26 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

Just arrived from its long years in Australia, here's 1957-58 Lotus-Climax Type 12 chassis '353' - bound for Bonhams' forthcoming Monaco Sale.

 

This remarkable survivor, which began life in 1500cc Formula 2 guise in September 1957, became the first Formula 1 Lotus in May 1958, when fitted with a '2-litre' Climax FPF engine.  It is the car - then in its initial 1.5-litre F2 guise - in which Graham Hill made his Team Lotus single-seater racing debut (September Goodwood '57), then with the 2-litre engine it gave both him (and Team Lotus) their frontline Formula 1 debuts (BRDC International Trophy, Silverstone '58), followed by their joint World Championship-qualifying Grand Prix debuts (Monaco '58).  Still retaining its surviving original chassis - original body panels - this little jewel was greeted, after our lousy, soggy winter, by the sun coming out to greet it (and us), upon its return last week to the Goodwood Motor Circuit.

 

Its contemporary 1958-59 drivers include Henry Taylor, Graham Hill, Maurice Michy (1959 Coupe d'Auvergne F2 race - does anyone remember him, and if you do is his recorded first name here correct?), Bruce Halford, and...(1959 Syracuse GP) Maria Teresa de Filippis.  Diversity is so important, these days....

 

Oh yes - and before I forget, and talking of diversity - it is also the Lotus 12 that was driven for 30-odd miles on the public road (until it broke) by Denis Jenkinson of 'Motor Sport' magazine on Christmas Day, 1957, in what we later laughed about as having been his 'Figgy Pudding Grand Prix' escapade "...while the coppers were having their Christmas lunch"...and for which Colin Chapman so readily loaned the car regardless of such minor matters as traffic law.  

 

Different times, indeed - but still a gem today.

 

Photos strictly Copyright: The GP Library

 

DCN

 

 

 

 

Above - with American-based Brit Cooper and Rejo racer Mark Osborne of Bonhams...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so off to rest after its many weeks on the high seas...

 

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 22 March 2024 - 13:08.

[Automobiliart]

Bonjour Doug

That car looks frankly stunning.

Interestingly, I'm re-reading "Life at the Limit", and Graham Hill writes about racing it ...

Cheers!
Paul

[marksixman]

That car looks frankly stunning.

 

Agreed. And, I suspect, a great deal more stunning than ever Graham Hill experienced !!!

[GreenMachine]

As seen at PI Historics 2019:

 

[Ray Bell]

Doug, Marc's book puts Cliff Allison into the car in the '57/'58 era, sharing the car with Hill, I guess that was in F2 form?

 

Of course, it wasn't the first Lotus 12 built but it was the first to enter World Championship racing. Chassis No 353 - the one which became the Sabakat was chassis No 351 was probably the first.

 

Both of these cars spent by far most of their lives in Australia, the featured car having a couple of different engines fitted at various times, the 1.5 Climax FPF being syphoned off to be used in a speedway midget and the replacement being a Ford pushrod of the sixties.

 

The photos show that a lot of credit is due to Mike Bennett and Don Asser for the work they've done on the car, principally the former I'm guessing, since its ownership passed to them in 1991.

[Odseybod]

A distinguished competition record indeed - but as soon as I saw the pics, I had an instant mental image of it with a diminutive journalist on board, beard flying, off for a festive frolic. Such larks!

[Alan Baker]

Bonjour Doug

That car looks frankly stunning.

Interestingly, I'm re-reading "Life at the Limit", and Graham Hill writes about racing it ...

Cheers!
Paul

As Graham wrote:

"When the race started I was last but by the seventy fifth lap I found myself in fourth place, and I hadn't overtaken a soul." ...."A piece of cake, I thought; my first Grand Prix and running fourth already. Then my back wheel fell off."

[GTMRacer]

Those early spaceframe Lotus race cars are so lovely to look at, simple functional and elegant. Thanks for the pictures Mr Nye

[John Ginger]

Yes indeed, a thank you from me too

[barrykm]

And also driven by Maria Theresa de Filippis. 
 

My knowledge of this great lady is only superficial I'm afraid, but that is interesting. I wonder if anyone could post a picture, if any exist?
 

[10kDA]

Thanks for posting these great pics, Doug.

 

What is the function of the tube with flattened ends bolted from the outside of the trailing arm pivot to a point further forward on the frame?

[Parkesi]

Doug, "different times" for sure - not a monoposto tale but an episode regarding Geoff Williamson`s Lotus Eleven.

Remembered by Johnnie Parkes, Mike`s younger brother:

A little incident I recall was one evening when I was with Mike at Wheatley, just outside Oxford, where Geoff Williamson lived in his aunts' house.

I was hanging around by the garage as night fell and Mike had gone off some time earlier in the Lotus to do some testing. 

A couple of police officers turned up at the house and asked about the car - which wasn't there. 

The police then explained that they'd found the bonnet of the Lotus with its' number plate by the side of the Wheatley bypass and wanted some assurance that the car and its' driver were OK. 

Geoff explained that Mike had most probably taken the bonnet off for some reason and the police seemed satisfied by that and went away. 

Mike had indeed taken off the bonnet because the car was overheating and then did a series of runs up and down the bypass with no lights at the front, guided by moonlight and the lights of other cars.

[DCapps]

Nice Bonham's sales brochure and sales pitch, to be sure, but I had forgotten that de Filippis had driven a Type 12. And, at Siracusa, no less...

[marksixman]

What is the function of the tube with flattened ends bolted from the outside of the trailing arm pivot to a point further forward on the frame?

The shot inside from above the cockpit, showing the nose of the diff and the rear brakes, shows that the trailing arm pivot is a single bolt through a single square section tube. The tube outside the body  would seem to go to a point just below and ahead of the gear lever, where the frame is generally very well triangulated, so I think the tube to which 10kDA refers is just a bit of extra strengthening for the trailing arm pivot, quite possibly an addition to the original design.

 

Which is, of course, really strange, as Colin's designs very rarely needed any subsequent strengthening or modification !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I stand to be corrected naturally !

[Doug Nye]

Nice Bonham's sales brochure and sales pitch, to be sure, but I had forgotten that de Filippis had driven a Type 12. And, at Siracusa, no less...

 

Hardly a 'Bonham's sales brochure' - just a heads-up introduction plus a few happy snaps which I took for my own interest and thought it might also be of interest to others here...

 

On the topic of what might be of interest to others here, might I recommend Mike Bennett's extraordinarily detailed book 'Lotus 12 Chassis No. 353 - The History' (ISBN No: 0-646-45776-4).

 

Guess what it's about...

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 17 April 2024 - 05:49.

[10kDA]

The shot inside from above the cockpit, showing the nose of the diff and the rear brakes, shows that the trailing arm pivot is a single bolt through a single square section tube. The tube outside the body  would seem to go to a point just below and ahead of the gear lever, where the frame is generally very well triangulated, so I think the tube to which 10kDA refers is just a bit of extra strengthening for the trailing arm pivot, quite possibly an addition to the original design.

 

Which is, of course, really strange, as Colin's designs very rarely needed any subsequent strengthening or modification !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I stand to be corrected naturally !

Thanks, I suppose it more-or-less puts the bolt in double shear, given that the loads on that bolt and the bung/bushing through the frame tube would be mostly longitudinal or slightly off-axis. It seems like it could have been done differently.

[B Squared]

Thanks for taking the time to post the photos Doug.

[Ray Bell]

The earliest photos of the two Lotus 12s which came to Australia, the 'Sabakat' and this car, all show the bracing tubes in place...

 

The earliest of these pics is 1958, so it's possible it was a modification added in the times Herbert MacKay Fraser raced chassis 351 for the 'works' or in the times of Graham Hill and Cliff Allison. The photo of this car is with Frank Gardner driving, yet another who put his rump into its driver's seat.

 

As regards this as a means of putting the mounting bolt for the trailing arms in double shear, a similar job has been done on the lower front suspension link on this chassis, where it had proved to be very necessary:

 

Double shear. Having seen the bolt was fractured because of lack of support, this small bracket has been put in place to overcome the problem.

 

So it's a question of whether the designer put it there in the first place or it was added in view of later experience.

[MarkBisset]

It's such a shame #353 is leaving our shores but Mike was never going to get 'world parity price' in Australia.

 

The 12 cockpit is very small too, an issue for any owner/driver in the XXXXL-lardarse range.

 

This tedious epic covers both the 'Oz-12s' - 351 and 353 - in some detail, including more modern #353 shots.

 

https://primotipo.co...-add-lightness/

 

It's not been a good month for the Oz National Historic Car Estate. In addition to the 12 the ex-Harold Drake-Richmond Bugatti T37, the entire history of which has been in Australia including several Phillip Island AGPs, is off to Switzerland soon...not that this is a recent trend!

 

m

[Doug Nye]

Like all your Primotipo tales, Mark, that's a really lovely piece. I remember Graham Howard asking me if there was a British panel basher I could recommend to "do a 12 body for me", and John Cole at Wheatcroft's Wigston builders' yard - where he was beavering away on the Donington cars through Aston Martin DBR4/250 and Cisitalia 360 up to and including the BRM Type 25 reconstruction - was the best I knew.  

 

The downside was that John was renowned for his incredibly combustible temper. Most of my experience had been with woodworkers; like their material often user-friendly, quiet, amiable.  In contrast I have often found metalworkers like their material, tough, tense, noisy, fiery.

 

John's bodywork room was through an open archway at one end of a long, narrow workshop in which others were restoring Tom's ready-bodied cars.  Every so often there'd come a deafening eruption from John, a firestorm of shocking language (yes - even by my standards) and often a panel hammer would come flying down the length of the shop like an unguided missile because he'd just hurled it in explosive frustration or anger.  

 

But his finished work was so good that I still commissioned him on Graham's behalf to do the 12 body, paid for in instalments.  On one unforgettable trip up to Wheatie's I was careful to do what I had to do there concerning the museum - then still being built - while also trying to avoid the workshop, because I was unable to pay John's next instalment.  I was just about to leave for home (refuge?) when John burst in and found me.  Oh Cripes!  

 

"Doog - now coom on mate - WHERE'S ME BLOODY MOONNAY!"...and that was only the beginning.  You get the picture?

 

A couple of weeks - and an amazingly cooperative Barclays bank manager - later, John 'phoned, all sweetness and light: "Body's doon Doog.  I've left a bit extra round every panel so's yer Aussie can trim 'em to fit on 'is frame".  I subsequently had to explain that bit to Graham because when he collected the panels from Customs he initially complained "It's all too big!" - but it worked out fine in the end.  I had, however, learned that acting as naive go-between like that had proved to be...ahem...demanding.  I'm a big bloke, but the experience was in part quite alarming, too.  

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 23 March 2024 - 07:42.

[Garsted]

Thanks for posting these great pics, Doug.
 
What is the function of the tube with flattened ends bolted from the outside of the trailing arm pivot to a point further forward on the frame?

Possibly to stiffen the attachment point of the trailing arm which, without the tube, would be cantilevered out from the chassis frame.
It looks a bit of an afterthought to me.

Steve

[Ray Bell]

I do recall two of the points Graham raised when he told me about getting the body made...

 

First, that it was very expensive. Even more than that, and it makes me wonder now how he got it all past Maria. And it explains why progress payments might have been a bit slow.

 

Second, the overlapping edges on the bodywork so he could wrap it around tubes etc, cut it to be an exact fit. Though I'm sure he told me that was his idea.

 

The chassis was built from original Lotus plans, Sme of the work (all of it?) was done by Tony Caldersmith who'd been working at Lotus when the original was built and worked on this car. Unlike 353, it didn't have the queerbox and used a BMC B-series gearbox sourced specifically from an MG Magnette.

 

Why the Magnette? Its clutch fork came out the top of the bellhousing, there was no room for one out the side in the Lotus 12.

[10kDA]

Ray - Thanks for the info re: both 12s and their bracing tubes

 

The earliest photos of the two Lotus 12s which came to Australia, the 'Sabakat' and this car, all show the bracing tubes in place...

 

The earliest of these pics is 1958, so it's possible it was a modification added in the times Herbert MacKay Fraser raced chassis 351 for the 'works' or in the times of Graham Hill and Cliff Allison. The photo of this car is with Frank Gardner driving, yet another who put his rump into its driver's seat.

 

As regards this as a means of putting the mounting bolt for the trailing arms in double shear, a similar job has been done on the lower front suspension link on this chassis, where it had proved to be very necessary:

 

Double shear. Having seen the bolt was fractured because of lack of support, this small bracket has been put in place to overcome the problem.

 

So it's a question of whether the designer put it there in the first place or it was added in view of later experience.

 

That bracket in the pic is the way I would have done it.

[DCapps]

Hardly a 'Bonham's sales brochure' - just a heads-up introduction plus a few happy snaps which I took for my own interest and thought it might also be of interest to others here...

 

DCN

 

Had I the funds, the sales pitch would have certainly worked on me...

[2F-001]

Ray - Thanks for the info re: both 12s and their bracing tubes

 

 

That bracket in the pic is the way I would have done it.

Indeed. If the primary purpose of the 'extra' arm on the 12 really was to put the bolt on double shear, it seems to me a dubiously-effective and rather cack-handed way of doing it.

If the shear strength or bending resistance of the radius arm bolt was put to the test, I can't see that extra arm, its mounting method or its likely flexibility offering a great deal of help. I suppose it offers a bit of strength between the two chassis members that it links.

Surely a bracket affixed to the outside of the vertical tube to which the radius arm is already fitted would be more effective, simpler, and more elegant (and lighter)?

What am I missing here?

 

I could see a situation where having a much longer radius arm (assuming it had sufficient stiffness) extending to the more forward chassis member might be a benefit to suspension geometry (as was done to some live-axle Lotus Sevens - the arm passing through a slot in the wing) but I don't quite understand the feature used on the 12.

 

A lovely piece of history though - but somewhat beyond my reach I think...

Edited by 2F-001, 23 March 2024 - 14:43.

[10kDA]

The trailing arm hinge point of a Chapman Strut suspension is loaded mostly in fore-and-aft, braking and acceleration. The bar/tube on the outside of the trailing arm pivot could be perfectly fine in tension and compression given the amount of grip fed to the chassis from the tires of the era. But it seems like a roundy-round solution when a bracket such as in the pic Ray posted would be better. But - the external bar required no welding, maybe just longer bolts on each side, so... whatever it takes, I guess.

[D-Type]

Ioften wonder how the 12 would have done with a 2.5 litre Climax - or would it have simply been too much power for everything?