GGLC LIVE Virtual Tour of Classic Team Lotus (23-Jan-21)

Lotus 49 R2
Lotus 49 Chassis R2, the first DFV engined car to win a race, race prepped at Classic Team Lotus

It will be 5 years since the GGLC hosted a UK Lotus Tour. Our tour leader was none other than Richard Parramint. Richards long association with the Lotus factory, the Chapman family and numerous Lotus collectors, enthusiasts and racing teams made for bucket list touring of historic Lotus sites, Factory tours and more.

Which got us and Richard to thinking, why not a virtual tour of Classic Team Lotus! While there’s no substitute for physically seeing, touching, smelling and “feeling” the history ooze from the cars of CTL’s collection of historic Lotus F1 and Racers, we thought there would be interest in asking Richard to present a live virtual tour of CTL. 

Ex-Fittipaldi Type 72 Chassis getting rebuilt
Ex-Fittipaldi Type 72 Chassis getting rebuilt at Classic Team Lotus

Our FIRST ever LIVE GGLC Virtual Tour will be of Classic Team Lotus featuring Richard Parramint on Saturday, January 23, 2021 at 10:00am Pacific time (18:00 in Hethel).

To join the tour you will need the Zoom meeting app on your phone or PC and to register on MotorsportReg.com – msreg.com/GGLC-CTL-Tour. There’s no cost, but we are caping attendance to 90 attendees. 

While this virtual tour isn’t a substitute for an in person tour (CTL in-person tours happen once per month at £45 per person) it may serve as a teaser and entice you to add a trip to Norwich and Hethel to your bucket list (believe me it IS well worth a trip to the UK and at least 2 days in Norwich!).

So, save the date, download Zoom (if you’ve not done so), sign-up on Motorsportreg.com and then log-in on the morning of Jan 23rd!

Lotus 78
Lotus 78 undergoing maintenance at Classic Team Lotus

Team Lotus F1 Grid

On 20th June 2010 at the Classic Team Lotus Festival at Snetterton, thanks to the generous participation of owners from all over the world, one of every type of Team Lotus Formula One car was gathered together for the first time.

Classic Team Lotus Festival Grid F1 cars

They lined are up in type number order as follows:

100T
101
102
107
109
94T
95T
97T
98T
99T
87
88
91
92
93T
78
79
80
81
86
57
63
72
76
77
25
33
43
49
56
12
16
18
21
24

Between them these 35 cars represented the Lotus marque at 491 Grand Prix, from the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix to the 1994 Japan Grand Prix. They scored 79 World Championship Grand Prix victories, won by Stirling Moss (4), Innes Ireland (1), Jim Clark (25), Graham Hill (4), Jo Siffert (1), Jochen Rindt (6), Emerson Fittipaldi (9), Ronnie Peterson (9), Gunnar Nilsson (1), Mario Andretti (11), Elio De Angelis (2) and Ayrton Senna (6).

Team Lotus won the World Championship of Constructors in 1963, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973 and 1978 and the World Championship of Drivers was won six times by Team Lotus Works drivers Jim Clark (1963 & 1965), Graham Hill (1968), Jochen Rindt (1970), Emerson Fittipaldi (1972) and Mario Andretti (1978).

This special occasion was captured by daredevil photographer, William Taylor, from 34 metres up on a hydraulic platform, positioned directly above the centre of the grid. Classic Team Lotus is producing 491 numbered prints of this unique image for sale (photo print quality, image dimensions 750 x 375, print dimensions 800 x 500).

79 will be signed by Hazel Chapman and Clive Chapman, and numbered in accordance with the Grand Prix victories, and priced at £200.

412 will be signed by Clive Chapman and Chris Dinnage, the Classic Team Lotus Team Manager, and priced at £100.

Dispatch is to commence by the end of July. The prints will be unframed and despatched in a large diameter, bespoke tube.

If you would like to order one of these prints of this special moment in Team Lotus history, please email Dave Massey at dave@classicteamlotus.co.uk.

[via Classic Team Lotus]

Elliot Moss drives a Lotus 18

It seems appropriate that on the day Elliot Moss, Stirling’s son, drives a Lotus 18 for the first time, courtesy of Classic Team Lotus, Stirling was winning the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix, the first Formula 1 win for Lotus, exactly 50 years ago. This was also the first time Elliot had ever driven a single seater let alone a race car on a race track, so the timing and type of car driven was very fitting.

The reason for Elliot driving is to demonstrate the Lotus 18 at the Classic Team Lotus Festival on 20th June 2010 at the Snetterton Race Circuit, along with 33 Formula 1 cars from the Lotus’s Formula 1 history. The festival will also feature the newest Lotus Formula 1 car on track, the T127, and its drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli.

As Stirling is still recovering from the injuries he sustained from his accident back in March, Elliot will drive the Lotus 18 in a demonstration run, alongside a other Lotus Formula 1 cars around the Snetterton track. Stirling’s son did not follow his fathers professional career path, he is a trained chef and now run’s the family’s property business with his wife Helen who was present at Hethel to witness a little bit of Lotus and Moss history being made.

[via stirlingmoss.com]

A piece of Lotus F1 History

Piston from Lotus Cosworth DFV 339

The mailman just brought me this amazing piece of Lotus F1 history: a piston from the Cosworth DFV engine #339 used in the Lotus 81 Formula 1 car.

Piston from Lotus Cosworth DFV 339

In the 70s and 80s, Team Lotus was in the habit of keeping the pistons from rebuilds to use as VIP gifts. Each engine’s pistons were labeled and stored but not all were presented. With reference to the team’s archives, Classic Team Lotus is able to identify the detailed competition history for the engines in which the pistons ran. A great deal of polishing, then mounting on a wooden plinth, complete with presentation plaque, makes a rather special item of memorabilia.

Piston from Lotus Cosworth DFV 339

Now while a piston from an F1 engine is amazing in itself (Ferrari charges >$600 for a 2000 piston), this particular engine has some additional history that makes it even more unique. The DFV 339 was used by not one but two F1 world Champions: Mario Andretti used it in his final season at Lotus while Nigel Mansell used it during his first two seasons in F1.

Piston from Lotus Cosworth DFV 339

The piston comes with documentation of the engines usage and you can see that while it was used primarily in practice and testing, it was also used by Andretti in the 1980 USA GP West where he retired after a first corner accident.

DFV 339 History

If you’d like to get your hands on some original Team Lotus history, head on over to the Classic Team Lotus webstore and be prepared to fight the temptation to buy out the entire store.

[via The Racing Geek]

A tour of Classic Team Lotus

Steven Hunker, a Lotus enthusiast from Beaverton, Oregon was recently in the UK and got to go on a tour of the Classic Team Lotus workshops. He’s been kind enough to share some of the images he took on the trip with us.
That is the Type 79…Circa 1978
1st – World Driver’s Championship – Mario Andretti
1st – World Manufacturer’s Championship (seventh title for Lotus)

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The Type 25…Circa 1963
Driver: Jim Clark

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Type 72 Circa1972/Driver:Emerson Fittipaldi
1st – World Driver’s Championship
1st – World Manufacturer’s Championship (fifth title for Lotus)
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These are the ORIGINAL drawings for absolutely every Lotus ever produced. That drawer contains drawings for cars Type 29 to Type 38!
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The original drawings for the Type 27 done by Colin Chapman himself! (see his initial ACBC)
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You can read Steve’ full account and see more photos on his LotusTalk thread. If you’d like to visit the factory and/or Classic Team Lotus yourself please contact Richard Parramint (richard@positivespeech.co.uk).

The history of a race car (Lotus 49 R5/R10)

Graham Hill leads the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix in the Gold Leaf Lotus 49 (Chassis R5)
Graham Hill leading the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix in the Gold Leaf Lotus 49 (Chassis #R5)
Photo by ProRallyPix

Question: Which Formula 1 car has been raced by no less than 4 World Champions?

Answer: The Lotus Type 49. More specifically the Lotus Type 49 Chassis R5/R10 which was raced by Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti. Originally introduced in 1968, the R5/R10 chassis took Graham Hill to his 1968 Championship as well as victories in the ’68 and ’69 Monaco Grand Prix. Click through to read the full history of a very special Lotus.

[From: Lotus Central]