6 replies to this topic

[f1steveuk]

Part One. Years ago, a friend of mine had a Lotus Europa with a black nose badge. He joined Club Lotus, as was told Lotus fitted a black badge to cars for a period after they had lost a driver. My friends car was built just after Rindt was killed at Monza, so it had a ring of truth, so I have always believed this to be true-ish. (?)

 

Part Two. I have just seen a picture of Rindt, in the pits at Monza, in 1970, and the car has a black nose badge. If part one is accurate/true, for which driver would this have been for?

 

 

 

Confused of Mayfair

[Garsted]

Wasn't it for Jim Clark to whom Colin Chapman was particularly close?  Clark was killed at Hockenheim in a F2 lotus in 1968

 

Steve

[Vitesse2]

 

Black Magic
LotusLife Feb/Mar 2002

From Lotus' earliest days every car was fitted with a nose badge comprising of Colin Chapman's monogram (ACBC) on a green quadrant background which is superimposed on a yellow circular plaque. However, from the late sixties onwards some cars appeared with mysterious all black nose badges.

 

There has been much speculation, gossip and debate as to how and why these back badges all of a sudden appeared. Here's the truth. Or at least one version of it!

 

The first black nose badge was made in 1967 for the Elan of the Sales Director at the time Graham Arnold. It was a one off. A year later the badges were placed on all cars made for a month, after the death of Double World Champion Jimmy Clark in a Formula 2 race. Once this batch had been used up, Lotus should have reverted to the green and yellow colours. But for reasons shrouded in mystery a batch of black badges was still occasionally ordered and fitted to cars at random as they left the factory. These later badges carried no special significance, although unfounded stories were quick to circulate that 'black badge' cars were special versions with better engines or suspension.

 

When Lotus won the World Championship for the 7th time in 1978, a batch of 100 commemorative Esprits had the specially made back nose badges inserted. The most recent black nose badge occurred in the mid eighties when Lotus was bought by General Motors. Someone at GM decided that the Lotus badge should be re-designed to a dark green or black. When GM sold Lotus to the Bugatti Group in the early nineties one of their first actions was to revert to an updated version of the original green and yellow nose badge. And last but not least, the black nose badge was last seen in 1999 on the black livery heritage version of the Elise. The big question is, where will it appear next?

http://www.lotusespr...lotusbadge.html

[f1steveuk]

Elements of all stories there then!!! I recall the black badges were supposed to be fitted for a month after the death of "someone" at Lotus, not always a driver. It would seem however, no clear cut answer, perhaps the mystery is better!!

[DanTra2858]

ALL Lotus cars that came to Australia in 1968/69 were black badge cars.

[JtP2]

This was discussed on the elan net forum. There was a test report of an Elan in Autocar/ Motor printed the weekending before Hockenhiem. The car has black badges! Clark's yellow elan that he gave to Jabby Crombac at the airport before flying to Hockenhiem has black badges, but I am not sure if it had them from new. So black badges were being fitted to cars before Clark's accident at Hockenhiem. Therefore logic says there is no connection between Clark's accident and the black badges, as the existed and were fitted prior to the accident.

 

I have even seen it proposed that they were because of JPS advertising, a cigarette brand which did not come into existence till some 4 years later. The rebranding of GLTL to JPS and the cigarette are one entity to preclude restrictions on cigarette advertising.

 

The trouble is that when ever these things get discussed, the ulterior motive mungers take over and avoid logic that might upset their dearly held beliefs.

Edited by JtP2, 14 September 2015 - 22:26.

[Tim Murray]

In Autosport for 5th April 1968 (ie before Clark's death) Simon Taylor recorded his impressions of driving Graham Arnold's personal Elan, which Vitesse's link above says was fitted with its black badge in 1967. Might this also have been the car mentioned by JtP2 as having been tested by Autocar/Motor? If so, there might only have been the one Lotus fitted with a black badge prior to Clark's death.