Tag Archives: Lotus

Nothing can extinguish the Olympic Flame – Rochdale Olympic Phase I

3 Replies

This comes under the category of cars I had not heard of before I took the picture.

Rochdale Motor Panels and Engineering were beased in Rochdale, Greater Manchester between 1948 and 1973, best known for making fibre glass bodied kit cars .

In 1959 they designed the glass fibre monocoque for the Olympic the only other such monocoque at the time was the Lotus Elite. After a factory fire the car went into production in 1960.

The Olympic was designed by Richard Parker to take a variety of engines including the twin cam 1.5 litre 91.5 cui Riley, Morris Minor, MGA and Ford 109E, unusually for kit cars of the time it featured wind down door windows.

With the Riley engine the car was capable of 0-60 mph in 11.9 secs and could reach 102 mph.

It is estimated that 250 of these vehicles were built of which 100 survive.

Remarkably the Olympic flame is still kept alive by a group of enthusiasts who own the original moulds making it technically possible to build a new Rochdale Olympic.

Hope you enjoyed this Mancunian edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, don’t ferget to come back now !

Share

A Lesson From Lotus – Elan plus 2

1 Reply

The elegant Lotus Elan plus 2 was introduced in 1967 .

It was capable of 120 mph powered by a 126 hp 1558 cc / 95 cu inch 4 cylinder engine.

5200 plus 2’s were made between 1967 and 1975. The registration of this model suggests it was made in between 1971 and 1972.

This non standard badge, celebrating all of the Lotus world constructors championships is at least 6 years younger than the rest of the vehicle to which it is affixed. Lotus Team Manager Peter Warr who played a role in the 1970, ’72 and ’73 championship victories passed away yesterday.

Peter should be best remembered for taking Ayrton Senna to Lotus on Ayrton’s own terms and extending the life of the Lotus F1 team by several years after the death of founder Colin Chapman. However he is most well known for saying of Nigel Mansell (above Lotus 87 in 1981) “he’ll never win a Grand Prix as long as I have a hole in my arse”, which was probably all the encouragement Nigel needed to leave the Lotus team and become the winner of the 4th most Grand Prix of all time a World and Indycar champ. The lesson from Lotus must be ‘never speak ill’. RIP Peter Warr.

Thanks for dropping by, don’t forget to come back now.

Share

Things to do if you have to get up at an unholy hour to take someone to a Midlands airport on a summers Wednesday morning. Visit Mallory Park !

7 Replies

A couple of weeks ago I had to take a very good friend to a Midlands airport for a 6 am check in one sunny Wednesday morning.

The upside was I had a lovely little black one year old 3000 mile (!) KIA to whizz around in for a week.

I heard that there was testing most Wednesdays mornings of the summer for mostly historic vehicles at Mallory Park and since my day had been written off I went along to see what all the noise was about.

I have not been to Mallory since the late 1980’s when my mate Sven was racing a Class D 105 production Alfa 33 and this was my first opportunity to see any action at Mallory Park from anywhere but the pits.

I recommend stopping of for a hand made BLT at the Cafe just by the competitors entrance I had one at 10 am and it kept me going ’til i got back to Bristol at 4pm !

Here are a couple of snaps that I took after my Breakfast feast. I am afraid I can’t tell you who all the drivers are if you know any of the answers please drop me a line and put me out of my misery 🙂

Mini Cooper, Mallory Park

Above a Mini Cooper at Shaw’s hairpin,

Lotus 23, Mallory Park

A better than new Lotus 23

Ford Cobra, Mallory Park

Cobra Coupe

Barrie Williams, Ford Zephyr, Mallory Park

Barry (Whizzo) Williams extreme right, Ford Zephyr MK11, 1956/62

Ian Ashley, Elden Mk8, Mallory Park

Former British F 5000 champ, sometime F1 and CART driver Ian Ashley in his immaculate 1972 Elden MK8 FF 1600, which goes like stink round corners with Ian at the wheel who, totally randomly, was born 14 miles from where I was some 11 1/2 years earlier.

Mike Wrigley, Matra Ford MS80, Mallory Park

Mike Wrigley in Jackie Stewart’s 1969 World Drivers Championship winning Matra MS80, JYS signed the bodywork between the shoulder height cockpit air scoop and bottom of the roll hoop at Goodwood last year I believe.

Alberique, Maserati 250 F, Mallory Park

One of two Maserati 250 F’s I saw this one driven by a gentleman that goes by the name of Alberique I believe

Kevin Musson, Lola, Mk 3, Mallory Park

Finally a Kevin Musson at the wheel of a pretty 1961 Formula Junior Lola MK3

After the lunch break a variety of bikes were due out including side car combinations unfortunately I was called away and missed them.

A couple of weeks ago a well known Indy & CART champ was in attendance so you never who you might bump into, for a fuller flavour check out this thread with over 1000 contributions by race fans.

Well worth a trip Wayne Pearson is the man in charge in the control tower worth popping up to have a look if you ask after him.

Hope you enjoyed today’s post and that you will join me again tomorrow.

Share