Lotus 27

I saw on the internet that 35 Lotus 27 s were made. This surprised me as I did not remember very many racing, at least in the UK. I think that the only private owners were Wyllie, Long, Burnard and de Latour. F1R shows chassis # 32 and 33 used by Ron Harris/Team Lotus in early 1964 F2 races so that supports the production numbers. A quick count of ones racing in European F Junior came up with about 18, including the four mentioned and a guess that RH/TL probably had about 5 cars. So, presumably a lot went to the USA and Australia/New Zealand. I then recalled that a year or two ago someone said that they had sales data on Lotus 27. Perhaps that could be shared with us?
RAP

While we wait...
By the end of 1963 there were at least two 27s in the US (Ed Tucker and Pierre Phillips) and another two in Australia (Glyn Scott and Arnold Glass). Leo Geoghegan raced a third Australian 27 in 1964, and may have had it earlier

The initial monocoque had fibreglass sides. As this lacked rigidity they had to hastily rush through a redesign. Accordingly there were few customers as they had already had to go elsewhere. However it was a success with Arundell eventually winning the British FJnr Championship. :)

Richard ,

Per your P.M.

27/JM/4 , Veedol [ Bob Bernard ] 1100cc MK Four , eng. no. 462488 , VW 5 speed MK4 , # LC 68 , with 8/35 C.W.P.
Carb nos. 15686 and 15732 , 40mm Weber .
Body, Super White , IL 983 , extras , Sign write' Miss Veedol.'
Removed from works 29/4/63.

27/JM/9 , Sports Motors [ Wylie ] , 1100cc MKX1 # 11630516,
Hewland VW 5speed Mk4 , # LC 82 cwp 8/35,
Weber 40 DCOE2 # 15939 and 15607,
French Blue , IL 1019 ,
Extras , fit R6 tyres and long range rubber tanks,
Removed from works , 27/5/63.

Hope this assists.

Bryan Miller.

Bryan
Excellent, thanks.
RAP

Since they replaced the early fibreglass tubs with aluminium ones, some of the earlier cars will have been rebuilt as later cars, that accounts for a few numbers.

Add replacement tubs to the list - tubs are less likely to have been rebuilt (at least by private owners) in those early days of monocoques - that's a few more numbers used.

It's probably more a case of around 35 tubs being made (a chassis number like 27 JM 35 races in historics, that is where the 35 total seems to have come from), slightly fewer actual car 'entities'.

My reckoning is -

Ron Harris/Team Lotus 3 cars early in year (debuts 6/4, 15/4, 11/5) presumably "flexi-cars". By the end of the year he is running upto 4 cars including #32 & 33 so I assume all are new "stiffer" tubs = 7

Two race in France ( Francis Francis and J Vinatier/Ford France)

F Dauwe (Belgian?)

an early car to K Ahrens but little used

4 privateers in UK (Wyllie #3, Burnard #4, M Long #14?, S de Latour)

3 to 5 to Italy including B Deserti

One to Carl Hass #22 plus two others to USA per David

2 or 3 to Australia per David

a M de Boe from August but possibly this is one of the French cars?

In the winter Temporanda Habegger & Foitek run cars suggesting two may have gone to Switzerland.

Total between 23 and 29 entities.

I've found:

Ron Harris Team Lotus - 3 cars on 06.04.63

Inter Auto Course (Francis) - 1 car on 14.04.63

Kurt Ahrens - 1 car on 28.04.63
Ford France (Vinatier) - 1 car on 28.04.63

Team Lotus Continental (Dauwe) - 1 car on 19.05.63

Adam Wyllie - 1 car on 03.06.63

Jim Russell School (Gould then Long) - 1 car on 03.06.63

Bruno Deserti (later Scuderia Sant Ambroeus) - 1 car on 23.06.63

M.R.P. (Bradley) - 1 car on 30.06.63

Squadra Junior Italia - 4 cars on 30.06.63

Veedol (Burnard) - 1 car on 06.07.63

Simon de Lautour - 1 car on 13.07.63

Team Elite Continental (Mark de Boe) - 1 car on 25.08.63 (new name for Dauwe's team, presumably the same car)

Ron Harris Team Lotus had an extra car (e.g. 4 cars) for Vinatier on 08.09.63 (presumably his own car entered under their banner)
Similar thing happens with Deserti on 14.09.63
But on 29.09.63 they have Peter Procter who doesn't appear to have a 27, so did they have 4 27s and lent the 4th one occassionally - saving the others shipping their cars).

Finally
Ed Tucker & Pierre Phillips with 2 cars in America on 15.11.63

Which is basically exactly the same as RAP said - except Dauwe & De Boe's cars are probably the same (I know there was at least one Belgian 27 so these could well both be Belgian).

Anybody know what the / JM / denotes in the chassis number.Junior Monocoque ?
Ian

Anybody know what the / JM / denotes in the chassis number.Junior Monocoque ?
Ian

Yes Junior Monocoque = JM

space frame juniors were just J e.g. 20 - J - 951
sports cars were S e.g. 23 - S - 64
monocoque juniors were JM e.g. 27 - JM - 35

later cars adopted an R prefix - presumably for Race(r or ing) - e.g. R2
earlier cars had just used their consecutive production number - e.g. 367 (367th car made was a 16)

27/JM/1,

Mr. F Francis , Dark Blue ,1100cc , removed from works 20/5/63.

27/JM/2 , small ''a'' in bottom of chassis plate box , whatever that means , Ford France , 1100cc, French Blue , removed from works , 28/5/63.

27/JM/3 , 1100cc, Lotus Southwest, P.O.Red, removed from works 11/7/63.

27/JM/4 as previously advised. small ''k'' in bottom of chassis number box.

27/JM/5 , small ''k'' , Jim Russell R.D.S. 1100CC, B.R.G.
IL 978, ex works 10/6/63.

27/JM/6 , 1100cc, plus spare mk X1 less carbs , J. & P. Wautels [ maybe Wautecs ] B.R.G. IL978 , ex works 7/6/63.

27/JM/7 , R. Harris , B.R.G. Replacement C.B.U. [ completely built up ]23/9/63 delivered.

27/FM/8 , Lotus Southwest , Black IL165 , eng. no. LP 409 , but unable to read eng. type , this should make it a Twin-cam 1500cc , please also note not a typo re. FM , this is on at least one other sales card, removed from works 25/10/63.

27/JM/9 as advised .

27/JM/10 , 1100cc, J. Siffert , P.O. Red , small '' H '' in box, removed from works 22/7/63.

27/JM/11 , 1100cc, Geoghegan , Blue IL978 , removed from works 30/9/63.

27/JM/12 , 1100cc , Mr. G. Franzen , presso ??? Kurt Bardi-Barry , Painted P.O. Red , Vienna Austria , large cockpit, removed from works 27/6/63. small ''A '' in chassis number box.

27/JM/13 , exactly as above , but with a different frame number.

Bryan Miller.

Bryan
Thanks for the additional information. Can I just clarify if you think this is a complete sales list or only goes up to 13 ? The F1R records of F2 in 1964 record 27-JM-14 as J Berry (JRRDS) at Snetterton 26/9/64 and 32 & 33 as Team Lotus entries early in 1964.

Interetsing that the first 3 Ron Harris cars that appeared April/May 63 don't appear on the list but a replacement does.

RAP

Rap ,

No only all I had time to type in , balance to follow in due course.
There is a lot more information on each sales card , including tub numbers , but alas in this world it could easily be used for no good.
And yes , re. the appearance of the RHTL surprised me as well .

Bryan.

Leo Geoghegan ordered three 27s -27/JM/11, 27/JM/18 and27/FM/24. this last car is now back in the UK having been purchased by Michael Schryver from Andrew Cunningham in New Zealand. History-with help from David Mckinney- originally for Arnold Glass then Brian Thomas, Dean Hollier, John Nicholson (yes that one!) Jos Mahon, Digby Taylor,Allan Rhodes, Douglas Evans and finally Mr Cunningham

Simon,

According to my source , the chassis plate for the Glass car is still in Australia , having been '' acquired'' many many years ago, I know who has it , if he will part with it is a different question, I am presuming the car doesn't have a plate.

Bryan, P.M. me if you wish.

27/JM/9

Frank Lythgoe bought the Wylie Lotus 27 for Rollinson to drive in 1964 (Autosport 6 Jun 1969 p18).

No only all I had time to type in , balance to follow in due course

Bryan
Any chance you might have time to complete the list ??
RAP

Another Lotus 27: 'Sirvent' drove a Formula France on the French montagne in 1968: Corsavy 7 Jul, d’Argeles 27 Jul and Bagnères-de-Bigorre 8 Sep. I've never heard of Sirvent but a google turned up a Louis Sirvent in F/France in 1968 according to driverdb.com.

Allen,
Louis Sirvent entered a 27 in the '68 Formule France championship. The car was an ex F3 named "Sirvent" in the tabs. The "Sirvent" was retired after 3 races (Albi, Nogaro, Pau) because the tubs were been forbiden...
Michel

Thanks Michel - I didn't know that F/France banned monocoques.

Dear RAP
I've been searchig for info about the Lotus 27 in the Internet long ago.
I get in contact with Mr. Rabagliatti and he helped me a lot.
My family owns a Lotus 27 with the tube # 36/63.
This car was bought by my father and his cousin, Alberico Passadore in order to race at Temporada Internacional de Buenos Aires, Republica Argentina in February 1964.
My uncle got this car threw Mr. Fangio who asked Colin Chapman to find a car for the Uruguayan racer.
The car was one of the tubes of the works Champion Tean fron 1963 with the old engine also. Everything was rebuilt at Works and has been sent to Buenos Aires inmediatelly.
The car arrived two days before Qualy and the fist day at track a front upright get broken.
Next day, Saturday 15th february, before Qualy, my uncle noticed that the oil scavenge was assembled in the wrong way, before he started the qualy.
He repaired the car himself and went into track.
He was the poleman with another driver called "Geki"
Alberico Passadore won the first heat and was killed in an accident in the final heat. He was 33 years old.
Since that day, february 16th, 1964, our family has very bad recalls about the car.
A few years ago, I asked my cousins the right to start rebuilding the car, and, I am in the way
best regards
Jorge Mutio jr

Jorge
Thank you very much for your post and the infiormation. I am sorry to hear of the sad story of your Uncle. I am not very familiar with him but he must have been a quick driver to beat drivers like Silvio Moser, Bruno Deserti, Manfredini and "Geki". I don't suppose you have any information on the other Lotus cars that took part in that race ?
RAP

RAP
There were a lot of 27s at Temporada 1964.
I don't know what happened to them.
The only thing I know it is a little story from my Dad about Juan Manuel Bordeu's car.
Great Juan Manuel Fangio asked my Dad after few days of the accident, the engine of Beco's car.
My Dad wanted to sell de whole car, but nobody wants to buy it because of bad "heritage".
So, Dad accepted to interchange the engine of Beco's car with Bordeau's car. Obviously, the Beco´s engine was a works Cosworth fron previous FJ Championship.
May be you can contact Mr. Jorge Auge Bacqué at Automovil Club Argentino. He's an very well known journalist.
cheers
Jorge jr

27 JM 14

Two different cars bearing this chassis number were racing at Brands Hatch this weekend.

Urs Eberhardt (Switzerland) had one and Nicholas Colyvas (from USA?) had the other.

I was too busy looking at approx 100 other Juniors plus assorted other Classic/Historic cars and watch the races to investigate further.

According to my (very incomplete) records, 27 JM 14 was Karl Foitek's 1963 car, with Eberhardt since 1984. Interestingly, it appeared with SVRA decals on it in 1994...
A car with the same number was raced by American Michael Pineau in 1998 and 1999.
And to make the matter even more confusing, 27 JM 14 is also given as the number of one of the JRRDS cars in 1964:)

Last week I bought all 4 corners from a Lotus 27, inc wbones, rack, steering column, anti roll bar. Also included were some 8 and 10 x 13 mag minilites drilled for 6 bolt fixing on 3.5" pcd.

They had been used by the vendor on a clubmans car he built in 1970. The Lotus 27 stuff he said he purchased as a result of a 1970 Autosport advert.

Anyone recognise this or which car it might have come from ?
The wider wheels would seem to me to indicate a L27 being raced as a 1 litre F3 car perhaps ??

Kevin Whittle

Sorry, I should have pointed out that the front hubs had been converted to 6 bolt from the original L27 4 bolt fixing by the 2008 vendor.

I had a look at all the 1970 Autosport "Spares" ads.
The only thing that came up was "2 f & 2 R uprights, brakes, hubs, 6 x 6 stud 13" wheels. 8 & 9.5" & 10.5" Tel 031 336 3367"
All in the Jan 22nd 1970 Autosport.

Now the seller of the parts I bought, said he had 2 more wheel that I didnt buy and thought all the parts were Lotus 33 items ??

The Front uprights I bought are Lotus 27, being modded Triumph items.

Lotus 25, 35, and 33 use identical cast mag front uprights.
So did the 1970 seller think they were L35 but actually were L27 items and did my vendor mistake 35 for 33 items in his original description to me ??

Either way I wonder which car these L27 parts came from.
Any ideas ??
Kevin Whittle