Customer Stories pt. 7: The Lotus of F1 legends

A month later, in May 1997, Leigh returned to Holland and drove his new classic home. ‘The decision to drive it all the way home was a bit of a leap of faith,’ Leigh laughs, ‘but the gentleman I bought it from knew his stuff and made sure it was in a road-worthy condition. I didn’t really have any reservations about bringing it back. In fact, I was excited! I knew it was running well; I didn’t have any time constraints so if there were any problems on the way back, they could be sorted out without much fuss. I had full insurance, breakdown cover, and letters of authority from the DVLA, so I was well prepared.’

On the trouble-free journey back, Leigh had two things on his mind, first of which was to register it in the UK. ‘I was very lucky that the DVLA allowed me to put the original registration back on car,’ says Leigh, ‘as I could provide photos of the car in its previous life. The second thing was that I needed to get it MoT-ed to the UK standard and give it a thorough safety check: the brakes, the rubber components, suspension joints – everything like that needed a mechanical overhaul. I took it to a specialist who spent several weeks getting it to a good condition. It was an exciting time!’

A decorated history with F1

One of the most striking things about Leigh’s car – aside from its beautiful blue hue – is the documented time it spent with the Lotus F1 team during the ‘80s. ‘I first discovered the history of the car from the Dutch gentleman I bought it from,’ Leigh explains. ‘When he purchased the car in 1987, he wrote a letter to the Lotus team manager and had received a short reply to say ‘yes, I know that car; we used to drive it to all the circuits for Colin Chapman and the F1 drivers to use during GP weekends. I remember Mario Andretti leaving his sunglasses in the glove compartment!’’

The fascinating history of the car sparked Leigh’s interest and he began his own search for information, finding pictures of the car in F1 photo archives and magazines. ‘It became a matter of contacting the people who might have seen the car during its life in the Lotus team,’ Leigh says.

What is it like to own something with so much history?

‘That’s what makes it special,’ Leigh tells us. ‘It’s the history of the car that makes it so different to owning any other classic car. It’s knowing that when I’m driving it, I’m sitting in the same seat as people who are very special in the motor sport world.’

In preparation for classic car shows and events, Leigh printed off some photos of his car in its heyday, along with some text explaining its important history. ‘Sometimes, when I’m at a show such as Silverstone Classic, I’ll be standing near the car and see people lean over, read the text and get out their cameras to take photos. Once, a gentleman inspected the car for 20 minutes, so I wandered over and said, ‘you seem to be particularly interested in this car’. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘that’s actually because I’m a car designer for Lotus.’ It turned out that I was speaking to Russell Carr, Lotus’ Head of Design. He told me that he gets inspiration from looking back at the previous Lotus models, especially when it comes to things like aerodynamic styling and luxury interiors from decades ago. It was wonderful to chat with him about the car; I even offered him to sit in it, which he did!’