Colin Chapman's personal aircraft

Glad to find this forum. In 1963 , myself and some friends bought from colin chapman his Miles Messenger aircraft. He was upgrading to a much higher spec Piper Commanche. The messenger , regd no GA-KIO was painted in Lotus colours with green and yellow stripes. Unfortunately I have lost all the photos I had due to a burglary some years ago. Does anyone have any I could copy ?
I sold my share in the craft in 67 but believe it was destroyed in 73, not sure how.

there's a photo of it here:

http://www.transport...hoto/WB00029-27

Rick

Anyone remember his Cessna from a little later? Decked out in JPS black and gold with the registration G-PRIX.

Rgds

Paul

Originally posted by P0wderf1nger
Anyone remember his Cessna from a little later? Decked out in JPS black and gold with the registration G-PRIX.

here http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1037121/

Originally posted by P0wderf1nger
Anyone remember his Cessna from a little later? Decked out in JPS black and gold with the registration G-PRIX.

Rgds

Paul

I seem to remember that having landed in the field next to the Car Park at Brands for the 74 Race of Champions the ground was so wet that it couldn't take off again and was possibly there for a few days!

Originally posted by P0wderf1nger
Anyone remember his Cessna from a little later? Decked out in JPS black and gold with the registration G-PRIX.

Rgds

Paul

This one ??



Silverstone, either 78 or 79 I think

Regards

Shawbags

Can't say for sure, but that does not look like G-PRIX on the tail, and is a later aircraft than the Cessna 414 in the thread above.

But it was the aircraft Chapman turned up in the year I took the picture, which I think is 1979

Regards

Originally posted by Kilham
Can't say for sure, but that does not look like G-PRIX on the tail, and is a later aircraft than the Cessna 414 in the thread above.

But it was the aircraft Chapman turned up in the year I took the picture, which I think is 1979

Regards

Not too sure when Chapman aquired the plane, but I'm pretty sure that the Cessna 414 G-PRIX was mostly white for several years before it was transformed into a flying fag packet.

Sorry to drag up an ancient topic but I've been looking into the Team Lotus aircraft and stumpled across this. There were two Cessna 414s in JPS colours. G-PRIX is shown by the CAA to be a 1978 model registered with this ident from 1979 - 1983 when it shows as being deregistered and exported to the USA. She was replaced by a 1980 Cessna 414-525 G-TEAM which was only registered for a year or so before also finding its way across the Atlantic.
They also had a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter G-AYTF (known within the team as the Gay Dancer) which appears to have initially been leased from Alan Mann Aviation and then wholly owned. This was initially in JPS colours and in 1980 was repainted in Essex colours. There is a black and white of her in Essex livery in Jabby Crombac's "Colin Chapman - The Man and his Cars" and the picture caption says that the team's fixed wing aircraft were also repainted. That suggests that there may have been more than on at the time but would certainly include G-PRIX.