3 replies to this topic

[M bennett]

I would like to know more about Robert, I am familiar with his project to make a replica Lotus 12 and through this he joined with Bill Friend in the UK in a long drawn out 15 year task to make replica Lotus 12 gearboxes. To do this they borrowed a complete gearbox from John Streets in Redwood City California. From the correspondence I have Robert seemed to be very familiar with many restorers and machine shops in the UK.

         His Lotus 12 replica was sold, after his passing, incomplete by Christies at Pebble Beach August 2000 and sold for just $21,150. It has since been dismantled to provide parts to rebuild another Lotus 12 that required a new chassis etc.

         I would appreciate any information that tells us more about this interesting man.

         Mike Bennett 

         HLR Lotus 12 Registrar   

[Doug Nye]

https://sutherlands....orial-car-show/

 

Bob Sutherland - good guy...

 

DCN

[fbarrett]

Bob was a great friend of many of us Colorado old sports-car enthusiasts. He started the Colorado Grand in 1989; and as we joke, he was like the guy who went into a bar, started a fight, then left his pals to handle it. In that vein, a bunch of us keep the Grand going in his memory and have so far donated more than $5 million to small Colorado charities and communities. The Grand, which attracts 100 great pre-1960 sports cars each year, is also a rolling museum in the state. Bob always had more restoration projects going than he could keep track of. Millers, Bugattis, Duesenbergs, Lotuses, Maseratis, you name it. He drove them all, in vintage racing and on the road, and was a wonderful example to all who knew him. He created the dreaded Maxton Rollerskate, a Mazda-powered roadster, and endured the financial pain until 50 were built. He also wrote several books, including From Bugattis to Bougainviilia. In his memory, his son started the Robert D. Sutherland Foundation, which contributes to treatment of bipolar disorder and has saved dozens of lives so far. Bob truly influenced the lives of everyone who knew him, all for the better.

 

Frank

Edited by fbarrett, 01 May 2016 - 04:37.

[cooper997]

Some of Bob's cars ran at Australian Historic event's in the mid 1990s. I should have a photo from Phillip Island of the tank Bugatti there. Possibly the same year you had your Lotus 12 there Mike.

 

IIRC, the Miller was also out here, possibly with support of another great enthusiast, the late John Dymond of Penrite Oils. Maybe John Caffin or Lou Russo might be able to tell more of how the cars were brought to Oz.

 

They were probably at Historic Winton over those years too.

 

Stephen.