Greetings from South Africa and very much a Lotus 7 man having owned 4 Birkin 7s. (Also 3 Lotus Turbo Esprits and sellers remorse). I was knocked off my feet when at 5:44 it shows a picture of me with Birkin 7 number one in 1984, some 39 years ago.
@@josewindle I was lent the JPS one as my Birkin, one of the first to come out of the factory was not completed. All of the photographs of the JPS were taken by me and it is an absolute pleasure to share them with the 7 fraternity.
2:18 I think it slightly unfair on Caterham to say they are just the bearers of the production rights. The standard S3 has remained amazingly faithful to the car as it was last built by Lotus. Of course it has had to be changed in order to accommodate changes in the available mechanicals and back a very long time ago the pedal box was changed to accommodate people somewhat larger than the diminutive Colin Chapman. However, it retains the same dimensions as the Lotus S3 even down to the narrow front track (with a wide track as an option). They even retained the imperial fasteners up until about 2010 when the chassis was metricated.
A boss of mine had a Birkin with hot 2L BMW motor. He took me for a truly terrifying sprint through down town Johannesburg on a Sunday afternoon and I fell properly in love.
Great Video Jose. Enthusiasts love a bit of history. This is why Westfield Sports Car Club welcomes all seven style models into its club! We can’t get enough!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm glad you love it! It was a little different from my usual diy videos but enjoyed seeing it bloom and diving into some unknown history! 😊 don't forget to like and share! I'm desperate 🥲🥲🥲🥲😂😂😂😂
I would LOVE to have any of these but in 40 years of going to car shows, local racing, SCCA events, and autocross, I have seen only ONE (1) of these in the US.
My dad built a Lotus 7 in 1959 with a 1340 classic engine then owned a tr4 engined 7 in '64/65 and finally a series 4 big valve twin cam in 1985(the 1st 7 I drove).I then owned a Westfield SE with 1700 cross flow in 1987.I need to get something similar again.
Great video, gutted you forgot to record the Westfield in the car park, I used to own a red SE identical to the one you showed on the brochure cover so I was looking forward to that bit!
I do apologise 😅 but I'm glad you enjoyed the video! It was a spur of the moment kind of day, time was limited, I was a bag of nerves and it was my first time "directing"! ruclips.net/video/e22ckYI9miQ/видео.htmlsi=STV1imLTJTehO-tq I recommend you watching this video link 👆 of the Westfield! It is an early video of the channel but there are some nice drive bys!
Since I saw my first Lotus Super 7 in 1966/67 I have loved this car. I think I'm too tall for the Original as presently 184 cm, but I have never tried driving in one, sadly! My car is presently a boring Peugeot, which doesn't claim wearing a raincoat during rainy days or training as a Circus Artist, to be able to enter one! But is about as fast, even burning Diesel, at least on a straight road.
I think the Bugatti incarnation would be the lightest of all. Not many people know this, but a minor assembly problem caused a major misnomer to occur. A small round button - a dot, essentially - was supposed to be attached to the Bugatti-badged version of the Lotus 7. As it turned out, it was only half the car the Lotus 7 would become. Anyway, what most people call the Type 35, was supposed to be the Type 3.5 😐 I'll shut the door on my way out. 😬
Great video. many Lotus7 clones worldwide, including the Australian built Elfin Clubman by the great Garrie Cooper of Adelaide from 1961 to 1965. The marque was continued after his death by others, 1998 to 2007. The history of the Elfin Clubman would make a wonderful video.
The true test of a design of any sports car is how it has been repllicated ih the case of the Lotus 7 there are at least three manufacturers still biulding them and have used and are using all sorts of engines four cylinders to a V8 and in the case of Westfields the variety of engines is so many and l have seen a Lotus 7 replica up close and how simple are they are as far as the interior l did notice the Westfield had a radio and they are a traditional british roadster still available today and the one l saw was in Bankstown a suburb of Sydney Australia
@@josewindle they have been build by a company. I dont know how many with other engines have been build. The one i went for a testdruve had 360HP. Crazy fast. But never heard back from the owner
Graham Nearn is the person that you should be grateful to. He kept sales of the Lotus 7 going by buying stock from Lotus for many years. Caterham then took over building the S4 and reverted to the S3 all those that copied, copied Caterham. Time will tell as only Caterham will survive. There was also legitimate version in New Zealand and Argentina. Not sure how legitimate the South African one was.
FYI on more than one occasion the EU has tried to outlaw ANY home built car or conversion! Here in UK we have a bunch of people who monitor any new regislation proposals that would abolish our fun! They have also tried to outlaw old cars off our roads too!
Birkin's are still in production but good god does the website need a refresh. I purchased my Kit in 2021 and completed it in about a year, spent another half year fighting the CA DMV to get her road legal. If you buy a modern Birkin you will Deal with Tom Carlin arguably the best part of buying the car. They used to fab the chassis is south Africa but I believe Tom actually does all the tooling stateside now. The only real downside to a Birkin is all the Caterham people treat you like you are a peasant, everyone else is nice though lol.
Thank you very much for the info! It was hard to tell if they were alive or not! I didn't think California was that fussy with kit cars 😮 Did you use the engine, ECU and catalytic converter from a donor? It took us 13 years to get our Westfield correctly registered here in Portugal, so we know the pain 😂 Yeah, I know those types of owners very well 😂 but I've been lucky with the down to earth ones in recent times!
@@josewindle So I should not place all the blame on CA, my car is titled under SB100 which is something that allows it to be smog exempt, so I can tune and do just about whatever I want with the car. The problem is 99% of all people at the CA DMV had no idea what SB100 was. When I ordered my car Tom asked me what I was aiming for and I told him I was looking to equal or match the performance of a Caterham 420R. So it is a Ford duratech but I optioned the 2.5 with a dry sump The ECU is a typhoon? and there is no CAT, again the benefit of SB100. The car has been great so far but I do need a tune to dial it in.
@@NeoBear2 god you are very lucky! I wish Europe had that SB100... you have no idea of the strictness and inflexibility here for kit cars. I wish we had gotten our 2.0 Duratec from a donor and adapted everything... never again. 2.5!? Holy moly... 🤯 how much HP?
I'm a average working man. My daily and only car is a 13 year old Skoda Octavia. I've been saving for years and next summer I'm buying a caterham. No excuses
IF we would have stayed with the colin chapman philosophy - keeping it light - we would not need BEVs today. But: People think bigger is better and a 12kg 4 year old is carried to kindergarden by a SUV.
I get a special buzz from driving my electric kei van, i dont need noise to enjoy instant acceleration and i dont need to annoy people whos home streets i drive through.
The Caterham is still the only one that 'looks right'... the Westfield and Birkin just don't look as aesthetically nice. (Ignoring those horrible side mirrors...)
Reviews like this puts a WOOOW big smile on my face. Full EV cars are fine, but leave those for fleet and service vehicles. If a car [especially sportcars] doesn't breath, have a heart beat and no feelings. I'm not interested in it. Hence I can't be bothered to drive an electric sewing machine.🚗
@@johnpejnovich7722 thank you for your kind words, really made my day! Thank you 🙏 I'm glad you enjoyed it and hopefully there will be other kit car and classic car reviews in future once I have the time and my cousin's help with the drone! Cheers!
Only ONE of them is legally allowed to be called a 7 and that right belongs to Caterham who bought the rights to produce the car from Lotus, as you mention. The others are copies and are NOT legally allowed to be called 7's. Westfield and Birkin found this out the hard (and expensive) way via the courts! Therefore, I'd strongly suggest you change your 'thumbnail' title.
Greetings from South Africa and very much a Lotus 7 man having owned 4 Birkin 7s. (Also 3 Lotus Turbo Esprits and sellers remorse). I was knocked off my feet when at 5:44 it shows a picture of me with Birkin 7 number one in 1984, some 39 years ago.
Hello!! Old photos of Birkins were really hard to find, the owner of the Birkin in the video had found them for me! I hope you enjoyed the video 😊👍
@@josewindle I was lent the JPS one as my Birkin, one of the first to come out of the factory was not completed.
All of the photographs of the JPS were taken by me and it is an absolute pleasure to share them with the 7 fraternity.
Bought from Roger Pierce , Lemon st Richmond Jhb Kit cost R18000 cheers Vince Vlietstra
2:18 I think it slightly unfair on Caterham to say they are just the bearers of the production rights. The standard S3 has remained amazingly faithful to the car as it was last built by Lotus. Of course it has had to be changed in order to accommodate changes in the available mechanicals and back a very long time ago the pedal box was changed to accommodate people somewhat larger than the diminutive Colin Chapman. However, it retains the same dimensions as the Lotus S3 even down to the narrow front track (with a wide track as an option). They even retained the imperial fasteners up until about 2010 when the chassis was metricated.
Beautiful cars 🙏
All Hail the Algorithm. Love it, man.
I'm glad you do!!! 😁
Haha you must be a fan of Superfast Matt?
I bought a Westfield back in '95 and took it over to France and converted it to LH drive. Great car- had a blast driving all over provence.
A boss of mine had a Birkin with hot 2L BMW motor. He took me for a truly terrifying sprint through down town Johannesburg on a Sunday afternoon and I fell properly in love.
Great Video Jose. Enthusiasts love a bit of history. This is why Westfield Sports Car Club welcomes all seven style models into its club! We can’t get enough!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm glad you love it! It was a little different from my usual diy videos but enjoyed seeing it bloom and diving into some unknown history! 😊 don't forget to like and share! I'm desperate 🥲🥲🥲🥲😂😂😂😂
I've got a westfield SE with a 188hp 4age in it. It is like being shot out of a gun crossed with an orgasm.
Love my birkin 7, it runs the 4age 20v, and nothing better than reving it out away from the lights
Nicely done mate! Nice to see some 7 history. Cheers ✌️
Wonderful video with some great research. I learned a bit about Birkin's origins I hadn't seen elsewhere!
I would LOVE to have any of these but in 40 years of going to car shows, local racing, SCCA events, and autocross, I have seen only ONE (1) of these in the US.
My dad built a Lotus 7 in 1959 with a 1340 classic engine then owned a tr4 engined 7 in '64/65 and finally a series 4 big valve twin cam in 1985(the 1st 7 I drove).I then owned a Westfield SE with 1700 cross flow in 1987.I need to get something similar again.
Crikey! That's a heck of a build history! Maybe a Caterham 170! I love their new 660cc engine! 😁
Nice video and (quite rare) a fair and accurate history. Keep at it!
Thank you for your kind words 🙏 😊 I'll do my best!
Lovely video.
Well done!
Thank you very much! 😊
What about the S1 Superformance?
DUde! Your production is fire!
Cheers!!! Thank you very much for your kind words 🙏
Great video, gutted you forgot to record the Westfield in the car park, I used to own a red SE identical to the one you showed on the brochure cover so I was looking forward to that bit!
I do apologise 😅 but I'm glad you enjoyed the video! It was a spur of the moment kind of day, time was limited, I was a bag of nerves and it was my first time "directing"!
ruclips.net/video/e22ckYI9miQ/видео.htmlsi=STV1imLTJTehO-tq
I recommend you watching this video link 👆 of the Westfield! It is an early video of the channel but there are some nice drive bys!
Excellent work!!!
Thank you so much!!!! I'm glad you enjoyed it 😁
Since I saw my first Lotus Super 7 in 1966/67 I have loved this car. I think I'm too tall for the Original as presently 184 cm, but I have never tried driving in one, sadly! My car is presently a boring Peugeot, which doesn't claim wearing a raincoat during rainy days or training as a Circus Artist, to be able to enter one! But is about as fast, even burning Diesel, at least on a straight road.
I think the Bugatti incarnation would be the lightest of all.
Not many people know this, but a minor assembly problem caused a major misnomer to occur. A small round button - a dot, essentially - was supposed to be attached to the Bugatti-badged version of the Lotus 7. As it turned out, it was only half the car the Lotus 7 would become.
Anyway, what most people call the Type 35, was supposed to be the Type 3.5 😐
I'll shut the door on my way out. 😬
Great video. many Lotus7 clones worldwide, including the Australian built Elfin Clubman by the great Garrie Cooper of Adelaide from 1961 to 1965. The marque was continued after his death by others, 1998 to 2007. The history of the Elfin Clubman would make a wonderful video.
The clamshell wings are so much nicer than round
It is from South Africa but does not sell in South Africa? How so?
The true test of a design of any sports car is how it has been repllicated ih the case of the Lotus 7 there are at least three manufacturers still biulding them and have used and are using all sorts of engines four cylinders to a V8 and in the case of Westfields the variety of engines is so many and l have seen a Lotus 7 replica up close and how simple are they are as far as the interior l did notice the Westfield had a radio and they are a traditional british roadster still available today and the one l saw was in Bankstown a suburb of Sydney Australia
in Switzerland there where 6 Westfield built with a Cosworth Turbo engine.
Whoaa I didn't think they could be registered there! Cool info! 😊
@@josewindle they have been build by a company. I dont know how many with other engines have been build. The one i went for a testdruve had 360HP. Crazy fast. But never heard back from the owner
You can add the Donkervoort from the Netherlands.
Graham Nearn is the person that you should be grateful to. He kept sales of the Lotus 7 going by buying stock from Lotus for many years. Caterham then took over building the S4 and reverted to the S3 all those that copied, copied Caterham. Time will tell as only Caterham will survive. There was also legitimate version in New Zealand and Argentina. Not sure how legitimate the South African one was.
Would have like to have seen MK Motorsports version in the mix.
If there was one here in Portugal, I would've of gladly included it!
FYI on more than one occasion the EU has tried to outlaw ANY home built car or conversion! Here in UK we have a bunch of people who monitor any new regislation proposals that would abolish our fun!
They have also tried to outlaw old cars off our roads too!
I drive my BIRKIN seven for the rest of my life.
😎👍
Birkin's are still in production but good god does the website need a refresh. I purchased my Kit in 2021 and completed it in about a year, spent another half year fighting the CA DMV to get her road legal. If you buy a modern Birkin you will Deal with Tom Carlin arguably the best part of buying the car. They used to fab the chassis is south Africa but I believe Tom actually does all the tooling stateside now. The only real downside to a Birkin is all the Caterham people treat you like you are a peasant, everyone else is nice though lol.
Thank you very much for the info! It was hard to tell if they were alive or not! I didn't think California was that fussy with kit cars 😮 Did you use the engine, ECU and catalytic converter from a donor? It took us 13 years to get our Westfield correctly registered here in Portugal, so we know the pain 😂 Yeah, I know those types of owners very well 😂 but I've been lucky with the down to earth ones in recent times!
@@josewindle So I should not place all the blame on CA, my car is titled under SB100 which is something that allows it to be smog exempt, so I can tune and do just about whatever I want with the car. The problem is 99% of all people at the CA DMV had no idea what SB100 was. When I ordered my car Tom asked me what I was aiming for and I told him I was looking to equal or match the performance of a Caterham 420R. So it is a Ford duratech but I optioned the 2.5 with a dry sump The ECU is a typhoon? and there is no CAT, again the benefit of SB100. The car has been great so far but I do need a tune to dial it in.
@@NeoBear2 god you are very lucky! I wish Europe had that SB100... you have no idea of the strictness and inflexibility here for kit cars. I wish we had gotten our 2.0 Duratec from a donor and adapted everything... never again. 2.5!? Holy moly... 🤯 how much HP?
@@josewindle I have the same car and engine combo. It's around 250HP crank, which equates top 437hp/ton. They scoot! ;-)
The average working man cant afford these kits, popularity has priced us out
Look at MK, with an MOT fail mx5 it's not that expensive.
What is a working man?
I'm a average working man. My daily and only car is a 13 year old Skoda Octavia.
I've been saving for years and next summer I'm buying a caterham.
No excuses
Am I missing something? No driving comparison or impressions of what distinguishes the different brands?
His title states "A bit if history" so no claim to compare driving and he does a good job to explain some of the differences.
DAX Rush - also a similar vehicle.
R400BBY on retention if any interest
If Caterham were a hairstyle^
"...today I'm at the Otmgnrnfmnf..."
IF we would have stayed with the colin chapman philosophy - keeping it light - we would not need BEVs today.
But: People think bigger is better and a 12kg 4 year old is carried to kindergarden by a SUV.
You missed the Japan version. I cant spell it...but its Mitsa-so-cool....Its made from Suzuki parts
But are there any that can fit at adult human?
Caterham SV chassis, Westfield SEi Widebody, Dax Rush lol but if you are the size of Jaws from 007 good luck 😂
where my tiger racing at?
5:12 - Dads, eh! 🙄
You missed off gbs formerly robin hood
…. Not Lotus then? You know, like the Lotus super seven?….
I get a special buzz from driving my electric kei van, i dont need noise to enjoy instant acceleration and i dont need to annoy people whos home streets i drive through.
Told us nothing about the cars?!
Why have you got this bloody music can't hear what you say?
a bit more of your face talking to camera beside the cars, and you may have something here.
The Caterham is still the only one that 'looks right'... the Westfield and Birkin just don't look as aesthetically nice.
(Ignoring those horrible side mirrors...)
NOPE ... Caterham, and that's it
Reviews like this puts a WOOOW big smile on my face. Full EV cars are fine, but leave those for fleet and service vehicles. If a car [especially sportcars] doesn't breath, have a heart beat and no feelings. I'm not interested in it. Hence I can't be bothered to drive an electric sewing machine.🚗
@@johnpejnovich7722 thank you for your kind words, really made my day! Thank you 🙏 I'm glad you enjoyed it and hopefully there will be other kit car and classic car reviews in future once I have the time and my cousin's help with the drone! Cheers!
Tons of stats, no meaningful driving comparisons.
Germany remains horrified that the rest of Europe insist on having a job remaining for people.
Only ONE of them is legally allowed to be called a 7 and that right belongs to Caterham who bought the rights to produce the car from Lotus, as you mention. The others are copies and are NOT legally allowed to be called 7's. Westfield and Birkin found this out the hard (and expensive) way via the courts! Therefore, I'd strongly suggest you change your 'thumbnail' title.
Not true, as detailed in the video and as per South Africa Supreme Court of Appeal Case No. 393/95.
@@davidemveleztrue or not true, a 7 hase to be a caterham, and a caterham is a seven. Others a just others...