In 1962, Dan Gurney enticed Colin Chapman to attend the Indianapolis 500. He was convinced that bringing Chapman’s low slung, light weight, mid-engined Lotuses to the “500” would prove to be a race winner. Dismissing the roadsters that he saw as “dinosaurs”, Chapman drew up the Lotus 29 as his challenge to the establishment.
He employed a monocoque or stressed skin chassis design as used by his ground breaking Lotus 25 F1 car. The driver sat in a “tub”, with the fuel tanks located along each side. Ford Motor Company jumped at the chance to enhance their “Total Performance” program, and supplied a 255 cubic inch aluminum version of the 289 V8 from the Ford Fairlane. A single cam actuated the overhead valves via pushrods. Fed by four dual throat downdraft Weber carburetors, the engine produced 402 HP. The transaxle was a Colloti 37A 4 speed with two gears blanked off. The suspension was fully independent, with rack and pinion steering.
Team Lotus brought two cars to compete in the 1963 Indy 500. One, for team driver Jim Clark, in the traditional British green with Lotus’ distinctive yellow stripe. This had to drive the regulars crazy, because the color green was considered bad luck. The second car was for Dan Gurney, and it was painted in the traditional American racing colors of white with blue.
The Lotuses qualified well, 5th for Clark (149.75 mph) and 12th for Gurney (149.019 mph), compared to Parnelli Jones’ pole winning speed of 151.153 mph. Jones dominated the race, although Clark lead for 28 laps, thanks to his Lotus’ greater fuel efficiency and reduced tire wear. Jones’ shrewd use of the yellow caution periods for his pit stops guaranteed his return to the lead position.
At nearly three-quarters distance, and with Clark’s Lotus in second place, Jones’ roadster began to drop oil, in clear violation of the rules. With black flag in hand, the starter was approached by Jones’ team manager to not disqualify him. The officials did nothing, and as the final laps played out, other cars spun on the oil. Clark nearly spun himself, and finally resigned himself to a second place finish, winning Rookie of the Year honors (he also be-came World Driving Champion that year). Dan Gurney finished a credible 7th after being hampered by a less than healthy engine, and an extra pit stop to tighten a loose wheel knock-off nut.
In the May issue of MotorSport magazine, I began to read an article about the 1973 Targa Florio, by Richard Williams. The author tells of a group of Americans staying at his hotel in Mezzaforno. To my utter amazement, these yanks had entered and were racing a Lotus Europa! The article included a tiny photo of the car, number 147, whizzing thru one of the Sicilian towns.
The car was owned and driven by Anatoly Aruntunoff, who would later take a Morgan to win the SCCA National Championship. His co-drivers were Brian Goellnicht, another club racer, and Allan Girdler, club racer and journalist. Their mechanic was Peter Law, who had wrenched on Roger Penske's Can-Am cars.
The car itself was a Europa Special, right off the showroom floor, and only minimally modified in addition to a fuel cell and roll cage. Aruntunoff had worked a deal with BF Goodrich, who provided a set of their new radial T/A tires. These were found to be very heavy however, and just did not work well on the light-weight Europa. The T/As were replaced with a set of Klébers, which transformed the car.
The Lotus qualified against Alfa GTAs, Lancia Fulvia HFs, and Alpine-Renault A110s. Brian took the first stint, passing several cars on the first lap of the 45 mile course. But on the start of the second lap, the brakes failed at a sharp right-hand turn. He spun the car by killing the engine and quickly gearing down, then continued on to the pits without brakes. The impromptu repairs left the car with brakes on at three wheels, which the officials would not accept, and the car was retired. They were ultimately classified a DNF, 44th overall.
