3 replies to this topic

[Gary C]

Some of you may already know that I now live outside Nairobi in Kenya after moving from the UK 5 years ago. The weekend before last I was at our usual Saturday Market selling some automobilia.
Around lunchtime an elderly couple came in to collect their order if homemade bread and cake from an adjacent stall. As they turned to leave the man stopped and took a look at what I was selling, including a couple of framed photos: Dan Gurney in the Lotus at the 1964 Indy and Emerson in the JPS Lotus 72. He came over for a chat and opened up with 'I used to own and race the ex Team Lotus Lotus XV, it was their team entry at Le Mans in 1958.' He chatted for over three quarters on an hour, said he bought the car in 1964 (with a broken gearbox) from the guy who designed the Nakuru circuit. I gave him my number and we are now in touch.
Once he'd left, I got on to Mike Oliver of this parish, who confirmed everything the guy had told me. The guys name? Peter Huth...he's now 87 and is still sharp as a tack.

[D-Type]

The car was imported by Jim Heather-Hayes (Snr) in 1958. 
It had run for Team Lotus at Le Mans.  I'm not certain, but I think that was with a 1.5 litre Climax as Ray Bell said the 1958 2-litre went to Australia.  It certainly had a 2-litre engine when it reached Kenya.

One main incentive for importing the car was the ever-increasing jackpot for the first sub-60 second lap of the Nakuru track which hab

d been growing since the track opened in 1956.  John Manussis in his D-Type Jaguar XKD 562 hadn't been able to crack it.  Heather-Hayes broke the track record but not the magic 60 seconds.

The car then passed to Louis Jacobz who didn't mange to break the magic 60 seconds either.  Apparently Jacobz connected the oil lines to the gearbox back to front which led to the gearbox problems.
The car then passed to Peter Huth who meticulously rebuilt the gearbox and manged to get it running but with questionable reliability.

Meanwhile Vic Preston (Snr) imported a Lotus 20 which he shared with Peter Hughes.  I suspect that Hughes Ltd, the Ford importers had an interest in the car.  The 997 Anglia-based engine was enlarged to 1.5 litres and the car broke the 60-second barrier.  At that meeting, which I couldn't attend as it was in (boarding) school term time, one broke the record in the morning race and the other matched it in the afternoon - I forget which was which.

For a while the two Lotuses vied for honours.  They were roughly equal on speed but the 20 was more reliable.  Then Gurbux Singh Sagoo and his 4'7 litre Sagoo Special appeared on the scene and eclipsed them both.

Around then I left Kenya and lost touch.  I understand the Climax engine, and possibly the troublesome gearbox, ended up in a Ford Escort and the Lotus acquired a V4 Ford Taunus engine.
Bill Colson, later keeper of a historic Lotus register, was in Kenya at the time and acquired the remains and reunited them with the engine that had been wrecked when someone had dropped a ball bearing down the air inlet "for fun".  He repatriated the bits and the last i heard it was "A Project awaiting the time and money to restore it".

[69seven]

Sadly, Bill Colson died late last year. He had substantially rebuilt the car over a period of years, before selling it to a fellow HLR member who has finished the restoration.

[Gary C]

Do we know when the car came back to the UK?