David Mirylees wrote this letter to Low Flying in 1989, to give both new and
old members some background info on the formation of the Lotus Seven Club....
Dear Dick,
Well before the formation of the Lotus Seven Club as we now know it, there were
a few areas in the UK where a number of Sevens had found themselves among similar
company. The consequence of this was that the chaps met at regular intervals to talk
about their pride and joys. Remember, at this time there were very few Sevens on the
road and if the occasion arose where you spied another like vehicle, you didn't just wave,
you stopped and chatted, perhaps found the nearest pub, had a drink together, and
generally felt good about the world!
The Bristol Area was probably the first to have such a meeting, arranged by
Terry Scouse and another owner back in the late sixties/early seventies shortly followed
by yours truly, and it grew and grew. Sundays were nearly always blessed with a
meeting of some kind, perhaps a hillclimb at Prescott, or a race at Castle Combe or
Thruxton, and the Sevens would trek their way to these events with pictures taken at every
opportunity. Unfortunately, as the owners grew older, married and settled down, the
urge to attend such race meetings waned and nowadays the activities are reduced to the
monthly pub chat with the rare inter-club skittles match.
Similarly, a chap named Ron Wood and a couple of Seven owners met and got
together in the Manchester area, and that meeting is today, still going well. It is
possible that there were other like minded chaps having meetings but they are not, as yet
(!) known to me.
Caterham came into the picture in 1973/4 and took upon themselves the task of
instigating the Lotus Seven Club, produced a magazine and also arranged a local meeting in
Surrey. Unfortunately, after only two editions of the publication, the pressures and
time to run such a club were unavailable and to all intents and purposes, the club
"died". There was also around this time a meeting held at the Feathers in
Hertfordshire (some of you may remember that classic photograph of a number of Sevens
parked under the floodlights at the Feathers).
A chance call to Caterham in 1981 informed me of the first ever International
Meeting for Sevens that was to be held in Switzerland, shortly after the 24 Hour race at
Le Mans, which I had intended to visit. Well, it sounded too good to miss, so two
Sevens made the trek to Switzerland via Le Mans and the South of France.
To cut a rather long story short: I returned home utterly embarrased by the
hospitality of the Swiss and amazed at the love shown to their cars, and indeed us, their
guests. They sported "Britain is Great" t-shirts, used Union Flag
tablecloths and were apparently more British than we were - and WE build the cars!
Not to be outdone, the end result of all this was that on my return to the UK I
started to make arrangements for the first International meeting here in England.
The venue was to be Beaulieu and the date may 1983. I had moved to Wales in 1972 and
of course had met other Seven owners, and I set up the meeting with their aid. Over
the two days of the meeting, some 135 Sevens arrived at Beaulieu and made it the largest
gathering of Sevens ever at this time.
A by-product of this meeting, was that a number of Seven owners "lost"
without a club to join, asked to be put on the mailing list of the Welsh contingent which
already produced a monthly news sheet.
Well, that really was all there was to it..... the numbers grew and eventually I
approached Lotus and Caterham; and the Lotus Seven Club was officially relaunched.
From those early days, there have been many more local area meetings held on a
regular basis, and that news sheet has grown to become this superb newsletter that you are
now reading. As you can imagine the club has most definitely outgrown the
organisational skills and time of yours truly, and is now run by a management team of
enthusiastic and dedicated people. (I have owned a seven since 1967, so I think my
regard for the car is pretty obvious).
Anyway, I hope you like it
David S Mirylees
May 1989
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