1960 Lotus 18

[David Lawson]

I built this for one of Mac Pinches Earlybirds events at Wolverhampton about five or six years ago.


Clark at Spa

This slot car represents the Lotus 18 (chassis number 373) that Jim Clark raced to 5th place at Spa in 1960 thereby scoring his very first world championship points.









The shell is one of Dave Jones superb creations, the chassis is scratchbuilt, the driver figure is a converted Airfix kit soldier with a modified Monogram head - fitting a complete interior and driver figure was a bit of a squeeze with an S-can motor but it all got in there just.


Just last weekend I was at Brands Hatch and had the opportunity to look over the actual car and talk to the current owner of this piece of Jim Clark history.

David

[Mark Huber]

Very nice David.

Did you make the current owner an offer on the Lotus 18?

Welcome to the forum!

Mark

[munter]

Hi David.
Your car impresses me, as do a lot of your builds.
As I was viewing I wondered how you had created the rear axle/bearing/motor box...a BWA bracket?
I cannot tell from the photo.
Regards
John

[David Lawson]

John
I built this Lotus 18 before the BWA slim line brackets were available plus I used an S Can motor so the chassis was built from brass sheet and piano wire, you can also see that the motor is mounted at the endbell rather than can end.

Mark
If I won the lottery this week I would buy chassis numbers 373 and R4 if the owners would part with them!

David

[munter]

Thanks David. Building with the S can and needing a large hole for the endbell looks much more challenging than using the ff motors and a BWA bracket. Although having recently seen the Tasman Cup cars up close quite a few were built using a motor plate and outboard (?) bearings with wire chassis rails.