Return of the Tank or ‘Tank2’ as I call it!

By Malcolm Hill

As a 15 year old schoolboy, I dreamed of owning ‘a driving machine’ – not as most school kid’s did of a ‘E type or Aston, but of a basic, uncivilised & unsociable plastic bodied machine, namely the Lotus 7.

Having first laid eyes on this machine via the ‘Prisoner’ TV series, from my perspective it looked supercool, my mates hated them and always tried talking me out of it by calling it ‘a Tank’ [can’t see the similarity, can you?] however in my eyes it’s performance was awe inspiring, for the late 60’s a 0-60 time of 7 seconds for the 1500 Cosworth version, was stupidly quick, [even today this time still cuts the mustard] when other affordable ‘performance’ cars from that era could manage only 10-11 seconds [Mini Cooper ‘S’, Escort Mexico]. Whilst during my job as a Newspaper delivery boy I’d scour the press and magazine for articles on it’s performance prowess, steadily over the next few years I built up a ‘Data’ file of these cut out articles, and every time I needed inspiration I avidly read and re-read them.

After I started working the dream still existed, closer to fruition than ever, I dutifully passed my driving test, however there was an obstacle to owning my ‘Tank’ namely my lack of Greenstuff. Over the next couple of years I’d often return to the Data-file, re-read it and dream on, the biggest obstacle to owning one had now become Insurance, the tank was in group 7, at the time the top insurance group and would cost me £400 or thereabouts. Plus to buy a tank £500+, my income at the time was between £12-15/week, Nevertheless my enthusiasm was undiminished, I regularly added to ‘Tank’s’ Data-file, and one day my dream became a big step closer, I read a small article about ‘Lotus’s recently introduced ‘owners’ insurance scheme, I wrote off for a quote it came back - £32 for 3 months!!! Wow, I could live with that figure. From that day on I knew my dream was about to be realised, at the time I owned a ‘66 Mini Cooper 1275‘S’ which had to be got rid of as efficiently as possible, ie. Whichever way made me the most Shekels, the ‘S’ became my first car strip-down job, the value of it’s parts far exceeding the sum for the whole car, I’d paid £350 for the car, and after 18 months of use I managed to sell £517 worth of bits off it in the month I gave myself to do so. I still have the original ‘S’ ‘Green’ log book with it’s original only 4 careful owners [myself included], which I guess today is probably valued at the cost of reasonable holiday!!

Anyway with a pocket full of cash I set out to buy ‘Tank’ and quickly ended up with a Lotus Royal Blue S4 car, It had a standard Ford1600 GT ‘x flow’ engine and was a beast to drive, Moggy 1000’s, Rover 2000’s and MGB’s were easily blown away, hopefully I gave the moron’s who drove those awful car’s palpitation’s every time I approached & overtook, such was ‘Tanks’ performance prowess, in two years I was never overtaken, never beaten at the traffic light GP, however by now I’d grown used to the 90BHP engines performance and craved for MORE, at that time there was only one upgrade possible – the legendary Lotus Twin Cam engine, these however were like Hen’s teeth, and my search for one took almost 7 month’s scouring ‘Motoring News’, the cost of a hen’s tooth - £200, a king’s ransom in them days.

Me and the original ‘TANK’ circa ‘ Mid 1970’s [NB. Tony, I had my wig in them days too!!]

The TC transformed the car, it’s aural delights known to Petrolhead’s & performance nutter’s everywhere, the following 3 years were magic, they included the Hot summer of ‘76 which hasn’t been surpassed since. Bit’s of fluff came and went, obviously their hairdo’s not liking ‘Tank’s performance, did I care, not one Iota. After 3 years of TC abuse, to upgrade performance wise, I had no options remaining for Tank, and it was with regret I sold it. I bought a big Jap bike - Wrong, but that’s another story.

Over the next several years I yearned for another tank, the bike was OK but the car I was driving - Opal Manta was not. At about this time I met Bon, she had a Tank resistant hairdo – cool!!, and not long after that I acquired my Dutton, that was 18 years ago, I’m sure everybody in SWKCC knows my tatty Dutton well, I love it, and will never sell it, though deep down I always yearned for another real ‘Tank’.

Summer of 1999 was when I started looking for ‘Tank2’, however at Stoneleigh KCshow that year I was told of a bargain 7 copy for sale on the Robin Hood stand, I quickly checked it out, knowing that Robin Hood had been Kit Manufacturers for a decade or so I wrongly assumed that Robin hood 7’s were the real thing, I immediately placed a deposit. This wrong assumption was to cause me plenty of grief over the next 2 years and delayed ‘Tank 2’s’ arrival until recently, Not that there were many ‘Tank’s’ for sale, in the years 1999-2003 I only saw 2 advertised for sale, one car was Q reg, [no, thank you very much] and the other was sold before I even had a chance to view it!

Winter 02/03 I rebuilt the Dutton fitting a Ford 2 litre Zetec engine to replace an ageing Pinto, several track days showed me that the rear ‘Cart springs’ were not up to the cars performance, so a job for winter 2003/04 - fit 5 link rear suspension, and modify the existing front suspension to ‘Locost’ type design.

However I got a lucky break in my search for ‘Tank2’. The Lotus 7 club magazine ‘Low Flying’ had a ‘Wanted’ section, I’d avidly looked in the ‘For sale’ section throughout my L7 club membership, without success, and I had the idea, that if I was to find ‘Tank2’ it could well emanate from an ad placed in ‘Low Flying’, And so this is how I eventually got offered ‘Tank 2’ at first I was offered several ‘Tarted’ up ‘Sheds purporting to be real Tanks, but I wanted an honest car, It didn’t matter if it wasn’t perfect, after all it’s going to get abused properly, so a few chips and paint scratches etc, were no problem.

At last a promising response came from Liverpool, Bon & I went to view it immediately, and I returned home with a big grin, just like I always wore in the 1970’s.

Now after owning ‘Tank2’ for a month, I realise just how puny a Ford X flow engine, even a tuned one is, compared to modern EFI engines. With this in mind I now have to upgrade ‘Tank 2’ ASAP.

A question regarding just this upgrade was posted by me on the Lotus7 forum boards, this elicited a stream of abuse, along the lines ‘that would be sacrilege’ to alter one of the few ‘Tanks’ still road registered in UK – I thought bollox to the lot of you, live in the past if you want, I’m changing ‘Tank 2’ to my spec.!!

At Tredegar CC show Sept 03 I avidly measured all the possible modern contenders for the upgrade, Ford Zetec, Vauxhall XE engines etc. are all too tall, owing to a strangely located lower chassis rail on the Tank’s chassis which runs under the sump, this allows only 19” of height between the chassis rail and the closed bonnet.

If anybody has an 1800 Rover ‘K’ series engine for sale, do me & ‘Tank2’ a favour and get in touch ASAP.

Watch this space for upgrade details.

Mal Hill 20 October 2003

Further to the original article, I found it difficult to source a 1800‘K’ series engine at anything like sensible money, [£1000+ vat from a scrappie he can’t be serious!!] for that reason I’ve now decided to fit a 2 litre Ford ‘Zetec’ with drastically modified sump[£120 from ‘TRUST’] to reduce the engine total height, instead of the previously mentioned ‘K’series. Having successfully done this swap in my Dutton - I’d originally wanted to fit a 2 litre motor into Tank so this is no hardship, unfortunately this will also mean buying some special parts to reduce the Z’s extra weight [+ 12.5kg] compared to the xflow, these include:-

1. RS2000 Alloy bell-housing saves 8kgs in one go! Though it cost £75 second-hand, it will also allow me to fit the clutch actuating mechanism, either hydraulic or cable and/or the starter motor on either side of the engine!! very useful since at the present I don’t know which will be the easiest fitting option.

2. A lightened flywheel at 4.5kgs saving 3kgs.

3. I’m going to bin the fitted heater, heater in an open sports car ???, - 3kgs.

4. Fit original spec 1970’s steel wheels and chrome hubcaps, each of these is 1kgs lighter than the Alloys currently fitted. [what idiot? invented that very misleading phrase ‘light alloy wheels’] These savings are easy and will make the car some 10kgs lighter than at present, which with the 2 litre’s extra grunt and 5speed ‘type 9’ box, will bring the car right up to modern standards of performance and economy.

I’ve also added the rear suspension connecting rod [mentioned in Dennis Ortenburger book] a well known mod in the 70’s, and something I know works well coz I fitted one to the original tank, A removable front suspension X tie rod is also to be fitted, surprisingly Mr Ortenburger omits this worthwhile upgrade from his book!

Both these mods stiffen up the chassis considerably and are relatively simple to fit.

Allowing the car to remain securely glued to the road, Yokohama 0??r tyres, will give the desired grip & traction, though at ~£75 apiece they don’t come cheap.

My decision to fit the Z also means some minor chassis mod’s to give me the extra height, required for the Z to fit - I intend to photographically record the transplant, so watch this space.