Welcome to the website of Lancashire And District Sevens (L.A.D.S.) who are the Lancashire area enthusiasts of the Lotus 7 Club (L7C). L7C is the only UK motor club, which devotes itself to the Lotus and Caterham 7s and is recognised by both Lotus and Caterham as the official enthusiast's club for 7s.
The Lotus 7 was originally designed and built by Colin Chapman and launched in 1957 at the Earls Court Motor Show. With its light weight and nimble handling the car soon gained a reputation as 'a racer for the road', with many early models providing daily transport on weekdays and competing and winning at circuit races, sprints and hill climbs at weekends. Unusually, cars were sold in kit form and built by enthusiasts, with many cars today still supplied for home construction. Perhaps many people will best remember the 7 as the car that Patrick McGoohan drove in the 1960's cult TV series 'The Prisoner'.
When Colin Chapman indicated he was to drop production of the 7 and concentrate on other models, the production was taken over by Caterham Cars in 1973. They had been agents for the Lotus 7 since they were established in 1959 and continued the development of the 7 to ensure it remained a small car with outstanding performance. Nowadays the more powerful versions of the 7 can often put many more expensive 'supercars' to shame and there are a number of race series solely devoted to the 7 at major race tracks at home and abroad.
