Description:

The Lotus 23 was to be the last purebred small-capacity sports-racing car to be designed from the ground up by Colin Chapman and his team. Upon its launch at the 1962 London Racing Car Show, the ’23’ emerged as the neatest, sleekest sports-racing car ever seen. Although it was intended essentially as an 1100cc class contender, up-to-1000cc engines were another option and early in the 1962 season Lotus developed its own twin-cam headed version of the Ford engine, which emerged as a 1498cc unit. The first of these went into a works Type 23 which Jim Clark drove in the ADAC 1,000Kms World Championship round at the Nurburgring. There his performance in the little car was nothing less than stupendous, as he led the entire field until being overcome by fumes from a broken exhaust pipe.

Two works-backed Type 23s were then entered for the Le Mans 24-Hour race, one with 997cc and the other with 745cc engines, but the French scrutineers rejected them because while the front wheels had four-stud fixing the rears used six-stud. This contravened a requirement that the statutory spare wheel should fit both front and rear. Colin Chapman had the rear fixing modified to accept four studs only and so match the fronts, but the scrutineers then ruled out that ploy on the basis that if six studs were required in the original design, the Lotus would be plainly unsafe on only four. Concluding that the organisers were favouring rival French entries, and despite support from the British RAC, Colin Chapman was forced to withdraw the two 23s, vowing that his Lotus team would never race at Le Mans again; a vow he kept.

This did nothing however to discourage tremendous sales success for the design. Into 1963, a Type 23B version was offered with more robust chassis and a 1558cc Lotus-Ford Twin-Cam engine as standard. Lotus 23s in the 1-litre, 1100cc and 1600cc racing categories at everything from the most modest club to the most major International level raced throughout the UK, Europe, the Americas, Southern Africa and Australasia and proved immensely successful. Production lasted from 1962-64, with 131 cars produced, in total and many more assembled both in and out of period by outside specialists.

Chassis no. 23-68-92.

This highly successful Lotus 23B sports-racer, chassis no 23-68-92, is offered with a comprehensive and fully documented history, contained within an impressive four box files! Reputedly exported to Germany / Austria most likely in kit form during 1964 for Walter Schatzan; This entrepreneurial team owner / preparer was a fairly prolific buyer of early Lotus racers, often renting them out to various drivers including Firmin Dauwe, Fritz Baumann and Anton Fischaber. This car, which utilises Arch Motors chassis no. 92 then passed to Rolf Bretts Schneider of Munich in 1965 and was campaigned by him for three seasons before selling to Wilfred Guillert of Ditzingen. He then set about making some fairly extreme aerodynamic modifications to the body, with photographs on file to support these changes. By 1970, the sports racer was unrecognisable, having been updated with a Simca engine and Brixner body, now competing in hillclimb events at the hands of Simca dealer principle Karl Julius Graef for some eight years. A Wagenpass dated 7/9/1978 is present in the car’s history file from this period, identifying the car as a “Lotus Cars Ltd 23 – *236892”. Passing to two subsequent German owners over the next four years, the 23B returned to England in 1982 for a full rebuild at the hands of Peter Denty, on behalf of new custodian Mike Pendlebury. British-born, Parisian car dealer Steve Hitchins purchased the car soon after, and campaigned it heavily for nine years (two sets of expired FIA papers in the file from this period). Between 1992 – 1995, the car was owned by two French collectors, before passing into the long term custodianship of the popular and well-known historic racer Carol Quiniou and family. Entrusted to the expert team at Simon Hadfield Motorsport, the 23B underwent a comprehensive restoration during 2006 – 2008, at a cost of some £44,000. Following twenty-four years of active use and development (alongside part-owner Erwin van Gelder), the car then sold to Kieren Bailey in 2019, with fresh HTP papers issued in April 2021 and still valid until the end of 2031.

Purchased by our vendor in 2023, the car was driven to an impressive class win (and second overall) in last year’s hotly contested HSCC Guards Trophy series. Treated to an engine rebuild by Paul Fisher in November 2023 and said to be at approximately half its working life, the dyno sheet in the car’s file shows an extremely healthy 184BHP at 7,900 RPM and 133 ftlbs torque at 5,700RPM. The gearbox was also stripped and inspected by Tony Wilson around the same time and was issued a clean bill of health. An overhaul of the suspension was also undertaken, with parts supplied by Peter Denty, further complemented with a brand new set of correct ‘wobbly-web’ wheels. This highly-successful Lotus 23B is offered in excellent condition and is ready to continue its impressive track record, eligible for the most prestigious vintage racing events around the Globe. Fitted, with in-date belts and extinguisher, the 23B is as much of a tour de force today as it was in period, and is undoubtedly the mount to have for a whole array of championships and range of disciplines!

Website:

https://adamsykes.co.uk/cars-for-sale/competition-cars/1964-lotus-ford-type-23b/

Keyword Search Terms:

Lotus, 23B, HSCC, Guards Trophy, Twin Cam,