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Fourth Quarter Review 2002 A Quiet End to the Season The last quarter, especially in comparison to the first two, has been relatively calm. Our types 49B and 99T were collected for display at the most enormous motor show in Paris. They took their rightful places in an impressive line-up of Monaco GP winning cars. The last race was the TGP event at Estoril. At one stage in the year we had been contemplating how to take five cars all the way to Portugal. In the end the problem was solved by taking just one. Stalwart TGP regular Dan Collins was keen to race his 91/10 at the circuit where by chance (allegedly) he watched Ayrton win his first Grand Prix in our 97T/2. Twentyfour 70s and 80s F1 cars had made the effort for what proved to be an excellent end to the season. Dan went well all weekend only for a fuel pressure problem to cause us to not be able to start him on the grid. Fortunately a re-start was required so Dan got away from his correct grid slot. We all enjoyed watching Dan put in a great drive with lots of overtaking. Dan, Eddie and Nick enjoying the sun at Estoril with 91/10 The day after we returned from Estoril we ran Jim Bennett in his type 76 at Silverstone for his first real test. Once again the car ran faultlessly and Jim made good progress. We are looking forward to Jim racing 76/1 next year. The workshop has been somewhat overcrowded with cars that are being finished. The type 49 repair has dragged on and on. Renault Sport is continuing to work on the EF 4 engine in 97T/2 to make sure it is just right. Most importantly we have at last finished the restoration of our 91/8. Dan Collins did the shakedown for us at Hethel since when it has had a couple of trouble free runs. We are hoping to find a patron to drive the car in the TGP Championship and are promoting this opportunity as much as we can. We have just commenced restoring 101 chassis 2. Nick Yallop is responsible for the composite work and Ralph Hudston is looking after the mechanical side. We are expecting a straightforward project after which it is likely that we will try to find a buyer for this exciting car. Let us know if you are interested! Third Quarter Review 2002 Busy, busy, busy The summer has been as busy as ever. Although this quarter has seen just two TGP races CTL has participated at the Goodwood meetings and the VSCC Silverstone meeting plus assorted shakedowns and tests. At the beginning of July we welcomed the USA tour of Lotus enthusiasts hosted by our friend Richard ‘Hello! I’m Richard Parramint’ Parramint. All the visitors were hoping to see the Elise on sale in the States sometime soon. A typically sterling team effort in the workshop got the type 76 chassis 1 restoration completed in time for the Festival of Speed. U.S. Patron Jim Bennett did the shakedown on the Hethel test track prior to the car taking its place in the special line up of 10 cars that we took to Goodwood for the celebration of 50 years of Lotus Engineering. The weekend was fantastic, especially as Emerson Fittipaldi was reunited with Eddie Dennis and 72/5 to create the highlight for many. Emerson was on great form. He also drove the Elise type 72 edition up the hill with Mrs Hazel Chapman as co-driver. Classic Team Lotus was honoured by the Earl of March awarding a Goodwood Choice award in recognition of the team’s contribution. Dan Collins enjoyed a very productive test at Donington in 91/10, complete with a fresh engine. We were grateful to have Chris Murphy in attendance for race engineering and Mike Littlewood who shared the driving with Dan for evaluating the handling characteristics. Real progress was made in the perennial battle against the type 91s’ tendency to understeer. This paid dividends at Brands Hatch for the fifth round of the TGP Championship. Dan was fourth quickest after the first session. Traffic on the Indy circuit pushed Dan down the grid so it was no surprise to see 91/10 fighting its way up the field in the race. Unfortunately a coming together at Druids caused Dan to spin off two laps later. Encouraging none the less. Mike Littlewood, Nick Yallop, Eddie Dennis and Chris Murphy attending Dan in his type 91/10 Prior to Brands Renault Sport came to Hethel to commission the EF4 engine in our 97T/2. With great anticipation we took the car over to the test track only to be disappointed when the left hand exhaust temperature reached 1100 degrees and the undertray caught fire. James Denty did the honours at the wheel but after a few more laps Renault decided the engine had to go back to France. The problem has been identified as timing and we are awaiting the imminent return of the engine so we can try again. We were pleased to welcome to the workshop the editor of Lotus Life magazine (the Official Lotus Club publication), Sean Feast, for a feature on Classic Team Lotus. Clearly Sean is a true Lotus enthusiast and it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to enlighten him about our activities. Malcolm Ricketts enjoyed racing the type 58 at Oulton Park in the Gold Cup revival. Malcolm raved about the handling of the car and put up a good show in the race. Not surprisingly the car attracted a great deal of attention throughout the weekend. TGP round 6 was at Magny Cours where we ran just Dan in 91/10. Once again Dan enjoyed the improved handling and was towards the top of the timesheets until, as things got serious, an unsolicited visit by a slower car caused his session to be stopped short. Frustratingly on raceday 91/10 cut out on the formation lap. The team suspected the impact the previous day had unsettled something. This was borne out to be correct when back at base the fault was traced to the crankshaft sensor. Very disappointing. After the upset at Monaco Malcolm Ricketts was pleased to be re-united with the repaired type 32B at Goodwood for the Revival meeting. Ralph Hudston had gone great guns to have the car ready in time. Furthermore the skills of Nick Parravani Fabrications had enabled the tub to be repaired without the need to replace any of the skins and the front bulkhead panels. A wonderful achievement. The 32B was joined by Junro Nishida’s awesome type 30, resplendent in JCB yellow. This latest addition to Junro’s collection had been shipped over especially to compete on the circuit at which so many great pictures were taken of this charismatic car with Jim Clark at the wheel. Ralph and Nick Yallop were joined by Bob Dance and Paul Stevens to ensure everything ran smoothly. Bob recalled a lot about the type 30 in its day. Most importantly he had avoided getting involved with most of the numerous dramas surrounding its original racing career. Promptly fate conspired to produce a serious gearbox oil leak that signalled the type 30 finally ensnaring Bob after so many years. Junro went well in a race that clearly he enjoyed very much. The car looked a real handful and the noise of it was quite intimidating. Unfortunately a gear selection problem for Malcolm resulted in the gear lever giving up the ghost after 37 years just when Malcolm was shaping up to enjoy a good result. Relatively things have calmed down somewhat since Goodwood and the team is looking forward to spending a less frenetic period in the workshop over the coming months. That said we have just participated in the Lotus Open day and the VSCC meeting at Siverstone featuring a celebration of 50 years since the establishment of the Lotus Engineering Company. At Silverstone Dan Collins (91/10) and Sean Walker (72/5), in the company of Geoff Farmer (type 49), put on a stirring display of Team Lotus F1 speed with some full chat demonstration laps. Finally at the end of September we welcomed a number of owners of the limited edition Type 25 Lotus Elise in the company of Jamie Osbourne of Lotus Cars. The striking green and yellow colour scheme evokes and celebrates the famous Team Lotus colours first introduced on the all conquering Team Lotus type 25 F1 car raced by Jim Clark in the 60s. The Classic Team Lotus collection of cars benefits from the sale of each heritage edition Elise so naturally we were delighted to meet the owners, show them the workshops and present them with a selection of goodies. We positioned the type 32B outside Ketteringham Hall for a photocall with all the cars as a grand finale. We are looking forward to just one more race this year, namely the final round of the TGP Championship at Estoril in Portugal, scene of Ayrton’s debut GP win in 1985. Junro and Dan will be racing. We had hoped to take our 97T/2 for some demonstration laps but this is looking unlikely for various reasons. Maybe next year! Second Quarter Review 2002 Seven cars for seven countries (well, almost!) Classic Team Lotus has been particularly busy since March. The Thoroughbred GP series kicked off at Jarama with Junro and Dan enjoying an exciting race at the famous Spanish circuit. Junro suffered a damaged front wing while attempting a brave out braking manoeuvre at the hairpin but battled on to finish 11th. Dan put in a great drive into 6th place, his best TGP finish. In the supporting Formula Junior event Dr Murakami endured the huge disappointment of an irreparable gearbox failure in first practice. Next up was Spa with just Dan who put in a fantastic performance to qualify 3rd. Surprise, surprise it was a very wet race. Dan was doing well in 4th place until his rotor arm broke. Clive Chapman drove to Spa in a series 2 Elise borrowed from the factory. The Team could not resist applying a Classic Team Lotus livery that looked great. The car drew massive interest from the hundreds of Ferrari owners attending the Ferrari Challenge meeting. Dan dicing with Bahlsen’s 81 on the way into La Source. We then faced the challenge of running five cars at the GP de Monaco Historique, one at the Donington TGP round and one at Valencia, all on the same weekend! Fortunately 1960s Team members Bob Sparshott and Dale Porteous joined us to run the type 49B for none other than Takuma Sato. Taku wanted to learn the circuit in preparation for the next weekend’s Grand Prix. Sadly he damaged the car beyond immediate repair in qualifying. Junro raced his type 77 but spun out on a Brabham oil slick. Tragically Malcolm Ricketts in the 32B was T boned by a competitor. The tub was badly damaged although we should be able to repair it without replacing the skins. Thankfully Dr Murakami enjoyed a trouble free and competitive performance in the type 18. Lastly we were pleased to get acquainted with Hasumi Shunji who made his debut in the Mark IX and did very well. Classic Team Lotus line-up at Monaco. Eddie Dennis ran Dan’s type 91 at Donington although he had to miss the (rescheduled) race in order to catch the plane to Valencia. Bob Dance saved our best-laid plans by attending on race day. Dan thoroughly enjoyed the race and finished 8th. Monday morning saw Eddie and Clive in Valencia with 72/5 in specially prepared (1972) Lucky Strike bodywork for a BAR promotion. Jacques Villeneuve and original driver Dave Charlton drove the car along with three selected journalists. Eddie felt a bit outnumbered by the 15 BAR personnel running their current F1 test car! Eddie enjoyed a conversation with Jacques about the type 72 and 1970s F1. An interesting day at the end of which the bodywork was swapped back to JPS livery for 72/5 to take pride of place on the Lotus stand at the Madrid motor show. The Team has just returned from round four of the TGP championship held at the A1-ring in Austria. While the original Osterreichring was a fabulous challenge for the drivers the revised circuit is even better than Brands Hatch for spectators, and the setting is fantastic. We were pleased to find that the event was billed as a ‘Tribute to Jochen Rindt’ and that the organisers are intending to develop the meeting into a significant historic festival. Junro and Dan qualified 10th and 11th and they did not need us to tell them to not take each other off. As it was they enjoyed a great race with each other, swapping places twice before, sadly, a grand finale was spoiled by red flags as a result of a major thunderstorm. Junro finished 6th (2nd in class) and Dan 7th (4th in class). Back at base we have been pressing on with the restoration of 76/1 for Jim Bennett. As ever things take longer than expected but we hope to have the car ready for the Goodwood Festival of Speed as planned. 97T/2 is now finished and is awaiting a visit by Renault Sport to commission the engine and management system. Disappointingly it cannot be done in time for the Festival of Speed where Johnny Dumfries would have driven it. There is quite a lot of activity on the model licensing front with four major manufacturers planning various exciting projects. We have enjoyed visits from a number of special guests from Lotus cars including a group of German Lotus owners and a special tour of American owners organised by our friend Richard Parramint. Duke video filmed the workshop as part of a new production about the Lotus marque. Michael Oliver, the author of the type 49 book, has spent a lot of time in the archives researching his eagerly awaited book on the type 72. Classic Team Lotus has commissioned John Hostler to compile a definitive General Arrangement drawing of the type 72E for inclusion in the book. We look forward to featuring it in the New Product feature of the shop. Now we are getting ready for the Festival of Speed where we will be running three cars and displaying another five. The highlight of the event should be Emerson Fittipaldi driving 72/5. We look forward to telling you all about it in our next update. 2002 First Quarter Review On your marks, get set…… The start of the New Year brings with it an immediate focus on the forthcoming season as opposed to the pre-Christmas wind down from the previous season. The season preview page has been updated for the 2002 calendar. We set off on the right foot by displaying a type 91 on the Thoroughbred GP stand at the Autosport International Racing Car show. We really want to race 91/8 this year, especially at the TGP round at the A-1 Ring (formerly the Osterreichring) where Elio scored his emotional win in 1982. Autosport gave the car a decent splash which was a bonus. Great news is that another restoration is underway. The type 76 chassis 1 has been reprieved from its overlong sojourn in the Piggery and is being restored on behalf of an American Team Lotus enthusiast. The first job was to strip it down and part number every component with reference to the original Parts List and Design Drawings. Initial impressions were of a car in good original condition. This was borne out by the positive results of the various NDT procedures undertaken on all the components by KLM Aerospace at Norwich airport. We spotted an alarmingly young looking Martin Ogilvie in some of the 1974 photographs of the car and Martin came in to the workshop to give it the once over. We intend to have the car ready to participate at the Festival of Speed. Nick Yallop has been responsible for getting the type 76 restoration underway with valuable assistance from Kevin Smith and Lee Nichol Testing started in February with Dan Collins running his type 91 at a somewhat damp and cold Donington. The low turnout saw F1 cars mixing it with sports cars. Disastrously it ended in tears when Dan was caught out by an unsighted slower car that pitched him into the barriers backwards at high speed. The significant impact caused damage to the rear suspension, bodywork and the chassis and that was the end of that. Back at the workshop the car was stripped down, assessed and the chassis taken to local composites specialists Carbon Fibre Technologies (CFT). Proprietor Arthur Woolhouse generously agreed to host the repair. Martin Ogilvie and Nick Yallop considered the best approach with Arthur and a detailed specification was drawn up. Nick got stuck in, with encouragement and support from many of his Ketteringham Hall contemporaries now based at CFT. We were pleased to receive a visit from Peter Wright who was interested to see what we are up to. We spent some time discussing the set-up of skirted cars minus the skirts and Peter gave us some interesting pointers, one of which should attract some attention at Jarama….. Testing continued in early March when Junro Nishida (type 77) and Dr Murakami (type 18) made the trip from Japan to Silverstone. They were accompanied by another Japanese enthusiast, Dr Baba, who is intending to race the type 18 of our friends at B-REV. We were really lucky with the weather and a quiet circuit allowed as much running as we wanted. The 77 went well with only a fuel pressure problem at the end causing any problems. Our 18 was running with new close ratios for the first time and with a replacement Crown Wheel and Pinion and Clutchshaft (obtained with generous help from Peter Knoefel and Lee Clarke). Dr K was pleased to find top gear a lot closer than before. A jumping out of gear problem at the end has been traced to a problem with the new ratios. We are working hard to get things sorted in time for Jarama. It is frustrating that the most straightforward car we run causes so many problems. However, as consolation, it has proven itself as seriously quick. We are really delighted to have concluded an arrangement with Lotus Cars for a range of Heritage Edition Lotus Elise. Classic Team Lotus will support this exciting initiative in as many ways as it can within the environs of its historic motorsport activities. In return Lotus Cars will contribute to the restoration and maintenance of the World Championship winning Team Lotus F1 cars in the Classic Collection. We hope the Heritage Edition will be a great success and will take every opportunity to help it succeed. The type 72 is the first edition in the Heritage range of the remarkable Lotus Elise and this promotional photo features 72/5 from the Classic Collection Another visitor to the workshops was Alasdair Clements of Classic & Sportscar who is writing a Haynes book about the Lotus Elise. Alasdair made clear his enthusiam for the Lotus marque and it was nice to give him a thorough insight to Team Lotus history. Clive Chapman managed to blag a ride & drive with Matthew Becker in the Elise II as part of the visit. Clearly Clive was amazed by the car’s performance. We were very pleased to see Lee Clarke again, en route to Maranello. Lee represents the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum of Alabama USA which has a number of Team Lotus cars in its collection. Lee has been very generous helping us to source type 18 gearbox parts in the States. On the same day we hosted a visit by representatives of a new Lotus dealer in Lille, France called Verbare. It is always nice to help educate new dealers, particularly when they have had to make do with Ferraris up until now…. The Goodwood Festival of Speed press launch took place on 20th March at the Bluebird Café on the Kings Road in London. Goodwood asked for 72/5 to appear alongside the current Renault F1 car as stars of the show and we were pleased to oblige. It was somewhat nerve racking as the car was displayed on the taxi rank and double decker buses thundered past within inches We have nearly finished our 97T/2 and will be running it some time this year. We are working on a very interesting project involving 72/5 that should see a current F1 driver trying it out. If it comes off, no doubt it will generate significant media coverage so you should get to hear about it before our report in the second quarter update that will be posted on 1st July. We look forward to telling you about what is going to be a very exciting three months (see season preview page for details).