What's Right With This Picture? Indy Roadster Se7en by Zolland Design

by Ronnie Schreiber

Published: May 20th, 2013

what s right with this picture indy roadster se7en by zolland design

Zolland Design AB, a Swedish graphic arts and design firm that also goes by the name Vizualtech, has rendered an Indy Roadster style body they call the IndySeven with the correct dimensions to fit on a Caterham or Lotus Seven chassis. From a design standpoint it works, but then I’m fond of Frank Kurtis’ Indy Roadsters. Kurtis was one of the most prolific race car builders ever, with 120 Kurtis-Kraft cars having competed at Indy, including five race winners. From a conceptual standpoint I like it even more because it puts a clever twist on the history of the Indianapolis 500. It was Lotus, starting in 1963 and culminating with Jim Clark’s win in his mid-engine Ford powered #82 Lotus 38, that changed Indy forever, sounding the death knell for the traditional front engine roadsters. The Indy roadsters’ proportions work because the Lotus Seven has it’s powerplant up front. It was introduced in 1957, three years before Lotus’ first mid-engine racer and a full decade before the Europa, Colin Chapman’s first mid-engine road car.

The renderings look great. They take one of the original wind in your hair sports cars and make it look like it would be even more fun. The original Seven has an immediately recognizable shape, but you’d never know a Seven was under these designs.

A real Indy Roadster, made by Frank Kurtis

Between the Sevens made by Lotus, those made by Caterham, and particularly the popular Locost/Se7en DIY replicas, if someone were to take Zolland Design’s rendering and start selling those bodies, they just might have a ready market.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS

A real Indy Roadster, made by Frank Kurtis

#Caterham #FrankKurtis #Locost #LotusSeven #Se7en #VizualTech #ZollandDesign

Ronnie Schreiber

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.

More by Ronnie Schreiber

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2 of 18 comments

Raph on May 21, 2013

I'd rock it! Well with a Hartley V8

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Kyree on May 21, 2013

This is pretty slick. For a while, I've been thinking about designing my own "Locost" vehicle--as these Lotus 7 clones are apparently called.

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Recent Comments

Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh A prelude is a bad idea. There is already Acura with all the weird sport trims. This will not make back it's R&D money.
Analoggrotto I don't see a red car here, how blazing stupid are you people?
Redapple2 Love the wheels
Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.