One of the world's great cult cars

[Guest Terry]

Yes, it's a Lotus.

[lowflyer]

I had one of these back "in the day", and it is one of the cars I wish I had back.

 

Mine was a '66 and I drove it everyday, plus autocrossed it on the weekends. Finally, I turned it into a SCCA B/Sedan race car that I raced for two years.

 

The engine could easily be brought up to about 140-150 hp, while the "real" racers of the day were running Cosworth units of about 180 hp. But that wasn't in my budget.

 

The real beauty of this "shoebox" was that it was almost completely invisible to the police! It looked like a small Ford Falcon and drew almost no attention.

 

The one interesting "quirk" had to do with the handling. The chassis was fairly stiff, while the suspension was quite soft, so it had the habit of picking up the inside front wheel on fast corners!

 

They are quite rare and expensive now. They only made about 2400 of them worldwide and only about 700-800 came to the US and Canada. A good one now will bring $40-60 grand. I still have the original wood-rimmed steering wheel hanging on the wall of my office.

 

Ken Edney

Chandler, AZ

[jimrankin]

In 1969 my room mate had one of these, about a '67 I think because it was "new" but not "brand new" at the time. I was driving a slightly modified 1961 MGA 1600 at the time and his car was as much fun to drive as mine, and a whole lot more practical and comfortable. Bet he wishes he had it now. For that matter, I wish I still had the MGA. Not fast but sooo easy to drive up near it's limits, limited as they were.