.


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