Lotus Colin 30

[Certified Lotus]

I had an inquiry about the Colin 30 listed in my signature and asked to post something about it.

I used to race karts with my two son's and we had a garage full of karts at our local track (New Jersey Motor Sports Park) where I was a member. The race track has two road courses for cars (where I tracked my Exige S) and two great 1/2 mile tracks for racing karts. One of my racing karts was a Lotus Colin 30. I wrote an article in ReMarque magazine (Lotus USA) about my ownership and the details as this kart was one of three in the USA and always attracted a lot of attention (especially by the Lotus faithful).

It's a tough sport for older guys like me. Too many G's in the corners and with no suspension its hard on the body. Never the less, my son's and I had a blast for many years before my oldest went off to college and my body was screaming at me after every track day.

Here are some photo’s of the kart, our karting garage, my two sons at the track and the article I wrote for ReMarque.

[HCA]

Very nice indeed! What are the technical specs? The internet is not very forthcoming on the kart outside of its release...

I empathise totally regarding older bodies in karts - I was lucky enough to make up numbers in a corporate day at Jonathan Palmer's motorsport park. My timetable started with the modern cars, Caterham and F3000 finishing with 390cc karts. Two of the party were over 60. Two of us could not complete all the laps Absolute torture it was - in my case, wrists!

[Certified Lotus]

See page two of the article for the technical specs.

[Billmack]

Yer preaching to the choir here. I brought my son Austin through indoor karting then rotax minimax to junior then at 14 or 15 f1600 pro and then Atlantic. An unforgettable journey. He is in the Marines now. I've still got a ton of karting stuff and even took up vintage karting a while back. I also have a lifetime of driving crapbox Brit sports cars and a few nice ones as well. We did a lot of testing at NJMP. It's a truly great facility. He drove for KHill motorsports who are also a member there. I've got a ton of stories...

[trw99]

I’d not heard of the Colin 30 before so thanks for posting.

My 14 year old grandson is into karts and my son has just bought him his first serious kart. Happy to say young Alfie does really well on track and in 2020 he won his class championships overall. That was despite only having one P1, the remainder of his results usually saw him on the podium and, as we know, it is consistency that pays.

However, in an interesting twist on the way to motorsport success, Alfie is also very good on the virtual track. He races F1 Esports and has a rig set up in his room, where lockdown has allowed him much track time!

In addition, he trains for fitness and is careful about what he eats. He’s also realistic enough to know that he’d probably not make it into F1 as a driver, so has set his sights on becoming a motorsport and F1 sports journalist.

Tim