37 replies to this topic

[ed holly]

With the success of the thread  Australian Clubman racing - Sports 1300 etc and after some prompting by Stephen "Cooper997" and "Pallas1970" it seems that it is the right time to start a dedicated thread for what after all started the Clubman phenomena - the Lotus Seven itself.

 

Marc Schagen's book of course is a great source of reference, but as a book devoted to all Lotuses with a competition history in Australia, then it can never comprehensively cover the individual cars, something a thread like this can expand on with the collective knowledge of those that were a part of it..

 

I must admit that I have a particular interest in these cars with my ownership of SB1938 a series 2 Seven which, according to Marc's records, was first raced by Ron Mason at Towac in February 1965. But more of this later.

 

From people I have spoken to Geoghegan's sold the Sevens, sometimes less motor and gearbox etc, were there any other sales outlets in the early to middle sixties here in Australia, and were some of them private imports ?

 

I am sure there will be many stories about these fabulous cars that started  the Clubman era and spawned the likes of Nota and Elfin and others, including home-builds to produce a similar product. 

[275 GTB-4]

Good eye deer Ed, a place for everything and everything in its place...

 

Related Australian threads:

http://forums.autosp...ssis-no-sb1430/

http://forums.autosp...s-in-australia/

Related:

http://forums.autosp...65-lotus-seven/

http://forums.autosp...on-help-please/

http://forums.autosp...-resto-or-race/

http://forums.autosp...7-gear-linkage/

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 20 September 2015 - 22:48.

[Ray Bell]

John Roxburgh would have sold some, also possibly Derek Jolly...

There were, however, Nota cars of the Clubman type around before the first Sevens landed here. Sevens, however, were more modern (wishbone front end, for instance, compared to split-beam axle) and did tend to define the class.

I don't think it's out of place to say that the majority of Sevens were sold by Geoghegans and remained in NSW. This was also where the source of the Notas was (at Parramatta) and Guy Buckingham clearly upgraded his 'Sportsman' cars to more nearly match the Seven.

I can't think of anyone in Victoria producing a Clubman-type car until the Farrell of the late-sixties, but the Elfin Clubman was on the South Australian scene by 1962 and probably kept Seven sales down in that little market.

One of the most interesting Lotus Sevens was the car raced by Jeff Dunkerton in WA. This car was the last Sports Car to contest the Australian Grand Prix and also the last Sports Car to ever finish an AGP.

[DanTra2858]

Bill March had 2 Lotus 7's the second was a Super 7 both cars that were driven by Pete Geoghegan, there was a lot of talk in the Wollongong area that the first Seven did not have the Motor & other running gear in it as when Pete drove it, Bill insisted that the car be as last raced by Pete. So there you go was it rumor or truth?

[2Bob]

Jim Doig (Motorlab ASP)still has a Seven which he raced from 1969 until 1972 at which stage the good stuff was transferred to the ASP and the Seven reverted to road use.  Phil Moore raced a Seven in SA before the Elfins he raced pretty successfully.  Think he kept his Seven for some time after the Elfins.

[ed holly]

I mentioned Ron Mason earlier who was the first to race SB1938.

 

Does anyone remember Ron from 65 and 66. He raced it according to Marc's records at Towac 28 Feb 65, Oran Park 7 March , Warwick Farm 4 April , Catalina 13 June and 22 August, Oran Park 5 September, Catalina 7 November, Oran Park 21 November then 4 September 66 and 26 November 66.

 

It then went to Kel Munyard who first raced it Warwick Farm 16 July 67. Then John Sexton, Alistair Brookman, Leigh Vine, Alan Swindles, Stuart Hooper, Bruce Dalzeil, Steve Austin and finally back to Leigh Vine who started a restoration but passed away after just commencing it. I bought the car from Leigh's widow and Leigh's brother Rolf who did the advertising of it into the Club Lotus magazine.

[Ray Bell]

I looked up your car in Marc's book, Ed...

It certainly didn't look like a Lotus 7 in a lot of those pics, though I don't understand how it was rebuilt with the bonnet so low.

I certainly would have seen the car at all of those meetings except Towac (I only ever went there to a July meeting) and possibly the November '65 Oran Park, but I can't say that I recall it at all.

The Sevens I watched closely at that time are pretty much all in this photo:

[cooper997]

I may as well add the Melbourne 'The Sun' newspaper's feature from the March 1961 Melbourne Motor Show Jolly/Roxburgh Lotus stand here too. The Coad's purchased the car from Jolly.

 

Lotus historian, Mike Bennett had this to say when it appeared in the 'Early Lotus sales outlets in Australia' thread. 

"This Lotus 7 is the famous Series 1 car that was registered 7 TMT in the UK. It was a Team Lotus entry in various events.  On Boxing Day 1958 Graham Hill won a sports car race at Brands Hatch in this car, running against a field of technically superior Lotus Elevens and others. Peter Warr bought the car from Lotus and used it as his personal transport including an extensive trip of the Continent. It had/has a Coventry Climax FWA engine and a beam rear axle. Peter Warr sold the car to Derek Jolly when Derek was on one of his trips to the UK.

There is a lovely picture of this car with its SA registration at The Cedars in Hahndorf with Sir Hans Heysen next to the car  Derek's girlfriend at the time was Jo Heysen.

The car is still in Australia in immaculate original condition. Possible one of the most famous Lotus 7s in the world?

Mike Bennett " 

 

The following photo shows James (Pallas1970) and his mate, Will's cars at the March 2014 Phillip Island Classic

 

 

Stephen
 

[Joe Bosworth]

Ray B back in post #3 provided insights into Clubman/Sportsman class sales in OZ,

 

"There were, however, Nota cars of the Clubman type around before the first Sevens landed here. Sevens, however, were more modern (wishbone front end, for instance, compared to split-beam axle) and did tend to define the class.

I don't think it's out of place to say that the majority of Sevens were sold by Geoghegans and remained in NSW. This was also where the source of the Notas was (at Parramatta) and Guy Buckingham clearly upgraded his 'Sportsman' cars to more nearly match the Seven.

I can't think of anyone in Victoria producing a Clubman-type car until the Farrell of the late-sixties, but the Elfin Clubman was on the South Australian scene by 1962 and probably kept Seven sales down in that little market."

 

Just to fill in the gaps a bit it is well recorded that:

 

There are 14 Elfin Clubman built in the period 1961-65 which is inclusive of their construction period.  The discrepancy with the starting date maywell be that the first Elfin started construction in 1961 but possibly was not delivered until 1962.  The first Elfin utilised a modified Streamliner frame which used the split Ford front axle as did Clubman no.2.  All others used wishbones.

 

Nota built 39 Clubman, 34 of which came in the 1958 through 1969 period.  The first 12 had the split axle front ends before the wishbones came in.  Having driven both split axle and wishbone Notas and Lotus' I actually feel the split axle cars were quicker until wheel/tyre widths demanded that wishbones be used to keep the wheel arcs under better radius.

 

By comparison, Lotus worldwide built 242 Series 1 Sevens between 1957 and 1960.  The Series 1 all had the split front axle.  The Series 2 wishbone cars were built 1960 to 1968 with 1350 built.  I have no fix on how many Lotus Sevens came to Oz and would relish anybodies best fix on this.  I suspect that the numbers were in the twenties with all being Series 2 cars.

 

Regards

[Ray Bell]

I did say 'by 1962', Joe...

I wasn't sure exactly when the Elfin Clubman arrived but I knew that Matich was racing one in late-'62.

Checking Marc Schagen's book, there was one Series I car raced in Australia, imported by John Roxburgh and bought by Frank Coad.

Series II cars amount to 39. These are only the cars which raced, there was undoubtedly others which never hit the track. But a few of the 39 are cars which have been imported in more recent times, maybe three or four.

Series III - just one car.

Series IV, hardly relevant, not really in the period we are talking about, but there have been five seen on Australian circuits.

On the subject of Nota Sportsmans, however, the Nota website claims that 'nearly 100' of these have been built. But it also claims that 34 Vees were built and many other things which are a major stretch of the imagination.

Another point regarding the split axles, I learned when I had my Hustler that the lower-profile tyres of 1972 and later meant that the axles hit the frame before the wheels could get the droop they wanted, hence I made up new axles to avoid this. This car, of course, had much longer axle 'halves' and so less camber change than the shorter Nota axles.

[Fidini]

From the Nota book by Rod Moore and Bruce Bloodworth there were a total of 46 CSB ( Clubman style body ) cars built which included one in 1973 (#139) and one in 1999 (#159 - I think - my copy is virtually unreadable). The figure of 100 may include the Fang as a clubman.

[Joe Bosworth]

Fidini

 

Good observation.  Particulalrly the Series 1 Fangs were built in the clubman style with cycle fenders, slab sides, etc.  The first 34 all had mini engines of 1100,1275 or 1301 cc displacement that kept them in the clubman vernacular.  Please note my use of small c clubman as ``they may well have not met Clubman comp rules of the day (whatever that means).

 

I might also comment that I know that 21 Vees were built by Nota in 1965 and '66 alone.  I use a copy Guy's hand written records of the day as reference.  Besides, I saw every one of those being built.

 

Regards

[Ray Bell]

21? 21 sounds logical, Joe... none were built after '67 as I understand it...

It certainly wasn't '34 in the first year' as on the website which has reproduced Patrick Quiinn's Australian Classic Car story and on Wikipedia.

[Joe Bosworth]

Thanks Ray for the references.  The "facts" probably mirror the efforts that the authors used.

 

I was really worried that your references on numbers further above might perpetuate themselves as they were quoted on TNF that I normally can depend on. 

 

Regards

[Ray Bell]

The three web pages I found with the inaccurate numbers are:

http://www.notasport..._History_1.html

http://www.notasport...rs_of_Nota.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nota

In my opinion the 'facts' mirror what Guy and Chris have told them. Particularly Chris, I believe.

I do think I will start a thread about it, Joe...

Especially the wild assertion that Guy won at Albert Park in 1956!

[ed holly]

50 years on .....  

 

This is what the section of track in Ray's post No.7 above looked like 9 years ago  ...  I used to spectate at the top of this hill at Craven A ... and you could see a lot of the circuit from there, sadly the whole track is either overgrown as per photo - or washed away in one section now. Did get to do a lap or two there in an MGA in a Repco Mountain Rally - they had cones to mark off the black ice on the circuit at the time!  

 

screenshot tool

Edited by ed holly, 23 September 2015 - 06:03.

[Ray Bell]

That looks like the run from Craven A to Savva's Hairpin, Ed...

Bosch is further around.

Agreed, viewing from Craven A was good stuff!

[cooper997]

Some early Derek Jolly advertising

 

 

Stephen

[ed holly]

John Ellacott took this fabulous photo of Bill March in his Seven at Bathurst Easter 1962. Running as a 997cc car, came 2nd behind Pete Geoghegan in a Daimler SP250 in both Production Sports Car races.

 

jpg images

 

By the way John had a photo of his included in the Melbourne AGE newspaper of Lex Davison in his Cooper Climax under a write-up about Sandown this weekend. Can be found at ... http://www.smh.com.a...031-gknnr7.html

[DanTra2858]

This was Bills,s first Lotus 7, the second Lotus was a Super 7 both car ex Geoghegan.

[plannerpower]

Bill March, Bathurst 1963;

 

 

 

 

 

[plannerpower]

I also have a couple of photos from Bathurst 1964.

 

 

Bill March leading Bob Beasley;

 

 

 

 

and Arnold Ahrenfeld;

 

 

 

 

[pallas1970]

How about we get a field together of clubmans, by M and O category and see if we can have a clubman only race?  How many would we need, 20 or so?  Would be interesting to see Notas, Sevens etc all out there together?  Certainly would be fun to race cars of similar speeds for a change and I imagine it would be fairly entertaining with lots of passing etc.  Which track/event could we target?

[Ray Bell]

I think they'd be great at Morgan Park...

And if it's midweek I can be there too!

[kaydee]

Referring to Post #8 above regarding the ex Graham Hill Series 1 Lotus 7 -

 

I recently came across a couple of photos that I had taken of the same car that may be of interest.

The two below were taken outside the workshop of Arthur Williams in Sydenham Road, Norwood, SA.

 

Arthur looked after the preparation of Derek Jolly's race cars and also the assembly / pre delivery of some of the early Lotus imports for Derek.

 

 

 

Arthur Williams in Series 1 Lotus 7

 

 

Ira Phillips posing in same ex Hill lotus 7

 

Jo Heysen (Derek's girlfriend) competing in Sports Car Race at Mallala.in lotus 7.

This may well be the same car as above but I can't be 100% sure...

 

Kaydee
 

[DanTra2858]

Beside engine size what were the differences between a Lotus 7 & a Super 7, not including the very early 7,s ?

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by kaydee
Referring to Post #8 above regarding the ex Graham Hill Series 1 Lotus 7.....
 
.....Jo Heysen (Derek's girlfriend) competing in Sports Car Race at Mallala.in lotus 7.
This may well be the same car as above but I can't be 100% sure...

Different cars, Kevin...

The first is a Series 1 car, chassis number 436, fitted with a Climax engine. It was sold to George and Frank Coad and was also raced by John Roxburgh and Derek Jolly in the 6-hour at Caversham, winning this race in 1962. Don Lawrence and Derry George were subsequent owners.

Jo Heysen's car is a Series 2, chassis number SB 1030, power by A-series 948cc engine. It was raced by Jo in '62 and '63 and its current whereabouts are - according to Marc Schagen's book - unknown.

[Repco22]

Different cars, Kevin...

The first is a Series 1 car, chassis number 436, fitted with a Climax engine. It was sold to George and Frank Coad and was also raced by John Roxburgh and Derek Jolly in the 6-hour at Caversham, winning this race in 1962. Don Lawrence and Derry George were subsequent owners.

Jo Heysen's car is a Series 2, chassis number SB 1030, power by A-series 948cc engine. It was raced by Jo in '62 and '63 and its current whereabouts are - according to Marc Schagen's book - unknown.

Not quite right Ray. Derek entered two cars in the '62 6-Hour. He and John Roxburgh won in the Lotus 15. The Seven in question placed eleventh, driven by Coad & Roxburgh. The Seven was very quick so must have had a problem to have finished so far down the order. Don't remember what happened.

Edited by Repco22, 09 November 2015 - 12:12.

[Ray Bell]

That's a bit of an error in the book to be corrected...

Thanks for the correction.

[Repco22]

The '62 6-Hour at Caversham. Lionel Beattie, Repco-Holden, leads the Coad-Roxburgh Lotus Seven. Then the Nowland-Chapman XK120 followed by Ray Barfield's DB3S. Jolly's Lotus Fifteen presumably somewhere in front! Apologies but photographer unknown.

[Ray Bell]

Good shot, Rod...

Surprisingly, there are a number of colour shots of this car where other cars of that era generally are only seen in monochrome. It's a good thing, too, as it was the only Series 1 Lotus 7 brought to the country.

By the way, Marc's book also attributes the win in the 6-hour to Roxburgh and Jolly in the 15!

[Repco22]

Good shot, Rod...

By the way, Marc's book also attributes the win in the 6-hour to Roxburgh and Jolly in the 15!

A convincing win!    I have a vague idea that the Fifteen & Seven were one & two in the Le Mans start line-up, based on practice times. I think there was a 'Visor' cover pic of the start but can't lay my hands on it.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Repco22
Not quite right Ray. Derek entered two cars in the '62 6-Hour. He and John Roxburgh won in the Lotus 15. The Seven in question placed eleventh, driven by Coad & Roxburgh. The Seven was very quick so must have had a problem to have finished so far down the order. Don't remember what happened.

The two Lotuses romped away and put on a show racing between themselves, even though it slowed their lap times, according to the AMS report...

They weren't lined up first and second, however. A pic in the report shows the Aston and the Repco Holden between them as the runners cross the track. There's also what appears to be a vacant spot in there, strangely enough.

At some point in the race Coad had what's described as rear suspension trouble and he slowed for the balance of the event. Jolly's car also had differential problems as the race wore on, so I guess he slowed a little too.

Was there a 1500cc class for Sports Cars in the race? I'm wondering if Marc has recorded a class win as an outright win.

[Repco22]

The two Lotuses romped away and put on a show racing between themselves, even though it slowed their lap times, according to the AMS report...

They weren't lined up first and second, however. A pic in the report shows the Aston and the Repco Holden between them as the runners cross the track. There's also what appears to be a vacant spot in there, strangely enough.

At some point in the race Coad had what's described as rear suspension trouble and he slowed for the balance of the event. Jolly's car also had differential problems as the race wore on, so I guess he slowed a little too.

Was there a 1500cc class for Sports Cars in the race? I'm wondering if Marc has recorded a class win as an outright win.

That could explain it. But not the drivers. Derek would have only driven the 15, I think. The 6-hour was divided into a number of classes and probably included 'Under 1500cc Sports' as you say.

[Ray Bell]

Roxburgh is credited with being in both cars...

If they staged their driver changes it wouldn't have been too hard. Rockerbox doing an early stint in the Seven and a late stint in the 15, for instance, or maybe even starting the race in the Seven and doing the mid-race stint in the 15.

[ellrosso]

I have just discovered this shot of John Mawdesley's  1.5 Lotus Super 7 in the ORP collection. Have also included his brother Peter in the No 120 1.65 engine car.

[john aston]

And the picture accompanying my i/d is , of course , the modern iteration of the Lotus SEven , the Caterham Seven. This example was a 1993 car, now superseded by one which has about six times  the  power of ACBC original but his DNA is still very much apparent . 

[ed holly]

Sean1111 said on the Australian Clubman racing - Sports 1300 thread   "I would start a new thread  on the Super Seven"

 

Well I found this as started back in Sept 2015 ... so will post the history of SB1938 here when I get the   from Mr J. Medley ...