Lucky 7

To quote the recently deceased Len Goodman,

"Seven!"

I wonder if he was a Lotus fan?  They are all about lightness.

Remember the Lotus 7?

When that went out of production, the design was licenced and taken on by both Kit-Car companies and proper manufacturers such as Westfield:

But the company that really made a go of it was Caterham:

They have been producing these for decades now.  So maybe time to try something new?

Well, according to Autocar, they are trying something new.

Lotus, in the meantime, found a hit with The Elise:

That went on to be used as the base for the electric Tesla Roadster:

And the insane Hennesey Venom:

So, what do we know about the forthcoming Caterham?

Will it be dancing to a different tune?

I'll leave it to you to decide:

No More Ferrero Rocher?

It could be the end of the road for the Ambassador.

No, not the Austin Ambassador, that ended in the mid '80s.  It looks like it is the end of the road for the Hindustan Ambassador: 

In its original guise as the Morris Oxford, this car has been in production since the late '40s.  The original Morris tooling was sold to the Indian company that has been manufacturing the same car (with a few updates) ever since.  They were particularly popular as taxis.  A look at Google images shows a few have been registerd in the UK too - obviously for people nostalgic about Morris cars of the past.

 

It looks like its age and 1940s design has finally caught up with it though and a couple of sites have the story this weekend of the shutdown of the Hindustan Motors Uttarpara Plant.  The Business Standard of India have it here.  They aren't saying it is the end but they are suspending production (and not paying the workforce) in order to "help the company cut mounting liabilities, restructure its finances and arrive at a situation conducive to reopening the plant".

 

Reasons for the failure are being speculated as "mounting losses, paucity of funds, growing indiscipline and low productivity". 

 

Autoweek also carry the story.  But they seem more interested in speculating about what would be the longest-running car design in production if this really is the end of the Morris/Hindustan motor.  They fail to discuss the merits of The Land-Rover but do mention the Beetle, the Morgan 4/4 and the Lotus/Caterham Seven.

 

Who could be in trouble too.

 

Autoguide say it is up for sale. Tony Fernandes wants to sell his road-car and F1 operations.  That may have more to do though with his football team returning to the English Premier League this weekend. QPR have a sizeable debt and will also need to invest big-time to stay there.

 

At the end of the day, Caterham Sevens will be more attractive than Hindustan Ambassadors so they have a better chance of winning the longevity awards.  Better than Caterham F1 getting any points and better than QPR prospering in the Premier League.

 

If you're wondering about the Ferrero Rocher reference - well they are the Ambassador's balls: