Certainly an interesting piece of history. But there's a bit of work to turn it into a working engine and add the required parts so not much change out of 10k pounds and you can build a new race engine for that. If looking for an original engine of the time its invaluable but you still will not have a true "matching numbers" engine if originality is what you value.
It also shows how poor the casting and surface machining of the heads was back then, its needs work before assembly IMHO !
Its also had some "playing" with over the years. If you look at the head face photo you can see some of the valve head faces have cylinder numbers etched on them and some don't and those with numbers are not all in the right cylinders. Normally you only etch valve numbers when dismantling a head or building a blue printed engine.
I have always believed Lotus painted the engines after assembly from original engines I have seen. Maybe because this was sold as a set of spares they painted the head without assembly, with it rather roughly with paint on the gasket face. They did not bother to paint the block
I would love to be able to afford to buy just for the history and to have the opportunity to measure up in detail an original set of major engine components. I hope whoever buys it posts some more photos and details
cheers
Rohan