57 replies to this topic

[Barry Lake]

Maybe a couple of years ago now, I had some contact with someone in Europe who was tracing the history of racing Lotus Elans - particularly those driven by Niel Allen and Fred Gibson.

I have done a search of TNF but can not now find any mention of it.

Perhaps the person contacted me directly but, oddly enough, I can find no mention of it in my computer files either. Yet it is the sort of information that I should, and normally would, keep on file.

At the time, I passed the information on to someone who I knew would be interested. Now, this person has come back to me wishing to make contact with the researcher in Europe.

Does this ring any bells with anyone?

Any clues as to how I find this person?

My memory is that he was not a TNF regular, but I do think the contact came via TNF.

If you are out there, reading this, please contact me.

[Rosemayer]

Barry no Elans but lots of great history

www.aussieroadracing.homestead.com/Stanley3.html

[Carlos Guerra]

Originally posted by Barry Lake
...My memory is that he was not a TNF regular, but I do think the contact came via TNF.
If you are out there, reading this, please contact me.

Hello Barry,

I'll contact you over the weekend.;)

Regards

Carlos Guerra
Cascais
Portugal

[275 GTB-4]

Hi Barry,

David Kent was at Eastern Creek on the weekend in his 1964 Lotus Elan S1....I wonder if this car has a long racing history?? Cheers, Mick

[eldougo]

Originally posted by 275 GTB-4
Hi Barry,

David Kent was at Eastern Creek on the weekend in his 1964 Lotus Elan S1....I wonder if this car has a long racing history?? Cheers, Mick

That is the Ex Bob Johns Elan (light blue in colour)

[Ray Bell]

There was a nice story about the lightweight Elans (Lotus 26R) in Motor Racing Australia a few years ago...

Fred Gibson's car came into the country at the same time as the first Niel Allen car. When Fred did so badly with it, Leo Geoghegan assembled the second car and went out to show how quickly it could go... Niel Allen then bought it. About the same time Bob Jane bought one, but he never used it before Niel Allen bought it to enable him to keep racing as he'd crashed the first (into the pit counter at the Farm?).

Peter Woodward finished up with one of the Allen cars, I don't know about the other. Later Niel bought Fred's car and repainted it in his white and red colours.

The easiest 26R to trace in Australia is the Doug Macarthur/Peter Hopwood car, which I think is still active in the Lotus club. Another 26R was in the hands of Bill Gates and I'm fairly sure this is still in Brisbane.

There's probably a truck driver out there who would be able to give you all the details.

[Carlos Guerra]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
There was a nice story about the lightweight Elans (Lotus 26R) in Motor Racing Australia a few years ago...

Hi Ray,

Any idea in which magazine issue did the story came?

Thanks in advance.

Carlos Guerra
Cascais
Portugal

[Ray Bell]

I was going to say, "I don't index them, I just write them," but I decided to look it up...

December 1999/January 2000 issue, No 46, page 108. The article outlines the six cars that came to Australia, but doesn't trace the detailed histories.

1. Fred Gibson - later Niel Allen team car.
2. Leo Geoghegan, sold to Niel Allen, crashed at Catalina Park first time out.
3. Bob Jane, sold unraced to Niel Allen, crashed at Warwick Farm.

Both of these cars were repaired, one sold immediately, the other went (to Peter Woodward?) some time later. After Niel Allen really made a name for himself in it. The Geoghegan car was at one time in the hands of Brian Rhodes in Perth.

4. Bill Gates - first Series II car here. Demolished when a brake line wore through. Insured, it was replaced with...
5. Bill Gates. This car, I'm quite sure, still resides in Brisbane and turns out at historic meetings.
6. Doug Macarthur, bought from Peter Moulds Racing in England, raced there for a while then came to Australia. This is the car that went on to make a real name for itself in the hands of John Trowell in Perth, then to David Piele in Melbourne, on to Chris Roberts and then to Peter Hopwood.

Peter had the car for a number of years and brought it to a high pitch. It also had its travails along the way. Macarthur's famous crash at Warwick Farm had seen it gain the rear section of the first Bill Gates chassis and a new body from Bill's mould, but this was replaced with a Series I nose after Piele crashed it. And once its trailer had a major crash on the way to a race meeting and the car was reduced to rubble yet again. Ultimately it was sold to Lotus Club member Paul Whitmarsh.

I'm trying to come to grips with some of this from a very ragged memory, but it must have been the Bob Jane car that, after Allen's time with it, went to Bob Beasley and then Patrick Hogan. I don't know if it was the one that John Fraser ran or not. The story notes that Ann Thompson bought the Gates car.

[Carlos Guerra]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
I was going to say, "I don't index them, I just write them," but I decided to look it up...

Thanks for looking up Ray.

Your kind details slightly expand what I have been digging.
The 26R was, and still is in historic racing, a diabolical little car.

Regards

Carlos Guerra
Cascais
Portugal

[Catalina Park]

I remember laying under one of the 26R's (probably the Macarthur/Hopwood car) at Oran Pk and noticing that you could see the shadow of the steering wheel through the floor it as was that thin!

Peter Hopwood did some great things with that car. He was an amazing bloke that could drive any car no matter how big or small the engine or car.

[Barry Lake]

Thanks everyone.

It was Carlos who had contacted me originally and has done so again now.

Apologies to Carlos for not only losing the original correspondence but forgetting who it was I had been corresponding with.

My head is like an overfull filing cabinet - getting harder and harder to put any more information in, and also to get any out...

[Mac Lark]

Originally posted by eldougo



That is the Ex Bob Johns Elan (light blue in colour)

Was that at E Creek 2 weeks ago - there was a beautiful pale blue Elan racing there - I think no.27

[eldougo]

Yep ....... Mark Great car Aboy.

[Ray Bell]

Of course, there were other Elans raced in Australia... not just the 26Rs...

Terry Boom raced one painted gold, some might recall. The first one, to my recollection, to hit the circuit was the Paul Meyer car.

[275 GTB-4]

Oran Park a couple of years back....Black Elan...no hardtop..big roll bar...wild flares....roaring over the dogleg....rear wheel parts company....said wheel comes bounding towards our Flag Point...thankfully hits tyre barrire and stops in a safe place.

[Ray Bell]

That could have been either the Paul Whitmarsh (Macarthur, Roberts, Piele, Hopwood etc) car or the Jim Davidson car... most likely the latter...

Jim still runs the Elan, though not as frequently as he did twenty and more years ago. His car started life as the red car Paul Meyer ran, went from Meyer to Ray Lintott, then to Richard Stiegler (both ran it in yellow) and then to Jim.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
That could have been either the Paul Whitmarsh (Macarthur, Roberts, Piele, Hopwood etc) car or the Jim Davidson car... most likely the latter...

Jim still runs the Elan, though not as frequently as he did twenty and more years ago. His car started life as the red car Paul Meyer ran, went from Meyer to Ray Lintott, then to Richard Stiegler (both ran it in yellow) and then to Jim.

Hmmmmm...well....an open letter to the gentleman concerned....very wide rims, horsepower and sticky rubber deserve more than a scotch key in the rear axle.....

We were watching the fast approaching wheel like hawks....one wrong bounce and a squishy Marshal might have been injured (not to mention the potential damage to the Elan as it crashed out)

[cavvy]

Did the research mentioned include the Elan raced by Don Hall in WA - always curious to know what happened to it ?

Also in WA for a time was an ex Dick Thurston car (new owner Barry Grant put it on its lid on its first outing at a tuning day).

I was told the John Trowell 26R was ex Bill Gates.

[AndrewMurray]

The John Trowell car was ex- Macarthur, then wen onto Piele in Victoria. Ex-Geogeghan 26R was also in Perth with Brian Rhodes then
caught in a bad fire. The ex-Don Hall car(not 26R) is supposed to be in Qld, as is the surviving ex-Gates 26R.

Regards
Andrew

[Giraffe]

By giraffe138 at 2009-04-17

Here is the aforementioned Bob Jane/Allen/Beasley/Hogan 26R
at Donington Park on 5th April after having been raced in the
HSCC Guards Trophy event by it's current owner, rock star, Chris Rea.
We are all examining the damage caused by a blown head gasket
on it's BRM twin-cam.


By giraffe138, shot with EX-M2 at 2009-04-05

[terry mcgrath]

there is or was suppose to be a 26R in perth within last 10 years owned by Malcolm Buckland it was pictured (registered 1ACF437) and written up in the Western Australian newspaper date not sure but writer was alex forrest so say 1997 on
I did do a little chasing and owner was vague but I did note that the 2 geogegan cars were numbers 48 and 49 although the article notes only 43 built
The list of owners for WA car stated as no 48 was
geogegan
Allen
Woodward
thurstan
grant
rhodes
malcolm buckland of rockingham (swinging pig)

terry

[ellrosso]

Other Elans were Murray Bryden's and Dennis Watt's cars from Victoria in the mid 70's. You can find them on the oldracephotos.com website (type Lotus Elan into the Advanced Search).
Regards, ellrosso

[DJH]

I,m sure I recall seeing an Elan have a big crash at Catalina, was at Craven A, yellow one with a black hard top, pretty sure it was Fred Gibson. Bits of Lotus everywhere. Anyone else remember that day?..................John

[AndrewMurray]

My understanding (confirmed by Brian Rhodes in Perth recently) was that Malcolm Buckland purchased the 26R chassis and hubs/wheels off his car following the big fire. Malcolm sometimes brings his car to the British Car Day and it has the livery of period Geoghegan car .
If #48 car was the one that came to Perth then #49 must be the one that Niel Allen wrote off early in its life.

The Trowell car was chassis 26/S2/37 and was supposed to be the last 26R delivered by Lotus, (although chassis S2 46 is the highest known to have been actually been built).

Regards
Andrew

[Terry Walker]

Trevor Hine ran a very fast yellow Elan roadster at Wanneroo Park / Barbagallo in Western Australia for several years in the late 70s/early 80s.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by ellrosso
Other Elans were Murray Bryden's and Dennis Watt's cars from Victoria in the mid 70's. You can find them on the oldracephotos.com website (type Lotus Elan into the Advanced Search).
Regards, ellrosso

Denis Watt (I'm fairly sure it's a single 'n' in Denis) is and was from Wollongong, NSW...

And you're right, DJH, Fred had a pretty dramatic crash at Catalina at one time, lots of fibreglass on the road.

[DJH]

Yes Ray it was a very dramatic prang, the stout wooden safety fences and the L/W toilet paper bodied Elan didn't get along too well, I'd have thought Fred's Elan shell was a write off.
There's a nice shot of Gibson ( Elan ), Jane ( L/W E-Type ) and Geoghan ( Elan ) entering Craven A on the Autopics site. Fred is all crossed up, might have been taken on THE day....John

[Wirra]

The image quality is poor but the memories are great.

[DJH]

Nice pictures Wirra, but, the Catalina shots raise a couple of questions. Gibson seems to be steering the Team Total liveryed Geoghan Elan. Was it on loan while the his yellow/black car, pranged at Catalina, was being repaired, or did he buy it as a replacement? Perhaps his own car was too badly damaged to be repaired. Lots of if's, perhaps and maybe's here.
The red Elan, shot at Bathurst, doesn't seem to have the " pop up " headlights.
The Elan, still looks great in the 21 st. century, even many many years after it's original release. The classic shape has never aged IMO. Even Mrs. Peel, the doyen of style drove one.......J

[Wirra]

I think the Total Team would have had Red-White-Blue (French Tricolours). Fred's car appears to have two Red stripes (ex Niel Allen?). Perhaps Fred bought it from Niel when Niel moved to the Big Bangers.

Does anyone know the clubman/s - one of the Macarthur brothers or Arnold Ahrenfeld perhaps?

[DJH]

Yes Wirra, you're right, both stripes are indeed red. Niel Allen colours of course.....my eyesight ain't what it used to be. Also the Team Total stripes were on the sides of the Elan I think. All too long ago.
Those Super Sevens were very fast, I recall a bloke named Beasley had one of the best. I did find the Clubman racing a bit of a yawn, still it filled in the time between Touring Car races. ( Sorry the Devil made me say that. )...........J

[Wirra]

Originally posted by DJH
... I did find the Clubman racing a bit of a yawn...

Wow... wait 'til Ray reads that!

I think the name was Bob Beasley who IIRC went on to FF, though the length of name on the side of the car doesn't suggest it was him.

[AndrewMurray]

Does anyone have pics of the Doug Macarthur Elan? Or when David Piele ran it in Victoria a couple of years later?

More period Elan race pics please...

Regards
Andrew

[Terry Walker]

Trevor Hine, Wanneroo, Street Car Class:

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by AndrewMurray
Does anyone have pics of the Doug Macarthur Elan? Or when David Piele ran it in Victoria a couple of years later?

More period Elan race pics please...

Second the motion...

Here's a pic of the Macarthur Elan, but I know you've seen it before:



And Fred is in his own Elan there, but painted in Niel Allen colours because Niel bought it and had Fred driving it... Niel owned three of these cars.

This pic:



...is of Alex Macarthur and Fred, possibly in the special 'match races' that were put on at Catalina, but it could have been otherwise. The match races were held because the two were usually dicing at Catalina, but then again, I think that was in the days of the yellow and grey colouring of the Elan.

Trevor Hine's car wasn't a 26R, of course.

DJH... the pic to which you refer is undoubtedly the time Fred's car got crunched. It was the lightweight E that did the crunching.

[Haggis 2]

Originally posted by DJH

The Elan, still looks great in the 21 st. century, even many many years after it's original release. The classic shape has never aged IMO. Even Mrs. Peel, the doyen of style drove one.......J [/B]

The Elan is indeed a classic shape.... so much so it inspired the early MX5 which is so very similar in shape and concept yet built some 25 or so years later.....

I remember the Brian Rhodes Elan fire..... always wondered what happened to the car. At a Classic car show at Whiteman Park (Perth) in the mid nineties I saw a 26R chassis from a burnt car which the owner was contemplating building up. I spoke with him briefly and asked if it was the ex-Rhodes car but he claimed not to know. I don't know if it was Buckland or not, but if it was I wonder why he would deny it's heritage to me if it was he who actually purchased it direct from Brian.....? Is there perhaps another 26R floating around WA?
________________________
Brendon Hagarty

[Haggis 2]

Originally posted by Ray Bell


Trevor Hine's car wasn't a 26R, of course.

No the Hine car was definately not a 26R, but became an awesome piece of kit nonetheless, eventually running with Cosworth Sierra running gear. For a while it was virtually unbeatable in WA Streetcar racing.

The car originally was brought to WA in 1968 or thereabouts by Peter Briggs and arrived in pieces. My father had the job of putting it together. I was about 8 years old at the time, and already a total sports car tragic, and I thought it was the most fantastic car I'd ever seen (well, apart from Don O'Sullivan's T70...). I still have a desire to own one but they are sadly out of my budget nowadays....

______________________________
Brendon Hagarty

[SJ Lambert]

A Brier Thomas shot, Lakeside 12 Feb 1967

Edited by SJ Lambert, 02 March 2013 - 20:44.

[SJ Lambert]

Bill Gates on his pat malone this time, Lakeside 25 June 1967



photo by Brier Thomas

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by SJ Lambert
A Brier Thomas shot, Lakeside 12 Feb 1967

Gibson, Gates and Lionel Ayers in the Rennm... sorry, MRC Lotus 23 copy.

[VaughanS]

Hi all,

 

I'm new to this forum and life long Lotus Elan man, I own the Ex Bil Gates 26R which last weekend was reunited with Bill and Jim Bertam (co-driver/mechanic) for its first event following a long rebuild, the car has been restored to the original factory specification as devliered to Bill, with signage as per Rothmans 12 hours, both Bill Gates and Jim Bertram were pleased withthe ay it turned out and shared many interesting tips over the weekend.  John Fraser another notable Elan 26R fdriver from Queensland was present and shared his memories of learning his way round Surfers following the late Glynn Scott who prepared and shared my 26R with Ann Thompson who purchased the car form Bill Gates in 1969.

 

After years of wanting to race a 26R, all I can say is it was worth it... and I'm looking forward to competing with the car in a number of events in NSW and Victoria this year next year.

 

John owned the car now in Europe that Carlos is asking about.  John's sending me more photo's and result sheets, if anyone has Calros email I will happily forward them on.

 

Regards

 

Vaughan

[Ray Bell]

Welcome here, Vaughan...

 

A lovely little car, its travails featured in the story I did about 26Rs in Motor Racing Australia several years ago. This particularly related to the devastating crash which resulted in it getting a new chassis etc.

[elansprint72]

Vaughan, good to see you over here- what took you so long!

[jayrrrr]

Vaughan's 26R and Bill Gates first Elan at Lakeside.

 

Edited by jayrrrr, 26 September 2013 - 07:50.

[oldelan]

Other Elans were Murray Bryden's and Dennis Watt's cars from Victoria in the mid 70's. You can find them on the oldracephotos.com website (type Lotus Elan into the Advanced Search).
Regards, ellrosso

 
The ex Murray Bryden S2 elan has been residing in Country Victoria for the past thirty two years, complete with orginal cams log books. The car has been converted back to a fantastic road car, it generally hibernates during the winter, but it regularly gets a solid workout most weekends on some of the best Alpine driving roads in Australia, it still has the original, but much refurbished chassis, and has recently undergone a four year ground up restoration, it is a magic car to drive. Hope this helps to fill in a bit of Aussie elan race car history.

[ed holly]

Rod Kennedy owns the Terry Boom Elan, which was the very first Elan raced in Australia at the Australia Day January 1964 "Little International" meeting at Catalina Park, finishing with a 2nd and a 3rd setting a new Production Car lap record of 1 min 7.9 sec. The car is one of the very early Bourne cars and was in the first batch of 3 cars imported into Australia by the Geoghegans, the other 2 cars one going to Leo's sister and Leo kept one for himself..

 

2 weeks later, Ken Ward clipped the back of the Elan with his Morgan as he tried to slip in behind to get a tow at the AGP Sandown round of the Tasman Championship, causing the Elan to spin and heavily hit the fence near the Dunlop bridge extensively damaging the front of the Elan. 50 years later, the car is now absolutely stunning in every respect, both presentation and performance, winning the Elan class at the 2013 Lotus National meeting Concourse in Canberra.

 

 

 

Edited by ed holly, 25 October 2014 - 04:38.

[cooper997]

Interesting this topic should re-surface and Ed add info and photos of the Terry Boom Elan.

 

It was only a few days ago that by chance, the slide scanner should reveal this rare bit of colour from that very January 64 Catalina race meeting. There's Terry at the rear of the grid.

 

print screen windows xp

 

Stephen

[Ray Bell]

I thought his car was gold?

Are you sure it's not Paul Meyer?

[cooper997]

Terry carried #21 at that Jan 64 Catalina. In another slide of the cleared grid just before race start, the Lotus driver is wearing a red top (race suit?). Paul Meyer is listed in an MGA.

 

At the Feb 64 Sandown AGP/Tasman meeting (as Ed mentions above), Terry is listed as #1 in Event 2 with the colour recorded in the programme as red.

 

Stephen

[brucemoxon]

This is the Peter Hopwood car, as it appears today.

 

As you'll see, Australia's 'Production' Sports Cars rules were pretty liberal.

 

 

 

Bruce Moxon

Edited by brucemoxon, 30 November 2014 - 09:00.