The Forgotten Lotus - Part 5
It must have been in August or September 1953 that Clive Clairmonte's
patience finally ran out, and he collected the frame, with front
suspension, engine and the Halibrand final drive unit fitted and took
them off to the factory he ran with his brother. His Riley engine had
blown up [possibly in his last race at Silverstone on 12th July], and he
decided that what he really wanted was a sports car to race in the
1,500cc class. From now on Sorrento was going to be very busy!
The only photograph taken in the Lotus works [which will be published,
and will be on a web site. I will let you know where and when at the
time]. It shows the rear end of the frame with the Halibrand final
drive unit in place. You will have to rely on my memory to accept that
the front suspension was fitted, but I cannot remember if it had any
brake drums. John Teychenne is very vague as to what happened next, and
even Dave Kelsey, whose memory is usually pretty good, cannot remember
if they did any work on it for Clive. He and Johnny had by then started
to make the Mark VI chassis for Colin in their spare time, and this
would not have left any time to help someone else, however much they
might have been inclined to.
So Clive decided that he wanted the chassis widened into a two seater,
with a four cylinder Lea-Francis engine of 1496cc capacity. The upper
lengthwise frame member was cut at the dashboard, and the lower one left
in place. Wider upper and lower tubes were added, angled on to the
original tubes beside the engine. This alteration may be clearly seen
in the photos [which will soon be published on a web site].
It is reasonable to assume that Colin Chapman would have let Clive have
the drawings he had done for the rear end, the rear suspension, de Dion
tube and hub carriers because those made are very similar to the layout
used on Colin's next car. the aerodynamic Lotus Mark VIII, although in
the latter case the springs were entirely different. He would probably
have bought the rear spring/damper units at the same time as the front
ones, and passed these on as well.
The rear of the frame was widened to accept the coilspring/damper units
in a more upright position, and this made it quite difficult to thread
the radius arms past the wheels to their position on the outer hub
carriers. The de Dion tube was made in three parts instead of being
bent (as Colin had probably intended) and sideways movement was
controlled by a block sliding in a channel at the rear of the tube. The
Mk VIII used the same system, but mounted at the FRONT of the tube,
which is a more elegant solution which I think Colin would have
preferred. for the Mk VII, although this might have made access to the
quick change gears on the Halibrand axle more difficult.
Michael Allen remembers selecting the outer rear half shafts from a
catalogue of current British Production Car parts, and visiting H A
Saunders to measure the shafts finally chosen which were from the Austin
A90 Atlantic.
Alfin drums were bought for the front brakes, and five stud Dunlop wire
wheels. These would not fit onto the front Alfin drums until each had
been meticulously filed to allow the spokes to clear the fins on the
drums.
According to Len Pritchard, the surviving partner of the famous
coachbuilders Williams & Pritchard, the car was then brought round to
them for the shapely body to be created.
In the Spring of 1953 the car was finally ready for the road. It was
painted black, and as it no longer looked anything like the car that he
had first ordered, Clive decided to call it the Clairmonte Special. He
registered it with the number YMV999 on 1st May 1953 and entered it for
its first race on 27th June 1953.
Dave Kelsey recalls: "The first I knew it was even running was when John
T turned up at my house one morning. It was finished in glossy black
and made a most impressive noise when John and I gave it its first blast
up Muswell Hill at a considerable rate of knots, collecting a speeding
ticket en route. Half way up the hill, Freddie Boon popped up - he
lived in a side turning off the hill.
At its first race at Silverstone, John and I watched from the pit
counter. The flag fell, Clive dropped the clutch, and the rear wheel
preceded him up the straight, arriving at Copse only slightly behind the
other cars. Clive parked it, got out, walked back to the pits where
we waited, pulled out a batch of girlie photos from his pocket, and said
'what do you think of these, lads?. He made no mention of the vagrant
wheel, and nor did we."
Its first race was at the MMEC [Midland Motor Enthusiasts Club] meeting
running as No. 41. They must have fixed the wheel because it later came
2nd to Peter Gammon's MG in the up to 1500 cc Sports Car race. The
outing was followed by races at Snetterton (11th July, 1st August and
12th September) and Silverstone (14th August and 10th October) resulting
in 3 First's, 2 Second's and 1 Fourth, 1 Sixth and 1 Seventh. This
performance was highlighted in Autosport 26th February 1954 where the
Club Racing Survey called it 'one of the most successful home built
cars' [Chapman must have been pleased!].
End of Part 5 (950 words)
(C) copyright Peter Ross. All rights reserved.
--
Peter Ross UK
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