OUR 899D - 26/5538

[nigelrbfurness]

Hi all
If the owner of the above UK S2 car is still on the forum, perhaps he or she would like to PM me as I have something for them.

Merry Christmas all
NRBF

[trw99]

I have a note that this car may have been loaned to Ronnie Peterson, Nigel. Seems rather early to me but do you know anything on that score?

Tim

[661]

That will be me!
Interesting about RP. I own the 'Peterson Exige' too which was made as a one off in the hope of making a run of Type 72 Exiges using that name. Apparently RP's family didn't allow permission and the following year Lotus made a run and just called them 'Type 72 Exiges'
Anyhow, back on track, I'll send you a PM Nigel. Thanks for getting in touch. You may recall I contacted you soon after purchasing the 'car'.

[nigelrbfurness]

I have a note that this car may have been loaned to Ronnie Peterson, Nigel. Seems rather early to me but do you know anything on that score?

Tim

The previous (to me) owner of the car mentioned this as an anecdote as the Lotus factory owned this car for a number of years before it was sold into private ownership. Whilst I found the idea "interesting", there was no way for me to either prove or disprove it at the time. However when I took the engine apart I found it was a far-from standard mk1-and-a-bit twin-cam, the crank had been rebalanced, the rods and pistons had been carefully weighted to be all identical mass and the big-end caps had all the sharp edges rounded off. The crank and rods were 125E. There were other mods to the engine including increased compression too and it was the smoothest running and highest-revving 1558 TC I've ever owned, though memory is wearing thin now as it is over thirty years since I last drove the car or worked on it. There was no rev limiter and I saw an indicated 140mph in it several times, though it got a bit leery at that speed so I didn't try it too often. I imagine it was capable of a real 125+ mph though. Altogether an interesting car. I hope its back on the road soon!

NRBF

[el-saturn]

.......................just makes me smile: my chassis is 4982 BUT is a 36 and not a 26 which it should have been. does anybody have a scientific or proper explanation????? cheers sandy 36 4982

[trw99]

Ronnie didn't join Team Lotus until 1973. It would have been very odd for him to have had a 7 year old car, even as a very short term loaner, at a time when Chapman was selling the Plus 2S 130/5 hard. Indeed, we know Ronnie had just such a car shortly after he signed up with Lotus.

A case of nice story, but ...?

Tim