We had a gathering of Lotus Seven type cars here at the Motorsports Ranch over the weekend. It was officially called the Southwest Se7ens Festival but I call it Birkinstock. Anyhoo, I drug mine down to show off the Datsun A-12 turbo under my hood. Problem is, I'm not finished building it yet so I couldn't go out and spank on the Fjord powered cars. I took some pictures with my PDA but they are way too huge to post. I'll try to talk tensandtwenties into resizing some for y'all. Well, I'm going to sit here and nurse this wicked sunburn. Sure hope no one needs me to do any actual work at work today!
This is how my face looks!

I was just thinking the other day about building a rep Lotus 7 with a 1200 engine in it.

I bought a book a few years ago called 'How to build a sportscar for under 50 Pounds" where a father and son scratch build a 7 with a Ford engine in it... obviously for under 50 Pounds... It's a great book to flick through if anyone else comes across it - and I tell you what it get's your mind thinking.

Look forward to seeing the finished car.

Photo of the engine:

why is the turbo on that side??? have you got the turbo manifold set up like a wrx? or is this just a bit of a mock up? plz tell me more about this project, i love lotus 7/clubmans they are cool cars id love to own one one day, maybe with a rotary or turbo nissan motor......

Quote:

Exactly. The set-up uses a stock cast-iron exhaust manifold, with an "up-pipe" that goes under the oil pan and up to the turbo. Since the set-up is intercooled, this was the easiest thing to do from a packaging standpoint. As you can see, space is at a premium in a Lotus 7. He couldn't put the turbo, intake, and all the piping on one side. The up-pipe is not very long, and it was MUCH easier to fab the up-pipe than to make a turbo manifold.