Here’s some of background of my ownership of the car. I have lots of photos of the car, both in action on the race track and also during the whole build process, and some while at Banks, and some at home. I’ll stick a few on here. If someone is thinking of building a similar car, then the some of many pics that Richard Winter at Banks took during the chassis modifications, may be useful. Altogether, it was a quite few years project!
According to the Lotus archivist, the car was built as a UK car in early 1970, but converted by Lotus to type 65 spec (to meet a USA sales reqmt?). In 1986, the car was bought by Paul Kruger of Oklahoma, it then returned to UK in 1991, and then presumably reconfigured to RHD spec..
I purchased the car in November 2009 as a base for conversion into a Lotus 47A recreation. As bought, the car already had flared arches, Banks side windows and some body and some interior mods. It drove very well with it’s nice tuned Renault engine, but for my project, the engine had to be changed to a Lotus engine.
The car was delivered to Banks Europa in early 2010. Richard Winter modified the chassis and fitted a semi-race Lotus Twincam engine, Banks TC gearchange, body mods (NACA ducts, door scoops etc). Car was collected Sept 2010.
I then commenced the other bodywork modifications - removal of frogeye front indicators and door handles. Body was then removed for all the other necessary chassis jobs.
Banks subsequently supplied the uprated AVO suspension, Type 47 exhaust, new loom, Davies Craig water pump system, the correct cables, pipework, correct body fasteners etc.
With the body refitted, the twin Weber carbs, Facet pump and Luminition systems were fitted, twin fuel tanks installed, etc. I also installed a proper metal bulkhead structure to accommodate substantial mounting bars for the 6-point Willans harnesses.
The car was then sent for painting in correct Gold Leaf Team Lotus scheme. Although the bodywork had virtually no crazing or cracking, the finished job was far better than Lotus ever achieved! The body shop people were very excited to work on the car, and after over 8 weeks in their care, the result was outstanding.
To finish the car off, I fitted a fully plumbed-in Lifeline fire extinguisher system, FIA battery cut-off system, a pair of light weight 12v race batteries, a set of wider Revolution Wheels fitted with Toyo Proxes 888R tyres.
Before putting the car on the road, I took the car to Sigma Engineering in Dorset for a rolling road session. Sigma did a superb job, retiming the ignition, rejetting the twin Webers, changing plugs etc. Even with the high lift cams, they managed to tune the engine such that it starts on the button, ticks over nicely and delivers smooth power right up to around 170bhp at 7000rpm.
Since finishing the car in 2014, it has been remarkably reliable – the only modifications necessary has been fitting a big red oil pressure warning light. This was required after an oil gauge pressure line failed, thankfully without damage to the engine. Also some wheel clearance body mods were required for full lock.
Used on the public road, it's OK but not the ideal road car! However, when on the track it is truly sublime. Not surprisingly, it tends to attract quite a lot of attention. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been having fun on the Goodwood circuit. I thought that it may be a bit legless on the long straights there, but it held up very well on every part of this great circuit.
