Most people know that “snake eyes” means a high risk (1 in 36), high reward (30 to 1) chance of rolling two “ones” in craps. There’s the same risk and reward to rolling two “sixes.” Rolling two “sixes” is called “boxcars.” Seeing either one is rare and very rewarding. As a Lotus enthusiast, I felt as though I had won at craps when I saw two Lotus MK VIs at the Lotus Owners Gathering (LOG 42) in East Tennessee in August 2024. I have only seen one other Lotus MK VI in my fifty plus years of Lotus ownership, and that was a heavily modified car rebuilt as a sport racer. Even better, both of these VIs had great stories.
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman and the Birth of Lotus
There is no way to tell how Lotus came about without telling the story of Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, aka Colin Chapman, the creator of Lotus cars. Chris Harvey, in his book “Lotus – A competition survey of the sports, GT, and touring cars” said it well: “Like so many other great tales, the story of Lotus is that of one man, Colin Champman, and his cars: a man who dreamed of indolent enjoyment on wheels when he should have been building bridges; a Lotus-eater, if you like. But unlike the Lotus-eaters of Ancient Greek mythology, Chapman showed no distaste for an active life: He worked day and night to achieve his ideals, driving all and everybody else before him, so that within a short time his dreams became a reality.”
Chapman was born in London, England on May 28, 1928. His father was a hotelier, but Chapman wanted to be an engineer. In October 1945, he began studying structural engineering at University College of London University. A month later, he attended his freshman dance bandaged after he drove his Panther motorcycle through the door of a Taxi. At that dance, he met a young lady named Hazel Williams, who would become an important part of his life and success. Hoping to keep their son in one piece, Chapman’s parents gave him a 1937 Morris 8 Tourer for Christmas. He used the car to commute to university, often with passengers – a classmate and Ms. Williams, who worked near the school.
Chapman was very good at understanding technical articles, so he did well at school, but he and his friend, Colin Dare, also spent time buying and selling cars to get spending money. Cars were scarce in 1946, so they would buy a newspaper as soon as it was published, look for cars, primarily bangers, for sale, and try to buy them cheap. They bought and sold about one car a week, and they stored their inventory in garages behind Chapman’s parents’ house and Ms. Williams’ parents’ house. Sometimes they would modify or improve the cars, but they also just flipped many of them. It came to a close in October 1947 when gasoline rationing was cancelled. With new cars now an option, demand for used cars crashed while the Colins were holding an inventory that should have been worth £900. They managed to get £400 for the lot. They had made £500 up to that time, so their profit for their energies was zero.
There was one car left after liquidating the inventory, a 1930 Austin 7 fabric saloon that they had found on blocks in a yard. Chapman and Dare decided to turn it into a trials car. Trials were events where cars competed against the clock running up grassy and often muddy hills.The Austin was towed to the garage behind Hazel’s parents’ home, where it was disassembled, cleaned, and inspected. A major improvement was the boxing of the frame members. Austin 7s had U-shaped members, and Chapman welded a fourth side onto the members making them fully boxed, thus strengthening the chassis. Dare helped, but Champman did most of the work, with Hazel doing the painting. They only had some basic hand tools, so they had to be inventive. With no jack, so the car had to be lifted manually in order to work on the underside.
At university, Chapman was in the University Air Squadron, where he learned the principles of aircraft construction, which he attempted to apply to the car. There were considerable modifications made to the car to make it competitive, including to the engine and brakes. The suspension was a challenge. To address the car’s oversteer, there had to be an innovative solution to the front suspension while maintaining the ground clearance necessary in trials racing. Regular suspension upgrades would not work because they lowered the car too much. Chapman’s solution was to turn the axle upside down, which maintained ground clearance while addressing the problem understeer. The carwas quite successful. In 1948, Chapman took class wins in his first couple Trials, with Hazel as passenger and ballast. He also identified several weaknesses that needed to be addressed. That same year, he received his degree in engineering.
After university, Chapman did his service in the Royal Air Force, but he had become fascinated with automobiles and competition. He decided to improve on his first car, and he conceived of the Lotus MK II. It was to be a versatile automobile, to be used on the road as well as a state-of-the-art Trials and race car. According to William Taylor in his book, “Lotus – The Marque,” the MK II was the first of Chapman’s creations called a Lotus. The first car became a MK I, so this would be his MK II. Much of the work on the car had to be done on weekends or while Chapman was on a pass from the RAF, so it was an intense time until he finished his military service. After leaving the RAF, he worked for a construction engineering firm and then for British Aluminum Company, but at least the commute to the garage was shorter. Chapman made the Austin 7 frame lighter and stiffer. The engine was an 1172 cc unit from a Ford 10, while the transmission and differential were from an Austin 7.
During the 1950 competition season, both Chapman and Hazel drove the MK II in Trials and races with excellent results. On June 3, 1950, Chapman beat a Type 37 GP Bugatti at his first race at Silverstone. Chapman was hooked, and he decided to concentrate on sports car racing with his next car. In 1951, he sold both the MK I and MK II and decided to build a new car, the Lotus MK III, that would compete in the 750 Formula series. Chapman got quite a boost when he met Michael and Nigel Allen, brothers who agreed to help with the development of the MK III in their well-equipped garage. Finally, Chapman would have most of the tools and machinery he needed to build his car. The agreement was to build three cars, one for each of them.
The MK III used primarily Austin 7 parts but with some significant changes. The Austin 750 cc engine used a head with “siamised” inlet ports, but Chapman modified the cylinder head, so each cylinder had its own port. The new inlet manifold and a change of carburetors increased the horsepower to between 40 and 50 horsepower and top speed to 90 mph. The car weighed 815 pounds with the aluminum body weighing only 65 pounds.
The Lotus Engineering Company was created on January 1, 1952, but the three people involved continued their normal routines. Chapman continued to work at British Aluminum, Nigel Allen continued to train as a dental surgeon, and Michael Allen continued to work in the stables behind his father’s pub. All the work in the MK III, like the previous Lotus MK I and MK II happened at night and on weekends. The reality of parts delays and time to work on three cars meant that there would never be three of the cars built. A decision was made to concentrate on the first car – Chapman’s – since it was the farthest along. Chapman would race the MK III in championship races while the Allens would do other races and work on completing the other cars. Again, reality meant that most of the parts gathered for the other two cars were needed to keep the one car competing. The MK III was the first Lotus designed specifically for circuit racing, and it was very successful, so successful that the series organizers banned the use of the Chapman-designed cylinder head.
The Lotus Engineering Company was showing enough success that Chapman moved it into the rear half of a stable owned by his father. Chapman and Michael Allen became partners in the firm. This is when the Lotus badge first appeared, along with this description on their invoices, printed with a £25 loan from Hazel:“Automobile and component manufacturers – racing and competition car design and development.” Chapman continued to work for British Aluminum, and Nigel Allen returned to his dental studies. Michael Allen worked full time in the business while Chapman continued to work there at night and on weekends. His typical schedule was to arrive at Lotus at 8:00 am, work and hour, then head to British Aluminum for a full day. He would return to Lotus at 6:00 pm and work until he had to rest. He maintained this schedule for three years. When not working to keep Chapman’s MK III on the track, he and Allen were producing performance components for other racers. There was a MK IIIb produced in 1952 for Adam Curie. It had several improvements and ran a 1172 cc Ford engine that was modified to 1099 cc so Curie could compete in the 1100 cc class.
Mike Lawson, one of Chapman’s early supporters, and someone who encouraged Chapman to set up Lotus Engineering, had been campaigning a MK II in Trials. He wanted a faster car, so he approached Chapman to build a new car, the first to have a “squarish nose” with the engine and transmission set farther back in the car for more weight over the rear axle. The downside of the MK IV was that it handled poorly on normal roads. The solution was to put two “jerry” cans filled with water between the engine and radiator to make the car handle acceptably when driven on regular roadways. It proved to be a very successful Trials competitor.
Lotus MK VI
Chapman did a design for what might have been the Lotus MK V, but it was shelved when his focus changed because of new regulations announced by the 750 Motor Club. There would be a new 1172 cc Formula for 1953 that allowed cars with specially fabricated chassis. No longer would Lotus have to depend on modified Austin chassis. Chapman designed and built his own chassis, a move that would allow Lotus to become a manufacturer. The concept was to provide a chassis and the necessary components in kit form that buyers could assemble themselves using whatever driveline they wanted. A kit would allow owners to avoid taxes, as much as 50% on new cars, but it had to be simple to assemble and use components that were easy to obtain.
Chapman decided on a tubular space frame for the chassis. It was strong and light. It exemplified what became Chapman’s motto: “Simplify and add lightness.” It became the basis of all chassis for Lotus race and street cars for a decade. The lower main chassis tubes were round with a diameter of 1 7/8 inches. Upper tubes were either 1 inch square or round. It was designed to support the suspension and driveline, with engines up to 1500 cc. Stressed aluminum panels were rivetted to the chassis to form the floor. The bare chassis weighed only 55 pounds. Mounting brackets and stressed panels added only 25 pounds. Ford parts were used for most kits because of their availability, although a range of engines could be installed, including MG, BMW, and Climax.
Chapman and Allen added two employees to help create the MK VI kits, John Teychenne and Mike Maden. Teychenne and David Kelsey then created Progress Chassis Company to build the chassis for the MK VI, and Williams & Pritchard made the unpainted aluminum bodies, which included the body, fenders, nose, scuttle cover, and top and sides of the hood. Body parts were held together with clips and Dzus fasteners for easy access. While the chassis could accept any engine, the intended primary choice was the Ford Consul engine. The only problem was that Ford refused to sell engines to Lotus. Typical Chapman, he just went to parts suppliers and bought what was needed to build an engine. The suspension design provided good handling but also a soft ride. Chapman used the Ford swing axle which kept the wheels vertical even with a low roll center. Coil springs with Woodhead Monroe shocks were used on all four corners. Stock Ford cable-operated brakes were sufficient to slow the light car. A Panhard rod was used to locate the rear axle.
The engine in the prototype displaced 1508 cc, so it was reduced to less than the 1500 cc limit by shortening the stroke. To maintain the compression ratio, 0.010 inch was removed from the head. It had a special intake manifold with two SU carburetors. It was raced at Silverstone on July 5, 1952, where it was driven to two second place finishes. On its way to a third race, the car was totaled in a road accident caused by a van driver who was charged with “driving without due care.” It nearly ended the company. The employees were laid off, and Chapman and Hazel were left to keep Lotus Engineering Company going.
The insurance money arrived in December and helped pay the outstanding bills. It was not enough for Allen to believe he could make a living with Lotus, so he withdrew from the company. He and Chapman split the company assets 50/50. Allen’s 50% was the wrecked MK VI. Times were difficult, but there were still people who wanted Lotus cars, and Chapman believed he could be successful providing kits and services to buyers. Over the next few months, he built chassis and components for eight cars. Lotus was producing about one car every two weeks. It was steady enough that the body builders moved to the Lotus shop. They would work days while Chapman worked nights. There was enough demand that Chapman sought part-time help. Peter Ross, Mac Macintosh, and Mike Costin, all employed at De Havilland Aircraft Company, came to help. Ross and Mackintosh helped with design and draftsmanship. Costin, in particular, proved important to Chapman. He was tireless and practical and had a talent for improvisation.
Customers who bought and assembled MK VIs, sometimes with the help of Lotus employees, were having great successes in competition. Peter Gammon, who had been a competitor of Chapman’s, won fourteen of the seventeen races he entered. As 1954 got underway, Autosport magazine called it “The dawning of the age of Lotus.” Chapman initially withdrew from racing to concentrate on the business, but he still had a lust for competition. Costin suggested that they build a ninth car for Chapman and company to drive. This car was special, and it proved to be fast and reliable. It was raced by Chapman, Costin, Hazel, and Chapman’s father, E.F. Chapman. The Motor called the MK VI “preposterously fast.” Autocar did a road test of the car, reporting that “There car be few, if any, cars which are quicker through the sharp S-bends.”
The on-track successes proved that when you win on Sunday, you sell on Monday. Orders increased such that more space was needed for production of the kits and provision of services. Lotus Engineer Company took over the rest of E.F. Chapman’s barn. Production of the MK VI continued through 1955 with 100 cars being built by the small staff in very limited space. Owners continued racing the MK VIs for a number of years. Some of the cars, like those featured herein, made it across the Atlantic Ocean.
The success of the Lotus MK VI allowed Chapman to leave British Aluminum Company and concentrate on the company he had created. That gave him time to develop his next great design, the Lotus 7. His subsequently became one of the top producers of very desirable sports cars, and his race cars won in nearly ever series they entered – particularly Formula 1. Chapman died on December 16, 1982, of a heart attack, the same day Team Lotus tested the first Formula 1 car with an active suspension. His wife, Hazel, who had worked so closely with him to grow the firm, died in 2021.
Preservation and Restoration
There are two approaches to ensuring that important automobiles are kept alive so that they can provide tangible examples of automotive history. Some choose to restore the car to as close as possible to its original condition. Others believe that preserving the car to show the scars and modifications that resulted in its use is important to its history. Both approaches have merit. A restorer’s purpose is to show how the car was originally built and the innovations that were introduced with it. A preserver wants the car’s history to show prominently. An interview with Dr. Fred Simeone, founder of the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum and a prominent preservationist, can be found at Dr. Fred Simeone – Neurosurgeon, Car Collector and Founder of the Simone Foundation Automotive Museum (sportscardigest.com). Both Dr. Simeone and Miles Collier, founder of the Revs Institute, have argued for preservation of important vehicles, especially race cars. Although seeing a beautifully restored car can be breathtaking to an enthusiast.
Here are two Lotus MK VIs. One, although it has not gone through a restoration, has been preserved in pristine, original condition as a road car since it finished its career on track. The other has been preserved as it was raced. Both have significant histories, and both are very desirable.
Chassis #39
Lotus owners are often asked “why a Lotus?” Each of us has our own answers, and Pat Dennis’ answer is typical. His answer, though, is also thoughtful and well written. In it, he gives us a little history of the car and how he enjoys showing the car and talking about Lotus history:
“The image of that car was indelibly burned into my memory, as clear today as it was in 1958. It was the sleekest, most purposeful shape I had ever seen.I had only recently become interested in sports cars, having been totally immersed in racing boats for those early years. The car was a Lotus Eleven, a “single seater” type. It sat on an open trailer, painted to match the car and truck. Later, I determined that it was returning from an event fairly close to the Midwestern city where I lived.
“This one exposure was all that I needed to begin an interest in this young company that was making history on the world’s racetracks that continues today – many years later. I was captured by the innovation that was Lotus, Colin Chapman in particular. I think my Engineering Research & Development background made me appreciate the features and, especially the speed of development that Lotus excelled at.
“Fourteen years after becoming a Lotus road car owner, I felt the strong desire to own a truly Historic Lotus. After much searching, and arm twisting, in 1985 I became the curator (you really do not own a historic Lotus, you are only the caretaker, charged with is care and maintenance until such time as you ‘pass it off’ to the new caretaker) of a Lotus Mk VI, chassis # 39, reg. # POP 444. Several things seem to happen the minute you join the curators of Historic Lotuses – your circle of friends, acquaintances and contacts, expands exponentially from the more local group of other road type Lotus owners to an international fellowship of people interested in the preservation, cataloging and restoration of this relatively small quantity of very special Lotuses.
“Why a Mk VI? There are several facts that are little known by most people; The Mk VI was:
- The first Lotus manufactured in quantities greater than two.
- The first car utilizing a space-tube chassis
- The first Lotus to compete outside of England
- The first Lotus to be imported into North America
“The first thing an owner seems to do is join the Historic Lotus Register (HLR), trace the history of your Lotus and start the search of other such cars in your area. With the assistance of the HLR (Mk VI registrar Charles Helps, Vic Thomas, founder of the HLR), I quickly confirmed that POP, as my Mk VI is fondly referred to, was first owned by Ian H. Smith, the author of the first history books on Lotus ( ‘Lotus, the First Ten years’, ‘Lotus, the Story of the Marque’, and ‘The Story of Lotus – 1947-1960 Birth of a Legend’). As Ian had chronicled the building of POP in the first book, I had a detailed history – including such facts as the engine was built by Mike Costin (Mike was running a small division of Lotus, ‘Racing Engines Ltd’), he had specified Mk IX brakes (those 11″ magnesium finned items produced by Lotus), and knock-on wire wheels. Probably one of the most interesting facts was that Colin himself conducted the test drive (how many people can claim this!). Ian raced POP for two successful seasons – primarily Hill climbs, Sprints and several circuit races.
“Ian went onto founding the original Club Lotus and became a director of Caterham, when that facility was designated as an ‘official Lotus Centre’ for the Seven and Type 14 Elite owners. [Author: The current US Lotus club is Lotus Ltd. Lotus LTD.]
“POP’s second owner was Roy Millbank, a farmer and racing enthusiast from the Shoebury area. Roy raced the ‘wheels off of the car’, winning over 100 races on the well know circuits in England (Brands Hatch, Silverstone, among others). Roy managed, through his driving skills and car preparation, to keep this Mk VI more than competitive with much newer and more sophisticated (not to mention streamlined) adversaries, until it’s sale in 1960 – fully 6 years after its build date. The sale even was featured in the local newspaper.
“With POP’s race years over, the car was simply maintained in original condition by several subsequent owners. Today, POP attends many exhibits and shows, and it provides the introduction for me to expound on the rich history of Lotus to both the newest Lotus owners and non-Lotus owners alike, a task that I dearly enjoy.”
Saying that the car “was simply maintained in original condition” is, when you see the car, an understatement. Dennis’ MK VI is pristine! The interior is perfect, and the aluminum body will blind you on a sunny day – it is as mirror perfect as an old aluminum body can be. His Lotus was important enough to the organizers of LOG 42 that it was displayed in the lobby of the convention hotel. Dennis tells a humorous story about development of the steering box for the MK VI. Its steering ispretty unique, using a Ford Popular Anglia worm and nut steering box. Apparently, when the first prototypes were built and they went to push the car out of the shop to the body shop, when they turned the steering wheel to the right, the car went to the left. Chapman then went back to Ford of England, and said he needed a reverse worm and nut for the Lotus. When Ford of England built the Anglia for the US, they didn’t take the box off, make an adapter, and mount it on the other side, they did a complete mirror image box and mounted it on the other side, so it had a reverse worm and nut. Chapman was able to use the boxes for the American market.
Dennis has done a lot of research on his car, including by talking to all but one of the previous owners. He found that the original owner, Ian Smith, had made some modifications to the car, which he had time to do after his license was suspended because of several speeding tickets. He wanted better brakes, so he got Chapman to take the brakes of a MK IX. Smith thought the engine wasn’t powerful enough, so he got a MK VIII race engine – a Morris 10 block bored to 1466 cc with a reworked MG TC head. Smith wanted wire wheels, so Chapman modified the hubs.At some point, “Manyana” was painted on the nose, apparently because new brake parts were always going to be available “tomorrow.”
Dennis saw a one-line ad for the Lotus and recognized the registration number (POP 444) as being an important MK VI. He arranged for a friend to get it and picked it up from him. “I got a rush course of RHD and shifting with the left hand in rush hour coming out of Manhattan Lincoln Tunnel at dusk.” He thoughtfully reflected on his history with the car. He has owned it half of its life and has had considerable fun with it. It has been retired as a race car and is now licensed for the street. It has always been polished aluminum so much that the rear wings are very thin, so it requires careful cleaning. There are war injuries – some reverse dings from stones. He said, “I could fix all that, but it’s only original once.”
Chassis #30
Walter (aka Bud) Okon’s Lotus MK VI is also registered for the street, but Okon continues to enjoy competing in it. It may have had shiny polished aluminum bodywork at one time, but, through its history, it has been painted several different colors and sported a variety of competition numbers on its side.Okon, like Dennis, did quite a bit of research on his Lotus. He has determined that it was the second Lotus MK VI imported to the US and the first one that made its way west of the Mississippi River. Okon is the fourth owner of the Lotus. It was imported by an Arizona car dealer, Liam Graham (Bumpy) Bell, a relative of Alexander Graham Bell. Bell got the nickname “Bumpy” because of his odd gait, the result of a childhood injury. Okon explains, “[Bell] bought #30 in early 1954 as a complete car, probably finished by Autextra of London [a firm that built MK VIs for owners.] Bell was an agent for them but probably never sold any but his own when he sold #30 to Alan LeMay in January 1955. Bumpy raced a 1430cc MG-TD special before the Lotus and a 1490cc OSCA MT-4 after the Lotus. I think his first race with the Lotus was in Jun-1954 at the San Francisco Golden Gate Road Race.”
The second owner of #30 was Alan LeMay, a relative of Air Force General Curtis LeMay who allowed his bases to be used for racing in the 1950s. Here’s what Okon learned about him: “Alan LeMay, 2nd owner of #30, was a Hollywood screenwriter and prolific author, mostly of westerns, and is best remembered as author of ‘The Searchers’ and ‘The Unforgiven.’ He was over 50 when he got into racing, first in an MG-TD, then a Jag XK-120, then the Lotus VI which he bought from Bumpy Bell early 1955. Always looking to go faster, he had an Offenhauser Sports 91 engine built (88cid) and installed. There is a famous set of photos of him losing it to the haybales at an LA (Hansen Dam) race. He sold it to Harry Hanford in mid-1956, who was one of his mechanics and who sometimes raced it for him. He then got a Ferrari Monza, practiced with it a few times, and got rid of it when he realized it was too much car for him. That was the end of his racing career.” Bell may have been one of the first racers on the west coast to install a rollbar, of sorts, on his car. 1955 photos of the Lotus and its competitors show a rollbar only on the Lotus.
The third owner, and the last before Okon bought the car, was Harry Hanford. Okon’s research revealed that “Hanford was a mechanic at Atwater’s Speed Shop in the San Fernando Valley. He raced his own modified MG-TD and, sometimes, wrenched on and drove LeMay’s MK VI. When LeMay decided to move on to the Ferrari in 1956, he offered the VI to Harry at a very good price. Harry was a very good driver, probably better than LeMay, but was also much poorer, which led him to eventually sell off the Offy. Harry had some stiff competition in his class (F-modified), which included Ken Miles in the Flying Shingle. He was good enough that other owners let him drive their cars, which included Miles’ Flying Shingle, an MGA, and an OSCA. Harry’s best race in the VI was probably the November ’58 1-hour race at Pomona when he won the under 2-liter race. Harry’s son, Harry Jr, also occasionally drove the VI and when Harry Jr suggested that they go into a new hobby of prospecting for gold, Harry stopped racing in 1959-60 and put the VI away until I bought it in 1989.” When Hanford sold the Offy, he installed an MG engine, but not just any MG engine. This was a factory race block displacing 1466 cc. “He raced that engine until it blew second time, so he had to get another block. Ken Miles, who was working in California with the MG factory, got another race block. That is block in the car now. It has a Laystall Lucas aluminum head, a cam, and the carbs are 2 SU H6s – 1 ¼ inches. The exhaust manifold is a work of art – I don’t know who built it. Eventually it was no longer competitive, so they decided to stop racing and go digging for gold. He put car away about 1960.”
Okon’s purchase of #30 is a great story: “[Hanford] was living in Thousand Oaks, where I was living, in 1973-4. [He] was going to move to desert, so he was having a garage sale. I drove my Elan to garage sales occasionally and drove it to his. He said, ‘I see that you have a Lotus. I have one in the back yard; would you care to see it?’ I had no idea what a MK VI was or anything about them. It was the first time had seen one. It was in pieces. I was interested but had no room for it, so I offered to put an ad in the local Lotus newsletter. There was no response.”After Hanford moved to the desert, Okon kept in contact with him and even went to see it. Then he got a house with a lot of garage space, so he bought the MK VI in1989. He brought it home piece by piece and took a year to put it together. He did a mechanical restoration, but he didn’t touch the body. There are good reasons that you leave some things along. Okon relates, “The last time it had been painted was about 1957 by a guy they used to call the ‘Crazy Arab” – his shop was the Crazy Arab’s Concours Body Shop. He had a [young] guy named Kenny Howard working for him who became better known as ‘Von Dutch.’ Von Dutch did the pinstriping and louvers on the car. That was the last time the body was touched.” You just don’t mess with something with that kind of history.
Okon’s experience driving a RHD Lotus is like what Dennis experienced. In his words, “Driving the VI on the street is a bit tricky at first, but once used to shifting with the left hand, it seems quite normal. The really tricky part for the RHD VI is in trying to pass another car on a two-lane road, where you have to move slightly into the other lane to check for oncoming traffic and hope that traffic doesn’t plow into you.” Once he was used to driving it on local roads, he was curious about how fast it might be. “The VI can be surprisingly quick. There is a road near my former Thousand Oaks, California, home with a 0.8 mile stretch where I could see what it could do. The original Smiths chronometric speedometer was probably never hooked up (odometer = 0.1 mi.) because there was no place to connect it. So, I installed a GPS speedometer which has a max speed telltale. I parked at the side of this road, waited for traffic to clear, took off shifting quickly, probably around 5-6000 rpm, and accelerated until I had to slow for congestion, never looking at the speedometer because I had to keep my eyes on the slightly curving road. When I got back home, I checked the telltale and was amazed that it read 105 mph!”
Okon has done a lot of on track driving in his MK VI. He’s also autocrossed it and had it in a few parades. “I’ve done track days at Sears Point, Portland International, Reno-Fernley, and Santa Barbara Road Race Reunion. The VI does well but with its swing arm front suspension (and with inexperienced me driving), it does not handle the corners as well as Elans and Europas. So, if traffic builds up behind me at the corners, I wave them by on the straights (no passing in the corners for us novice drivers). But if I keep my foot in it, they usually can’t pass me unless I let up.”
Both Dennis and Okon have had a lot of adventures with their Lotus MK VIs, and they have been kind enough to share the cars and their histories with Lotus afficionados and car enthusiasts in general. They are a benefit to all of us who enjoy seeing rare cars and learning about them. A special thanks to both.
Specifications and Typical Configuration
- Chassis Aluminum body on space frame
- Engine Ford E93A inline four-cylinder, rear-wheel drive
- Displacement 1172 cc/71.5 cid
- Bore/Stroke 63.5 mm (2.5 inches)/92.5 mm (3.6 inches)
- Valvetrain 2 valves/cylinder, side-valve
- Fuel Feed SU carburetors, normally aspirated
- Power 50 bhp/37 kW @ 5000 rpm
- Torque 77 NM/57 ft-lbs @ 3000 rpm
- Front Suspension Split swing-axle, coil springs over shocks
- Rear Suspension Live axle, coil springs over shocks
- Steering Worm and peg
- Brakes Ford/Girling drums
- Gearbox Ford 3-speed manual
- Drive Rear wheel drive
- Weight 432 kg/952 lbs
- Length 3073 mm/121 inches
- Width 1308 mm/51.5 inches
- Height 775 mm/30.5 inches
- Wheelbase 2210 mm/87 inches
- Front Track 1245 mm/49 inches
- Rear Track 1143 mm/45 Inches
