Ford 400E Lotus Transporter & Trailer

Ford 400E Lotus Transporter & Trailer by SMTS

Launched in 1957 the Thames 400E was a popular and versatile van and saw favour with all manner of businesses, just as its successor the Transit has for the past 47 years. The 15cwt pick-up used by Lotus initially carried one car on the back and one on a trailer but upgrades in 1961 saw the cab extended to accommodate four people, a lowline box body on the back for tools with one car on top and a double decked trailer to carry two more. This meant that a three car team of single seaters could travel as a stand alone unit. SMTS’ kit parts are very cleanly cast and the dry fit is excellent on our sample kit, all pointing towards a simple build of the truck and trailer. If going for the full set with cars, the cars are supplied as full RL027 kits and the instructions aren’t specific to this version, though they do mention that the early cars had no rollover bars, which is the layout we need to build so that they’ll fit on the lower deck of the trailer. The hand built of the truck and trailer is smartly finished and shows that the parts fit as well as we thought they would. Hand builts of the full sets are available as special order items (RL027SL4M).