By Peter Ross
Introduction
You are all knowledgeable Lotus enthusiasts so you should be able to
answer the following questions:
What was the first Lotus with De Dion rear suspension?
What was the fist Lotus with rack and pinion steering?
What was the first Lotus Single Seat Racing Car.
What was the first Lotus with wishbone front suspension?
What was the first Lotus with inboard springs on the front wishbone?
See what you think. Don't cheat. Write down the answers, and compare
them with the answers I will give in Part 2.
How the story started
The chance meeting of two people resulted in the car that is the subject
of this article. The first person is John Teychenne who was born in
1928. The name is pronounced TAY-SHEN-AY. It is a name from the Basque
district of Southern France/Northern Spain, although John's family have
lived in the UK way back to beyond his great-grandfather's time.
Young Johnny was rather irritated by the way his name was mispronounced
as a boy, which is why he always said that he was John Taish whenever
anyone asked, and this is how his friends of the day still refer to him.
Johnny later went on to start the Progress Chassis Company in
partnership with Dave Kelsey to make the Mark VI chassis frames, but
Johnny and Colin Chapman had been at school together and were good
friends long before Lotus. John remembers when they were both in their
teens going up to the attic rooms of Stan Chapman's Railway Hotel in
Tottenham Lane and shooting dustbins on the platform of the adjacent
Hornsey Railway Station with Colin's air rifle. Another early prank was
at the Hornsey Town Hall dances where Stan Chapman had the concession to
run the bar. Colin would go in with his Dad and open the hall emergency
doors and let his friends in free of charge. There was quite a gang of
them including Hazel Williams. One day some of them got hold of some
Home Guard firecrackers. These were dropped into the floor-standing
chromium plated ashtrays and when cigarette ash was flicked in they
would go off! Whilst the gang made a hasty exit , the ashtrays would
jump around the floor!
When Colin teamed up with Nigel and Michael Allen to build the Mark III
Lotus racing car in 1951, John decided to build a similar car, but fit
it with a Ford 1172cc engine. He was helped in this by his school
friend Bob Hester and Dave Kelsey who was sweet on Bob's sister Beryl
(they later married). John lived with his parents at 41 Church Lane,
Tottenham which backed on to 19 Ribblesdale Road which they also owned.
John said: "I'm going to start building a car" and his father replied
"What can I do to help?" During the war a bomb had fallen on to the
stables at No 19 and John created a workshop using an Anderson Shelter
alongside the remains of the stable. It was here that he built his
Austin-based car which was registered as a JVT Special about which one
magistrate stated "And what on earth is that?" at one of John's early
court appearances for vehicle irregularities on the public highway.
This car was later sold to Len Terry, who became Lotus Chief Designer in
1959, and he raced it in 1172 Formula races. Later Len stripped off all
the components and used them in a new space frame for his own very
successful car, the Terrier. The original frame was sold and eventually
ended up with a Lotus enthusiast who, believing it to be the missing
Mark III chassis, had a replica body built for it and called it the
Lotus IIIc. When he showed it to Johnny and Dave they immediately
recognised it as the old JVT-1 which did not please him one bit!
During the hectic racing season of 1951 John would help the Lotus lads
run in a rebuilt Austin engine every Friday night after replacement of
blown pistons, ready for the race the next day. It took a route of
eight streets in the area to run the pistons in fully. At the time John
worked in the Architects Department of Poplar Council.
Both John and Colin were keen swimmers, and would go to the Hornsey
swimming pool in Park Road, a little under a mile from his John's house.
The road took him past Shanklin Road where John was intrigued to see
lots of Fiat 500s and Cord saloon cars being worked on in the road.
[Note from Peter Ross: I am not allowed to send attachments to this
list, but if anyone would like to see a large scale map of the area so
that they may understand the relationship of these various places to the
Lotus Works, then go to the following web site, and dial in the
following Post Code: N8. http://www.streetmap.co.uk/]
End of Part 1
Credits: I am indebted to Graham Capel for the interview with John
Teychenne which appeared in the HLR* Magazine.
) copyright Peter Ross. All rights reserved.
*Historic Lotus Register
--
Peter Ross UK
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