17 replies to this topic

[PaulieG]

I am trying to trace the history of our 1961 Lotus 20, which has the annoying problem of no chassis number. What I would like to know is anyone who can remember ANY light to mid pastel blue Lotus 20's racing in 1962,63,64 or 65. Our car was imported from Europe in October 1965 and I am trying to get hold of the person who negotiated the sale of the car to NZ, who still lives here. While I wait for this I thought I would enlist the help of TNF and see if anyone can remember the cars, then I can search the leads and see where each car went to and what happened to it. I hope someone out there can help. Our car landed in NZ with a light to mid pastel blue body. Fingers Crossed.

[Barry Boor]

No chassis number? Isn't that a bit suspicious?

[PaulieG]

No chassis number? Isn't that a bit suspicious?

It would only be suspicious if all racing drivers were wealthy millionaires. From what I have learned there were a lot of cars imported to NZ/Australia with Chassis numbers removed to avoid paying tax duty on them (up to 120% of the value of the car!!) Or they would take the chassis number off and send it back attached to a "junk" chassis which meant they could claim the tax back. If the govt wasnt so bloody greedy on the tax duty at the time life would be so much simpler now. The car is authentic as it was registered by the importer as a road legal car, and has been continually registered for the entire time in NZ (since 1965) we still have the original import papers and the number plates!

[Ralf Pickel]

Is there a frame number anywhere ?
If so, have you tried via Classic Team Lotus ?

[millau]

Suggest Simon Hadfield or Marcus Pye would be able to help

[Alan Cox]

Or Duncan Rabagliati. Details here under Formula Junior Historic Racing Association http://www.historicm...ws.com/2.0.html

[elansprint72]

Lotus archivist:

agraham@lotuscars.com

Nothing surprises me about Lotus any more!

Edit: just a minute, the 20 was a Formila Junior- "road legal", now that does surprise me.

Edited by elansprint72, 03 May 2011 - 13:59.

[RacingCompagniet]

Lotus archivist:

agraham@lotuscars.com

Nothing surprises me about Lotus any more!

Edit: just a minute, the 20 was a Formila Junior- "road legal", now that does surprise me.

Well, the Lotus 51 FF was marketed with wings and head-lights as an option, although I doubt that was seriously meant.

[D-Type]

Lotus archivist:

agraham@lotuscars.com

Nothing surprises me about Lotus any more!

Edit: just a minute, the 20 was a Formila Junior- "road legal", now that does surprise me.

I think that "road legal" has a slightly different meaning in New Zealand. As I understand it, it is a legal requirement for all vehicles in New Zealand to be road registered and carry number plates. I have seen old pictures of cars temporarily imported for the "Tasman" races (or whatever David McKinney would have us call them) carrying temporary number plates. That doesn't mean they were legally roadworthy in the British sense.

[kayemod]

Well, the Lotus 51 FF was marketed with wings and head-lights as an option, although I doubt that was seriously meant.

Wasn't that a one-off show car, put together only for Graham Arnold to do some publicity stuff in? Having sat in a 51FF myself, I'm very surprised that GA managed to fit into it, he can't have been very comfortable.

[David McKinney]

It was a legal requirement to carry plates on racing cars in NZ, though I thought it would have been abandoned by the time Paulie's car was imported. It is possible however that racing cars still needed to be registered for tax and/or insurance purposes, but no longer with a requirement to display the plates

[PaulieG]

David's right it only had to be registered for road use for insurance and taxes etc, this is not the case any longer, but the fact that this car has been registered all its NZ life, gives us proof of ownership of the previous owners and a definate list of who to talk to, not just word of mouth. It's trying to trace it back to europe thats a problem at the moment. Am having a running conversation with Duncan as I glean more information as I find it. Part #'s etc.

[Stephen W]

Well, the Lotus 51 FF was marketed with wings and head-lights as an option, although I doubt that was seriously meant.

There were publicity shots of a 51 being driven through London complete with headlights and cycle-type wings.

[Tim Murray]

More details on the Lotus 51 road car from this thread:

Most probably the LOTUS 51R based on the Lotus 51, a Formula Ford single seat car. It was done for the 1968 Racing Car Show. The car was often pictured with Graham Arnold behind the wheel, he was Lotus' sales manager/director at the time. The factory car had a flower power paint scheme and with a price of GBP 1085 one was supposedly sold to an American customer. It was photographed in a number of locations in the UK including central London.

The original Lotus 51 road legal car ended up in a Lotus dealer in Glasgow. It was eventually purchased in 1970 for hillclimbing and ended up some years later fitted with a twin cam. It had cycle wings, an electric fan, lights and a horn. It carried the horn for all of its first users ownership. The car was white when purchased with iirc a red stripe and that I believe was the original colours.
The original promotional announcement was in Autosport in around 1968

The first competitive user of the Lotus does occasionally post on this board, so I will ask him to post the full history of the car.

The Peter Sellars/ James Bond Casino Royale Lotus was definately green in the film and predated Formula Ford by some 2 years.

[PaulieG]

I am (for the 1st time ever) going to try to post some photos of the lotus, see if any one in NZ might recognise something. The #22 body is the original body, the orange body is a Lotus 22 body which we would love to know where it came from, it was green then orange then yellow, then current colour. The gray nose is a new one we have just had made, added that one because it looks choice. The wing was a later addition in about 1969 and the front winglets were put on in 1967 for Graham Baker to give the car a bit of oversteer. If anyone recognises anything it would be much appreciated

By paulieg83 at 2011-05-09

By paulieg83 at 2011-05-09

By paulieg83 at 2011-05-08

By paulieg83 at 2011-05-08

By paulieg83 at 2011-05-08

By paulieg83 at 2011-05-08

[cooper997]

Did this car run as a NZ 'Formula C' 1600cc Racing Car? And have any connection to an Alan (AR) Crocker?

There's an entry for him with #115 in the January 9th, 1971 NZ Grand Prix programme for the race 6 'City of Auckland Centenary Race' for Formula C Racing Cars. There's also reference of a Lotus 22 in the same race - #36 Robbie (RJ) Booth.

Doesn't mention reference to colours, but the above might help when trying to identify period photos.

Stephen

[David McKinney]

Most of the ex-FJ cars in NZ were converted to Formula Ford (originally known as Formula C). Alan Crocker's was a 20 and Robbie Booth's 22 by then did not have a 22 body

The sequence of colours given by Paulie doesn't fit either of the 22s raced in NZ but might fit Ross Payne's 31 (and who can tell the difference between the bodies of a 22 and a 31?). Payne's car was certainly green when it first raced in NZ, and was converted to FF fairly early on: I'm afraid I don't recall its colours then, except that I'm fairly sure it started off green (which doesn't help at all )

[PaulieG]

This car was never modified to any other class (F/F or Formula C) as the car was crashed at a club meeting at Teretonga in 1971, in the purple body in the pics above. The car only had 10 years racing before being crashed and being stored extremely thoroughly and competently for 40+ years, to the point where the magnesium wheels were taken to the airport and acid dipped and coated in some form of coating to prevent corrosion (apparently the same way they store aircraft parts). That and the fact that the car has been continually registered in NZ since 1965 is (in my opinion) amazing. We even have letters dating back to 1972 requesting the cars registration to be put on hold for rebuilding purposes.

Also on the matter of registering race cars, I have spoken to my father about this and from what he recalls his race car had to be registered because in those days there was no government accident compensation (known as ACC) in NZ and registering your car gave you liability insurance in case you hurt any spectators while racing or going to the track. This was in the days when you could be sued for personal injury, Now with the advent of ACC it is no longer required.

The beauty about this car is that 90% of it is original parts that were put on the car when manufactured and the rest were period modifications, so we luckily only have to repair and restore the car as is, not try and reverse engineer the car back to what it was.

Has anyone out got any memories of a light blue Lotus 20 around the traps in the early 60's. I am sure someone would remember something!

Edited by PaulieG, 21 May 2011 - 07:42.