I have a '73 Seven. The S4 does get the Rodney Dangerfield treatment but I enjoy the car to no end. The S4 seems to enjoy a much better appeal in Europe than in the US. But as I finally came to my decision it was what I could afford. I paid in that neighborhood for my S4 a few years ago but it had just had a lot of work done to it, a rebuild of the Twin Cam and a lot of suspension work, which would have cost me thousands. The Caterham's are great cars and I checked them out also. But I've always been a Lotus fan and wanted the Seven so I went for it. No regrets, the drive is nothing short of fantastic, just wish there were more open roads here in South Florida. A couple of sites to check out are:
Simple Sevens has a lot of seven info and classified section, an article on this site pointed me to the car I bought.
Lotus Seven Club UK has great forums and info, though much of it is Caterham these days.
Sevens Mailing List, USA list is for Caterham and Seven clones like Westfields, Lotus list is strictly for Lotus based Sevens.
Regards,
JohnD
How could I forget,
here's my Seven