We're big fans of the Caterham 7 here at The Filter and we've even owned and raced one of it's kit-car cousins, the Westfield 7. So we were delighted when we stumbled across this fascinating video from XCAR.
All modern Caterhams are based on the Lotus Seven – a small, lightweight roadster developed by Colin Chapman back in 1957. That car has evolved into an entire range of models, spanning from the new, affordable 160, shown below to the mad 620R.
The ageing 7 will be familiar to most petrolheads because it is wheeled out for every group test, year after year by every motoring mag and TV show as the pinnacle of what a purists drivers car should be but What isn't as well known is the origin of the Seven and the cars that came before it. As XCAR points out, "What happened to earlier ancestors? What happened to the Lotus numbered one through six?" The answer probably isn't what you'd expect.
