Looking over the previous newsletter on Jim Clark's win at Indy gave me an idea ... what treasures are available on video for us to relieve the Lotus glory days? I thought I would take the next couple of newsletters to focus on this topic. We all know about the Bond movies (the number one reason for wanting to own an Esprit, right?), Basic Instinct, etc. But maybe the following DVD's you didn't know about.
This particular DVD was produced by Front Row Entertainment, and was part of a series called "Racing Through Time" that included segments on Ferrari, Jaguar, and Le Mans. The back cover states "From his humble beginnings in a northern London backyard, to his staggering success as a world recognized car designer, this installment of racing through time chronicles the feats and failures in the early years of Lotus. In depth interviews with widow Hazel Chapman and former team Lotus racers. Cliff Allison and Ennis Ireland give an inside look at the man behind the Lotus racing machine." The documentary is 60 minutes long, and includes another documentary on the disc about Alfa Romero (nope, I didn't misspell it..that is how it is actually spelled on the case!) The interviews, and much of the footage, appears to be taken from Duke Video's Lotus Story Vol. 1-4, and is formatted for the United States ... unlike the next DVD.
This next DVD is from the UK, and was part of Ford's 100th anniversary in 2001. To my knowledge, this is the first time that the program "Nine Days in Summer" has been released on the DVD format. The cover states "Throughout the late 1960's, 1970's and early 1980's the Ford-Cosworth DFV V8 engine dominated Formula One. Ford Film Unit's 'Nine Days in Summer' charts the early development of this revolutionary engine and its marriage to Colin Chapman's Lotus-Ford. The film then traces the phenomenal early racing success of the Lotus-Ford during its first time out in the 1967 Grand Prix season." This documentary is 50 minutes in length, and includes a bonus program "Target 200- The Birth of the Ford GT40 and it's first time out at the LeMans 24 Hour Race". Keep in mind that since this DVD is from the UK, you would need a region free player, or some type of software to disable the encoding.. we will continue next month with a few more tempting tidbits from the video vaults. Happy Hunting!
