Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Robin Hood Lotus 7 ?

An acquaintance has just acquired one of these from his dad. It is immaculate but it would seem to have been made just after lotus finished their production prior to Caterham or is that rubbish ?
Loverly car & sounds great with it’s 2L rover engine.

I don't know about the history IcePack but I do know he'll get a lot of smiles driving it, the power to weight must be very good

Yes, rubbish. Caterham took over production of the Seven in 1973. Richard Stewart started Robin Hood cars in Nottingham in 1980. His Robin Hood Sevens were made of folded stainless steel sheet and used a Sierra as a donor - more or less straight off the Sierra. Rover engines were quite unusual, it was normally the 2 litre Ford Pinto engine that was dropped straight in. It was cheap but not considered by purists to be a serious rival for Caterham and Westfield. He did make a nice looking Ferrari Daytona replica though.

The likely explanation for his car showing a first registration in the early '70's is probably because that is when the Sierra was first registered. In fact it is not unknown for some kit cars never having their details changed to the new kit.

If your acquaintance wants to try and identify his RH here's a link which sets out the range, right from the early Triumph based cars...

http://nw.rhocar.org/identification.htm

There are/were a lot of Lotus7 type kits available.
The general consensus for rank is.....
Caterham ( the originals post Lotus)
Westfield
Tiger
Others
Robin Hood fell into the others category. The early ones were basic but a competent builder could make a decent car. Over time they evolved into an updated form and changed hands to Great British Sports Cars
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood_Engineering
My advice would be to give the car a THOROUGH going over as the build standard/ mods are open to question. Not every builder/owner would be of high competance.
A chap near me built one and it was a decent car but he had help from a good mechanic. Quite often the cars needed a lot of fettling during assembly to get them built.
Caterham are rightly top which is evident in quality/fit/ development of cars and components.
http://www.kitcarlinks.com
Is a good site for investigating the kitcar world and has useful links to parts suppliers.

Just to reinforce PaulJ comment re the registration for the car. Check this out very carefully. What does the V5 say?
There is a points system for registering a kitcar based on what parts/donor car/ mixture of parts resulting in what registration type is applied. Basic description is.....
All new parts......new reg...typical for Caterham.
Donor car......you generate points and if enough you retain the donor reg.
Bits and pieces bought randomly....Q plate.
This wasthe set up about 9/10 years ago and possibly the same now.

I do like the stainless body of the robin hood - even if it´s quite heavy...
The first front axle, that was directly taken from the sierra is not very nice to look at.

But if you get a proper built one and you don`t want to spend too much time in the workshop...

They do look nice...

Mostly they are pants - cheap and nasty!

There is, of course, no denying that, but I think we were avoiding having to actually say it. When Richard Stewart started selling them, he had people queuing around the block every Saturday to collect their kits, quite how many actually made it onto the road however, is another matter. I really did like the look of that Daytona replica though........

Interesting subject and one with plenty of potential for confusion more so when folk combine the words Robin Hood and Lotus 7 together....?

I know nothing of the Robin Hood and not a lot more about the Seven, and later Caterhams, but I have owned and worked on a few Lotus cars in my time, they were perhaps not the best examples of quality engineering, some of which were home assembled to avoid purchase tax and not always very well assembled...? But boy were they FUN in terms of power to weight ratio, Elans and Europas being so very different from the mundanemobiles of the day...

As for Market value... There is a world of difference in a brand name, and the best Robin Hood would I suspect struggle to get anywhere near the market value of a tired old Lotus or even a Caterham... Though I think Caterhams have gained a rep over the years in terms of advancing the "original" concept..?

I suspect a Robin Hood could be a far less expensive way to experience some very RAW motoring compared to the cost of the real thing..? However as others have typed, I would not be depending on an MOT certificate to determine if it was safe or even reasonably well constructed, so roaring off down the road in it without a series of nut and bolt level checks might be unwise..?

Coincidentally.... typing of a less expensive way of enjoying somewhat raw motoring.... I ended up owning a +8 as an affordable substitute for a real vintage car, having been greatly impressed after following a vintage Le Mans style Bentley driven at speed down the side of Loch Tay, circa October/November (?) on a road strewn with leaves and a tad slippy in places. I was riding my then BMW R850R and closely observing the pilot`s much needed inputs, the rear end of the old car hopping and skipping as he worked hard to keep it roughly on course over the humps and bumps while straight lining through the open bends on what was a deserted road other than us two. A memorable sight and sound that had me wondering at a possible route to such enjoyment....? My +8 has fitted the bill admirably as a cheap LM Bentley substitute.... INCOMING..