THEY EVEN MAKE THEIR OWN SHOCK ABSORBERS

+ Click to Enlarge LIGHT MAKES RIGHT: It's a little wider and a little smoother than Colin Chapman's original Lotus 7 but the Millennium 7 still weighs only about 700kg and goes accordingly.

December 14, 2009

Colin Chapman's 1957 Lotus 7 roadster is probably the most copied car in automotive history. More than 90 variations on Chapman's theme have been built worldwide, several of them in South Africa.

But Chris Carstens' Millennium 7 is different.

Aircraft engineer Carstens, head of Safair Technical, has been involved in building aircraft, sports cars and even a trike over the years. All the people involved have a background in the aircraft industry and the car is built to aeronautical standards.

The Millennium 7 project started six years ago when long-time friend Kobus van der Walt of SAA Technical asked Carstens to build him a one-off sports car and they hit on the idea of making a Lotus 7 replica for the 21st century - hence the name.

Carstens and Van der Walt roped in seven like-minded people from the aeronautical world to join their team, housed in a novel, metal aircraft hangar "tunnel" on a Brentwood Park smallholding, north of Johannesburg.

Their friend Alastair Gibson, formerly chief mechanic at Honda F1, provided valuable input in the design. Word soon spread; so far about 20 cars have been or are being built – all to vastly differing specifications to customers' requests.

The time has come, says Carstens, to put the Millennium 7 project on a more businesslike footing, standardise the chassis and begin batch production – and he's already planning a second, more conventional, building alongside the present workshop.

There is already interest from Australia; a sample car is being sent there for homologation, which could lead to exports to markets such as the United Kingdom and Japan.

The Millennium 7 uses a complex spaceframe of CR12 cold-rolled square tubing covered with aluminium stressed-skin panels to increase stiffness. The body panels are made of glass fibre and weigh less than 40kg.

The cockpit is much bigger than that of the original Lotus 7 to accommodate the larger build of the typical South African but a complete car with a four-cylinder Toyota engine still weighs only about 700kg, assuring superb performance without monstrous (read expensive) power.

The Millennium 7 differs from most Lotus 7 replicas in that its windscreen – mounted in superbly crafted carbon-fibre A pillars – slopes back at 55 degrees, much more than on Chapman's original.

The front wheels are partially enclosed by mudguards inspired partly by the "spats" on aircraft landing gear and partly by the wheel covers on Formula 1 cars. The covers work rather too well; Carstens has had to fit carbon-fibre cooling ducts for the brakes.

AIRCRAFT-INDUSTRY STANDARDS

Suspension is independent all round by means of double wishbones and coil-over shock-absorbers – which are made in-house!

The front wishbones are cast chrome-moly steel, the rear fabricated from steel tubing – and all the welding, not surprisingly, is to aircraft-industry standards.

The Millennium 7 can be supplied as a do-it-yourself kit at a target price of about R150 000. The kit will include the frame, alloy double-skin panelling, bodywork, front and rear suspension, fuel tank, brakes, brake tubing, pedal box and master cylinders, steering system and a basic wiring harness.

To these must be added: engine, gearbox, differential, drive shafts, radiator, steering wheel, instrumentation, wheels and tyres.

The basic chassis can accept many makes and types of engine although Toyota and Ford engines are the most popular, some turbo or supercharged - one power freak dropped a turbocharged Mazda RX8 rotary engine into an early example to produce one very quick 7!

READY-TO-DRIVE CARS

A variety of gearboxes has been used but always with E30 BMW 3 Series differentials and drive shafts. The front and rear disc brakes used to come from the same source but now the local ATE team is making custom, aluminium four-piston front callipers and a special set-up for the rear.

Supercar enthusiast Jose de Campos of African Hoe is investigating the possibility of drop-forging the front wishbones instead casting them.

Carstens also plans to build a limited series of ready-to-drive cars to customers' specifications. He's obtained a number of new, two-litre Ford Focus Duratec engines and intends using them in "standard" cars with five-speed Ford gearboxes.

A show car was displayed at the Zwartkop circuit in December 2009 with a modified 1.6-litre Toyota engine and five-speed Toyota gearbox, Stack instruments, a Sparco quick-release steering wheel and 17" Italian Compomotive alloy rims.

The show car can also be quickly converted to track trim by bolting on a chrome-moly roll cage and 15" Compomotives shod with Dunlop semi-slicks – all that's needed is a special boot lid to clear one of the tubes.

More information on the Millennium 7 from Chris Carstens (+27 82 880-7622) or Rob Cochrane (+27 72 878-7467).