EDITION No. 57
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EDITION JULY 2015 EDITION No. 57 LOTUS NEWS . THE LAST LOTUS SEVEN . THE KIWI REPLICA SEVENS - McGREGOR & FRASER . THE SUMMER OF 1973 . INDY 2015 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF CLUB LOTUS NZ Inc. and THE CLASSIC TRIAL REGISTER EDITION The Official Magazine of Club Lotus NZ Inc. and the Classic Trial Register Club Lotus NZ Inc. PO Box 100 869, North Shore Mail Centre, Auckland 0745 Web - www.clublotus.org.nz Facebook - Club Lotus NZ You Tube— Club Lotus New Zealand President Rex Oddy [email protected] Vice President David Crandall [email protected] Treasurer John McGregor Photo New Zealand Classic Car Magazine [email protected] Past President Robin Stevenson [email protected] From the Club Lotus 2015/16 Membership Cards. The ex Chris Atkinson Lotus 20/22 at Hampton Downs Motorsport Liaison Terry Riding [email protected] Social Media Rich Miles [email protected] General Committee Nigel Brock Steve Elliot Bay of Plenty Coordinator John Mallard [email protected] Wellington Coordinator Mark Gregory [email protected] Classic Trial Register PO Box 100 869, North Shore Mail Centre, Auckland 0745 Web - www.clublotus.org.nz/classictrial Classic Trial Director Ross Vaughan [email protected] Cover picture Treasurer Mark Gregory’s Elise David Tolhurst Image—Guy Allen General Committee www.guyallen.com John Miller Syd Davis Club Lotus NZ is a MotorSport Terry Riding New Zealand affiliated club EDITION Editorial Support — Rex Oddy Design—RTO Graphics 2 - EDITION No. 57 — JULY 2015 CLNZ Presidents Report Keeping life on the level Greetings In this EDITION we have a lot about Lotus Sevens. Karl Ludvigsen in his thoroughly fascinating book Colin Chapman In- side the Innovator relates a tale about the design of the Seven. Poul Christie is off to the States in August to race his McLaren M10B For better or for worse the at the Monterey Classic meeting at Laguna Seca. This is a two week Mark VI established Lotus meeting with auctions in between. as a maker of uncompro- mising sports cars for the Peter Boel returned from another sortie to Australia. Racing the rabid enthusiast. That Flintstone Lotus 23 at Morgan Park west of Brisbane and then Sydney Lotus had abandoned this Motorsport Park in their Retrofest meeting. Peter says — it went market was bemoaned in well in Warwick winning the Group O division but not so good in 1957 by Colin’s wife Hazel Sydney where I was up against some serious opposition - several at a Sunday lunch at their Porsche 962's, CanAm cars, BMW M1 and some very quick Sports home, Gothic Cottage at 2000's. Unfortunately I put a conrod through the side of the motor in Monken Hadley in Barnet, the Race 2 (big damage) so that was the end for me. A new engine Hertfordshire north of build has started but will take me some time with me over here most London. Lotus no longer made ‘a cheap kit car like the VI for “the of the time. boys”,’ she complained to Chapman and colleague Gilberd ’Mac’ McIntosh. The men were nominated to do the washing-up after Paul McCarthy has done a deal with his dad and now owns that fabu- Hazels lunchtime cooking, but they spotted a way out. lous Lotus 47 we keep seeing in EDITION. He didn't finish there and ‘Hazel was intrigued,’ recalled McIntosh, ‘and Colin could see that decided that since he owns the 47 he should re-join Club Lotus. Its she had her toes dug in so he proposed that in return for doing the great to have you back Paul. washing up herself we could have a look at the idea.’ This was to base a car on the Eleven chassis without all the costly aerodynamic Paul Couper tells us the Westfield Eleven he has been working on, bodywork made by Williams & Prichard. (see EDITION 54) is finished, he is only waiting for his log book to turn ‘By tea time we had done the weight check.’ said McIntosh, ’cost up from MotorSport NZ. He is hoping to run the car for the first time estimate, quick performance check, done a few sketches of body- at HRC’s Brass Monkey meeting at Hampton Downs on the 12th July. work and the idea looked good—so good we got out of washing up tea and got on with the suspension calcs and drawings. We had We saw this sign in EDITION 55 and its back for the same reason that finished by midnight. Colin ordered the springs on Monday, moved it was in before, archives... The club does not have an eleven chassis to the panel beaters and the Seven was running much in the way of archives in other words most of its the following weekend. history is held by the members and not by the club. If you have old club documents please don’t throw it out, Good old Hazel then. What a lunch that turned out to be. It’s just not yet anyway. Let me know what you have got. as well someone knew exactly where the company was heading. Steel Brothers chassis 3082, pictured below, has recently been pur- Cheers chased in Australia. Its new owner is keen to know about its histo- Rex ry. If anyone knows about this car please get in touch. 3 - EDITION No. 57 — JULY CTR Directors Report Keeping Time Hi from the Classic Trial Register, Since our last report the trialing season has ended and a new champi- on found. The final round of the 2015 PPG Classic Trial Champion- ship, the HRC Legends of Speed meeting at Hampton Downs, was won convincingly by Paul Couper (Mazda MX5). Paul averaged a lap time difference from his nominated time of 0.24 seconds over the 12 laps driven during the two trials. The runners up were Peter O’Sulli- van ( Ford Cortina Mk2 0.34 sec) and Brent Middlemiss (Mini 1275GT 0.38 sec) Paul in recent years has dominated the CT scene, winning 3 of the The final round, as it usually does, decided who takes the trophy for past 4 championships. The 2016 season, starting 12 September 2015 the 2015 season. The three drivers above were also the first three with the HRC Icebreaker at Hampton Downs, will give him a new place getters in the 2015 PPG Classic Trial championship: challenge as he will be competing in his newly constructed Westfield 11. 1st Paul Couper 662 points (ave lap variance 0.35 seconds) 2nd Peter O’Sullivan 657 points (ave lap variance 0.36 seconds) Our only activity since the final round was a track day held at Hamp- 3rd Brent Middlemiss 623 points (ave lap variance 0.44 seconds) ton Downs on a very wet Friday afternoon in May. Two of the man- agement team from our sponsor PPG attended and thoroughly en- joyed some fast wet laps. PPG have confirmed their continued sup- port of the Register for a further year. We are most fortunate to have a sponsor with a keen interest in Motorsport. Paul brought out the 11 for its first track outing and rather wished he had a tin-top with windscreen wipers! In fact, even a windscreen would have been help- ful! With Hampton Downs now under the ownership of Tony Quinn we look forward to the final section of the circuit being completed and the possibility of competing on 3 different track configurations. Our next meeting is the HRC Brass Monkey meeting this com- ing Sunday (12 July) at Hampton Downs. Here we will be com- peting for the PPG Winter Classic Trial Cup. The good news is that the weather forecast is good right through to Sunday. It’s not too late for any Elise Mk1 or earlier Lotus car owners to enter. Just go to www.motorsportentry.com and we will guarantee you a great welcome. If you care to just go for a fine weather Sunday outing we would be very pleased to see any fellow drivers. Top—Paul Couper 2015 Champion, above right Peter O’Sullivan 2nd, above Brent Middlemiss 3rd. All the best till then… Below—When we last saw Paul Couper’s Westfield Eleven in EDITION it was British Racing Green. What an amazing transformation. Cheers Ross 4 - EDITION No. 57 — JULY 2015 5 - EDITION No. 57 — JULY LOTUS NEWS LOTUS VALIDATES THE EVORA 400 AT HETHEL Hethel Lap Time of 1:32 (six seconds faster than the previous Evora S) Increased power, reduced weight and improved handling contribute to faster lap time Validates Evora Having stated that the new Evora 400 supercar would exceed expec- Lotus, combining high performance with the legendary Lotus signa- tations, Lotus has now validated the claim. Early tests, carried out by ture benchmark handling. It is faster and dynamically more capable Gavan Kershaw, Technical Manager for Lotus Motorsport, allowed than the previous Lotus Evora leading to greater agility and a more Lotus to boast of a six seconds per lap advantage at Hethel. This vali- involving drive. dation drive of a standard road specification prototype Evora 400, running on road tyres and with standard road suspension supports Maximum speed is 300 kmh and acceleration 0-100 kmh in 4.2 sec- the initial claim. onds. More than two thirds of the Lotus Evora 400 is new, including Jean-Marc Gales, CEO, Group Lotus plc stated: “Internally, we all knew its supercharged and charge-cooled mid-mounted 3.5-litre V6 engine that the Evora 400 would be capable of exceeding expectations. Our producing 400 horsepower and 410 Nm of torque.