SUPER FRIENDLY, SUPER FRAIL – Lotus in the Tropics

By Eli Solomon

First uploaded 7 May 2023

Last updated 1 June 2023

On 1 November 1952, there appeared an advertisement in Motor Sport magazine. It was for the Lotus Mk VI, and from that date, we can mark seventy-one years of Lotus as a company, and not just the name given to a few specials. Seventy-one years on and Lotus will once more be a featured marque at this year’s Goodwood Revival (which is stated to be the 75th anniversary of the marque – “with a special on-track celebration paying homage to ‘The Chapman years’ (1948-1982).”

THE BEGINNINGS OF LOTUS

The background to that first advertisement, according to my dearly departed friend and Editor-at-Large at Rewind Magazine, Dr Mike Lawrence, is this.

“Antony Colin Bruce Chapman was born on 19 May 1928. His father, Stan, owned a successful pub in Hornsey, North London. Stan did more than serve pints, he set up a catering business; he put himself around…Colin was his only child and he was indulged. Every schoolboy in Britain lusted after a Claude Butler bicycle. Colin had one and he was a daredevil, so would go down a steep hill with his hands off the handlebars and his feet off the pedals. Inevitably, he wrecked his bike, so his Dad bought him another.

As though dodging the Luftwaffe was not enough to make life exciting, Colin found a kindred spirit in another local lad, John Teychenne. They were the lads who showed off on the high diving board at the local lido and John would play a significant role in the Lotus story.

Colin was very bright, with a particular gift for mathematics. He won a scholarship to the Stationers’ Company School in North London, a prestigious establishment founded by one of the City of London’s ancient guilds. If he set his mind to something, he succeeded…”

To cut a long story, in December 1947 came a bombshell. Petrol in Britain had been rationed and the ration allowed a motorist about 30 miles a week. Essential services, such as doctors, were allowed more. There was, of course, a black market. Then the government withdrew the fuel ration altogether for six months. Chapman’s market for second hand cars disappeared overnight. He sold his stock for what he could get for it and was left with an Austin Seven, which nobody would buy.

Chapman decided to convert the Austin into a dual-purpose road car and mud plugger because, he reasoned, the withdrawal of the petrol ration would not be permanent. In retrospect, it became the first Lotus, but in the day, it was an Austin Special. It was a neat little car which broke absolutely no new ground but which drew attention because everything had been thought through and well made. So there you have it, the first attributed Lotus, an Austin Seven Special, built in 1948.

Which brings us back to Dr Lawrence’s Mk VI that was built in 1952. His story on Lotus (Zero To Sixty With Lotus), was accompanied by an article on the history of Lotus racing cars in Asia. The pair featured in Rewind Magazine 012 (October 2012). Time I put parts of Dr Lawrence’s article and a revision of my Lotus piece on the Rewind-Media blog space. It’s been long overdue but somewhat timely, given the 75th anniversary of that first Austin Special built by Colin Chapman.

As introductions go, this one is long. But it establishes two very useful dates – the arrival of the first Chapman-built Austin Special, and the first advertisement for a Lotus car. Now let’s look at Lotus and its racing cars in Asia (ex-Japan, ex-India/Sri Lanka). This Asian content supplements the important material posted on social media by the local racing experts in Singapore.

LOTUS IN THE TROPICS

First off, why was Lotus so successful at both club and international levels during the 1950s and 1960s?

One compelling factor was that the company had a good range of sports cars and single-seaters – from the basic Seven, a motorised roller skate, to the far-sighted fibreglass monocoque Elite. Add to that the plethora of single-seaters for various racing formulae and you have a cocktail that appealed to both clubmen and aspiring professional racers.

These cars were of simple construction and built for lightness with engines that were easily obtainable. Such light and agile cars, together with drivers with nerves (and balls) of steel, provided the competitive edge on the street circuits of Johore, Macau, Penang, Selangor and Singapore. As Rodney Seow, Singapore’s last local Grand Prix winner (LUNCH WITH CHAMPIONS), spelled out succinctly in 1963, “If you didn’t have a Lotus 23, you didn’t have a chance.”

Scant reporting of Asian races in international media has meant a void in Asian motor sports history in international books and publications covering the period when Lotus ruled the roost from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Local distaste for colonial-period history hasn’t helped either. The “elitist” nature of the sport has meant the governments in South East Asia have tended to shun the subject, resulting in the disappearance and loss of valuable documentation.

Nonetheless, figures do not lie. Lotus was the only marque to have won the Singapore Grand Prix three times (1963, 1965, 1966) and Macau five times on the trot (1961-1965). That was not all. Lotus cars – from the first single-seater (Lotus 18) to the road-registered Lotus Cortina – amassed a total of 22 wins, including class wins in the supporting races, for the 13 years the Grand Prix ran in Singapore. No other manufacturer came close. For a decade, Lotus was the best-represented racing brand in Asia – by a mile.

There are a number of Appendices at the bottom of this article that look at specific cars/individuals – presently these cover the Peter Heath Eleven and 15, Stanley Leong’s 15, Chan Lye Choon’ 20B, John Macdonald’s 47, and Sonny Rajah’s 59/69. I’ll add more when time permits.

THE CLOCK STRIKES XI

Colin Chapman took his modest operations deeper into international sports car racing when he introduced the Lotus Eleven in February 1956, a car aimed at the very popular 1,100cc sports car class. The first Lotus Eleven arrived in Asia in early 1959. Very quickly, a fervent following of the Lotus brand developed, which eventually saw the domination of the Lotus 23s at the Johore, Macau and Singapore races.

The Eleven, with wrap-around windscreen and flush-fitting headlamps blending well with its figure-hugging front wings, was a more streamlined version of the Frank Costin-designed Mark 8, 9 and 10 sports cars. The result was a hugely successful and versatile club, and works, race car at every level of sports car racing, from Le Mans to Sebring and from Singapore’s Gap Hill Climb to the Seremban Sprint in Malaysia.

What set the Eleven apart from the rest of the competition (there was little in 1956) was that Lotus offered three different configurations to buyers: The Le Mans model, with a 1100cc Coventry Climax FWA engine, all disc brakes, and headrest behind the driver; a Club version, with drum brakes and live rear axle; and a Sports version, identical to the Club version but with a less powerful, production-based engine, usually from Ford.

The end of the 1950s was a watershed for the sport in South East Asia. Enthusiasts eagerly anticipated the resurrection of the Johore street Grand Prix and Singapore enthusiasts lobbied for their own Grand Prix.

The end of the 1950s was a for the sport in South East Asia. Enthusiasts eagerly anticipated the resurrection of the Johore street Grand Prix, and Singapore enthusiasts lobbied for their own Grand Prix. Macau already had an established annual street race.

The first event in Singapore the Eleven was entered in was at the 1959 Lim Chu Kang ½-mile Sprint held in March. Its new owner, A.J. “Tony” Huggett, had arrived in Singapore in 1955 to work for the optical arm of Motion Smith. He raced TR Triumphs at various sprints and hill climbs in Singapore and soon invested in a Lotus Eleven Le Mans Climax in 1959. The car was said to have had prior Le Mans and European racing history. I don’t have a chassis number but the Singapore Lotus gurus will know the history of this car, and probably all its serial numbers, from day 1. By May 1959, Huggett had all but destroyed his Eleven at Singapore’s treacherous Gap Hill Climb.

The Lotus circle soon included Bangkok-based Edward “Peter” Heath with his Eleven (later sold to Malaysian Saw Kim Thiat), architect Stanley Leong with a Lotus 15, film producer John Armstrong with a Lotus Seven, a pair of road-registered Elites and a number of 23s [CASE BOOK of 23s].

When automobile importer Chan Lye Choon swapped his Aston Martin DB3S for a Lola Mk1 FWE Climax for the 1961 Johore Grand Prix, Lotus owners needed something just as nimble and a lot stronger to sustain the over 300km circuit races in tropical heat and rain. Architect Stanley Leong took the unorthodox approach and fitted a 2-litre Ferrari engine into his Lotus 15 and christened it the Ferratus. Other Lotus sports car owners looked towards the new Lotus factory in Chestnut, Hertfordshire for deliverance. It took two years before their prayers were answered – in the form of the Lotus Type 23 sports car.

GIANT KILLER ARRIVES

The Lotus 23, wrote Dr Mike Lawrence, could “with a half decent driver at the wheel…beat any other small sports car of the time.” The 23 and its larger-engined twin, the 23B, held sway over circuit racing in Asia from 1963 and 1965, winning the Grands Prix in Singapore and Johore in 1963, Macau in 1964, and again in Singapore in 1965, all thanks to race driver Hong Kong Police Inspector Albert Poon [LUNCH WITH CHAMPIONS, CASE BOOK OF 23s]. Poon had been racing in the Macau Grand Prix from the late-1950s and was already an experienced hand. Together with his Hong Kong compatriots Steve Holland, Walter Haskamp, Bill Wyllie, Hardy Burmester, Teddy Yip and John Macdonald, backed by agents for Lotus in Hong Kong, Wallace Harper, they often dominated the Singapore and Malaysian races. Poon would become synonymous with the Lotus 23 (and later with his Alfa Romeo GTA). A latecomer to the single-seater, it was only in 1967 that he made the switch with an Alfa Romeo-engined Brabham.

When Singaporean Lee Han Seng famously won Singapore’s first post-Independence Grand Prix in his tried-and-tested Lotus 22 single-seater (which Hong Kong tycoon Teddy Yip quickly purchased), everyone knew the writing was on the wall for the sports cars in local racing. It was the first time a single-seater had won the coveted Grand Prix in South East Asia, but Lotus already had a sterling reputation in Macau with Filipino Dodjie Laurel, who claimed the double in 1962 and 1963 in a Lotus 22 Formula Junior.

Albert Poon made amends for sports car owners when he took the win in Macau in his original 23 the following year (1964), the car backed by Bob Harper’s team. Lotus were on a winning streak in Macau. In 1965, John Macdonald, who was experimenting with single-seaters, purchased the ex-Team Harper Lotus 18 (which racer Steve Holland called a “useless old heap”) and dragged the “super friendly, super frail” machine to victory. The former Hong Kong policeman gamely revealed to me: “My idea of stopping its reputation for bits falling off was to strike a bit of arc weld across many nuts and bolts. Even then the car ran out of fuel on the slowing down lap.” The car however erased any doubt in everyone’s mind that single-seater race cars was the way forward, but it would take another two years for this to fully manifest itself.

LOVELY TILL IT BLEW UP

While most top Asian competitors had embraced the single-seater, it took Macdonald a while longer to be convinced of the reliability of these fragile machines on the arduous race circuits of Johore, Macau and Singapore. Despite his win in the Lotus 18, Macdonald continued to believe in the viability and strength of sports cars over single-seaters. It was his sleek Lotus 30/40, with its flexing chassis mated to a thumping 4.7-litre Ford V8 at the rear, that was a categorical flop and the final straw for him that changed his mind.

Always one with a turn for words, Macdonald concluded that the 30/40 was a “30 but with 10 more mistakes.” Still, he bagged pole for the 1967 Johore Grand Prix but recalled, “The motor was lovely till it blew up. You’d never believe the noise it made, but the rest of it was just made out of little bits of aluminium foil, typical Colin Chapman rubbish. A brake calliper tore clean away from the upright, which is why it expired in Johore in 1967.”

The first chance he had, he unloaded the car, to the organiser of the Fuji 300 Yomiuri Asian Challenge Cup in Japan in March 1968. The Lotus 30/40 was reincarnated as the IMAI A-1/RSC Can-Am race car, in Japan. The rebodied car was later seen in the 1969 Singapore Grand Prix, entered by George Katsu, or as the Japanese knew him, Katsuomi Shiozawa. Macdonald remarked of the new body styling, “…thereby removing the only beautiful thing about it.”

There were numerous reasons why the success of the Lotus sports racers in Asia did not carry over into its single-seaters in the latter half of the 1960s. Chapman’s priorities were changing rapidly. The Chestnut operation had been moved to a big facility in Norfolk as the production car business kept growing. In January 1969, Group Lotus Cars went public on the London Stock Exchange (Team Lotus, Chapman’s race team, would remain privately-owned) and Chapman became a millionaire, on paper. To focus on commercial car production and Formula 1, production of customer racing cars under Lotus Racing ceased in 1971. Many new race car constructors had also emerged, supplying their cars to budding talent all around the world. Although Formula 1 was a tiny part of Lotus’ activities, it was the success of Lotus in top-flight racing that made its production cars popular. Chapman was no longer interested in supplying cars to privateers.

Yet there were other interesting Lotus single-seaters that came to our shores as the racing series hotted up to include top regional drivers and sponsorship. Three Lotus 41 Formula 3 cars competed in South East Asia and Macau in the mid-to-late 1960s – one with Steve Holland, the other with Chong Boon Seng. Tragically, Filipino Dodjie Laurel lost his life in a fiery inferno when his Lotus 41 came to grief at Macau in 1967; Malaysian-based Tony Maw won the race in his aged ex-Chan Lye Choon Lotus 20 single-seater. The late 1960s eventually saw a shift of interest to the more robustly-built Brabhams and Brabham-derivatives.

THE LESSER KNOWN CARS

SALOON LOTUS

I’m just am amateur historian delving into the history of cars in a region dominated by many knowledgable Singaporean experts. The mere mention of the Lotus Cortina in Singapore by an amateur will get the experts riled and ready to pounce with their wealth of expertise on every Lotus Cortina ever to grace the Batu Tiga, Johore, Penang and Singapore roads. So it’s with some trepidation that I even dare to mention the existence of this model in the region in the 1960s. In fact, By 1965, Ford was actually assembling 16 models of cars at their Bukit Timah assembly centre, from the Anglia to the Consul and the Cortina, although production capacity was a mere 13 units a day (with overtime they were able to push the figure up to 18 units a day). Also, by December 1963, Universal Cars had been appointed distributors for Lotus Cars in Malaysia/Singapore, taking over from the unsuccessful attempt at Lotus distribution by Singapore company Eastern Auto. The first shipments of cars arrived in December 1963 – Lotus Elan 1500 Sports (net price S$11,500).

Now let’s look at the first time Lotus Cortinas appear in a Grand Prix program – in Singapore. That would have been 1964, the year the main race was red-flagged due to calamitous weather. But for the Saloons & Tourers race, there were three Lotus Cortinas entered – Albert Poon’s, Bill Wyllie’s (both with 1598cc twin cams), and William Wong’s (presumably Richard Wong’s brother). Wyllie finished first overall, Poon finished second, but set FTD (2 min 36.2 sec). Third was Dick Clinkard in Endeavour, his 3.8-litre Mk2 Jaguar. Then there was also Len Gibson’s Willment Cortina GT (which in fact may have belonged to local retailer Jopie Ong).

Two names show up when it comes to Lotus and Cortinas. The first is Richard Wong and the #107 Cortina, the second is Lee Han Seng and his #8 Cortina. For good measure, let’s throw in a third – the Dick Clinkard factory-prepared Lotus Cortina. In 1966 Clinkard’s brought in a factory-prepared Lotus Cortina with Stage 4 BRM Ford Twin-cam rated at 175bhp at 7500rpm. The car was built to special order by Lotus in 1966 with an all-steel block, dry sump lubrication, adjustable leaf spring rear suspension, lightweight body with aluminium door panels, bonnet and boot lids, perspex windows, limited slip diff, 25 gallon gas tank, three axle ratios and Hewland LSD. It was road registered SM8339 in Singapore. Whether any were ex-Works I can’t tell, except that in Lee Han Seng’s car, the fuel filler was directly behind the rear windscreen. And Lee (and George Lee Racing) wasn’t into buying run-of-the-mill Fords for racing, nor was Clinkard. Nor, it seems, was Richard Wong. The local experts will have a better handle on the saloon cars that raced in Asia.

END OF THE ROAD

There were nevertheless exceptions to Lotus racing cars in Asia in the early 1970s. Local hero Sonny Rajah brought in a Lotus 69, touted as the ex-James Hunt Formula 3 Lotus 59, in 1971. It should have demolished the aging Brabhams, Mildrens and Elfins and taken the fight to the Ralts and Marchs in Selangor and Singapore, but it did not. It should have won at Macau in 1971, but a crash while in a commanding lead thwarted Sonny’s efforts. The car was unceremoniously packed into a crate at the Macau Naval Dockyard and shipped off, never to be raced in Asia again. There were another two 69s that raced in Asia subsequently – Kenny Smith won the 1971 Penang Circuit Races in one; John Dimsdale raced another in the 1972 Macau Grand Prix. The Dimsdale car, though damaged in Macau, was purchased by Malaysian Percy Chan and rebuilt in Kuala Lumpur, by Dimsdale’s former race engineer, Michael Jackson.

With the exception of the twin-cam 69s, no other Lotus single-seaters or sports cars participated in modern motor sports in South East Asia from the mid-1970s. By 1974, Lotus was no longer involved in racing outside of Formula 1, the company clearly focused on road cars as its core business and the Formula 1 organisation under Team Lotus a separate entity to the car business.

When Chapman died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack in December 1982, the spirit behind the brand nearly snapped. Lotus was a spent force, mired in controversy over the DeLorean debacle that resulted in Chapman’s long-serving accountant Fred Bushell going to jail. The prevailing Judge, Lord Justice Murray, concluded that had Chapman been alive, he would have been incarcerated for “at least 10 years.”

For a garagiste, Lotus had done exceedingly well. The company had built sports cars to Indy cars, endurance racers, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, Formula 5000, performance engines and even tried to reengineer the way boats were built. Colin Chapman, thinker, mover, shaker and maverick, was part of the original “Piranha Club” that controlled Formula 1 in the 1960s and 1970s.

Few know that Lotus was the most successful racing marque in Asia during the 1960s. While the joke that the name stood for “Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious” had a ring of truth about it, the fact remains that Lotus cars bagged no less than 45 wins in various categories of circuit racing in Macau, Malaysia and Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps it ought to read, “Lots of Trouble, Usually Successful”.

APPENDIX 1 – The Tall Lotuser

Think tall Lotuser and you instantly think of racer and former Team Lotus’ Formula 1 manager (and Walter Wolf Racing and Fittipaldi Automotive) Peter Warr. Warr won the first Japanese Grand Prix (Suzuka) in a Lotus 23B sports racer in 1963. But there were other tall Lotus drivers, one of whom was six-feet-six Bangkok-based Edward Peter Heath.

Heath’s height may have been fine for sports car racing because a competent welder would have been able to reconfigure a Lotus sports car spaceframe to suit anyone.  However, shoehorning a six-and-a-half-footer into a Lotus 12, 16 or 18 single-seater was another matter entirely. But I digress.

From 1934, Edward Peter Heath (6 June 1914 – 12 January 2003), a motor sports enthusiast, oversaw the Borneo Company and later, Inchcape Group’s Bangkok operations after the Borneo Company was absorbed into the Inchcape Group. He rose to the rank of Deputy Chairman of Inchcape PLC before retiring.

His frequent trips back to the UK allowed him to attend British Automobile Racing Club meetings, occasionally as part of Innes Ireland Ltd, legendary Lotus racer Innes Ireland’s race preparation business that operated out of a garage at Farnham. Ireland’s team looked after the Lotus Elevens of several owner-drivers, one of whom included the Bangkok-based business executive. Records show his Lotus Eleven entered at the 26th July 1958 Mid-Cheshire Motor Club’s Oulton Park meet for Formula Libre cars with a Coventry Climax FWA 1098cc motor, race number #53. He was slated to race at a race at Oulton Park on 20th September 1958 for the Mid-Cheshire Motor Club’s International Race Meeting but may not have attended. The Eleven, Chassis 522 (FWA engine 7749) was then shipped home to Bangkok in 1960 by 46-year-old Heath.

The Eleven was then shipped to Singapore from Bangkok for the 1960 Johore Coronation Grand Prix held 20-21 February around the streets of Johore Bahru, a short distance from the causeway that linked the Malaysia with the island of Singapore. The car set FTD, but did not finish the race, not for want of trying.

That year 522 was entered in the Macau Grand Prix in November. Heath started from the back of the grid for the ACP Sports Cars race and overtook everyone to win the race. It may have won but its owner still felt it wasn’t fast enough. 522 was sold to Malaysian Saw Kim Thiat in September 1961, in time for the inaugural Singapore street Grand Prix, by which time he had acquired a Lotus 15 Climax.

The next big race the following year was the Malaysia Grand Prix in Singapore, held over Easter weekend. Heath was the only competitor from Thailand. The Sports and GT support race was a Lotus benefit, with Saw Kim Thiat, in his newly acquired ex-Heath Lotus Eleven, winning the class for the smaller engined cars while Heath took the win in the larger Sports and GT race in the 15. Neither was lucky in the Grand Prix.

Heath had already come to the conclusion that single-seaters were out of the question for him so Innes Ireland’s 1959 works Series 3 Lotus 15 (chassis 620-3) was acquired. It had a 1½-litre Coventry Climax FPF motor and a ZF S4-12 4-speed close-ratio transmission. Heath entered the in the BARC Goodwood Handicap race on 1st July 1961, racing for A.G. Whitehead. He followed up with a Handicap race on 22nd July 1961 at Phoenix Park. The car was also entered in the Grand Prix Pescara on 15th August 1961 in the round 5 of the World Sports Car Championship for Graham Whitehead but it appears two of the Whitehead cars did not arrive for the event.

The car was shipped to Hong Kong in time for the Macau Grand Prix of 1961. Yes, you guessed it. He won the Grand Prix in the No.10 car.

Following an unsuccessful attempt at a second Macau win in 1962, the 15 was left in Hong Kong for sale before being shipped down to Singapore, care of Borneo Motors. And guess who bought chassis 620?  Kuala Lumpur-based Saw Kim Thiat. This, according to Saw, was only possible after much haggling that dragged on and on. Eventually, a deal with was struck at SGD8,000, which Heath finally accepted in early 1963. Saw now had a new mount for the 1963 Malaysia Grand Prix (which was held in Singapore). There must have been some serious padding put in so that the new owner could actually drive a car that had been configured for a six-and-a-half-foot man.

What would steal the limelight for 1963 was the Jaguar versus Lotus battle on the grid. There were seven Jaguar E-types entered, twelve Lotus, and six big Healeys, for a total of 53 entries in the Grand Prix! The single-seaters may have arrived but the sports cars still ruled the roost. In the 10-lap Sport and GT car race, Saw finished half a lap ahead of his closest competitor, setting fastest time of day. The 15 had certainly made a name for itself in the shorter support races but was notoriously unreliable when it came to the longer Grand Prix races.

The 15 was still circulation in 1965, now owned by Saw’s friend Eddy Choong. It was entered in the 4th Tunku Abdul Rahman Circuit races held on 3rd and 4th July around a 2.85-mile course around the streets of Petaling Jaya. Clearly, the 15 and its Climax motor had seen better days.

In the 1972 Sports & GT support race to the Singapore Grand Prix, new owner Brian Tyler entered it with a 1499cc motor, against such varied competition as the rebodied Albert Poon Lotus 23B (in the hands of Chong Boon Seng), Lola Mk1, Porsche 906, Daren GT Gp6 Prototype and new 240Z Datsuns in the Sports Cars race.  The Lotus 15 disappeared from our radars after 1972. Its subsequent history back in Europe is explained in Bill Colson’s comprehensive article on its history in Historic Motor Racing magazine, Vol.1 No.3.

Heath continued to race, and following the sale of the Lotus 15, raced an Elva Courier and later on, a Diva Valkyr in the UK and in the Macau Grand Prix (1966).

Postscript: Heath was a managing director of Inchcape until 1975 and a deputy chairman 1976-79. He was also chairman of the Anglo-Thai Corporation.

APPENDIX 2 – The Ferratus

In jest, it was nicknamed the Ferratus. In reality, it was a 1958 Lotus 15 (chassis 605), one of earliest 15s built, with a ‘laid-down’ Coventry Climax 1½-litre FPF engine. After a year of circuit racing, its second owner used it for hill climbs in the UK before Singapore architect Stanley Leong purchased it in January 1961 sans engine but with the Lotus-ZF transaxle. Leong installed his old MG gearbox (from his hybrid MGA-chassied S.L. Ferrari) and abandoned the idea of using a Holbay motor, deciding to go with the most exotic of engines instead.

The Lotus 15 was meant to be Leong’s solution against Chan Lye Choon’s 1961 Johore Grand Prix winning Lola Mk1 Sports Car. When Leong shoehorned an ex-Macau Grand Prix Ferrari 2-litre engine into the Lotus, only a fool would have bet against it. But plagued with overheating problems, the car coughed, banged, farted and spat its way around the circuit, often without its front bodywork. It was subsequently sold to up-and-coming racer and his good friend, Rodney Seow.

Leong related the meeting with Seow. “One day, Rodney came up to my office just before 9 or 10am and said, ‘Eh Stanley, you want to sell your car?’ I said, ‘Which car? Oh, the Lotus-Ferrari. And you want it?’ I told Rodney, ‘You know the history, right? You know it cannot finish, right?’ ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘I’m an engineer, I know how to do it.’ Ok just shake my hands, sign here ok…Take the car away.” In 1963, the blue Ferratus did no better in Seow’s hands, by which time the Lotus 23 was conquering all before it in Asia.

APPENDIX 3 – NEARLY A WORKS DRIVE

One of the earliest single-seaters to race in South East Asia was the Lotus 20B of Chan Lye Choon. The “low and lithe” Lotus 20 was first unveiled at the Olympia Racing Car Show in January 1961. The 20B carried a larger engine and had disc brakes all round. Chan’s 20B arrived in Singapore in time for the 1962 Grand Prix, fitted with a 1475cc Ford Cosworth 109E engine (as used on Ford’s Capri model) putting out 102bhp with twin Webers. A reputed top speed of 140mph would have made it one of the most competitive cars on the grid for the Johore, Macau and Singapore circuit races that year.

Chan’s Eastern Auto, agents for Aston Martin and Citroën and various sundries, had secured Lotus distribution for the growing Singapore market and were looking to market the Lotus Seven, Elite and Elan road cars. But that was half the story. Chan’s success at the Changi Circuit Race in 1957, the Macau Grand Prix in 1958 and the sprints/hill climbs in Malaya brought him to the attention of the international racing community. The Lotus agency undoubtedly put him in touch with Colin Chapman and Peter War, Lotus Cars’ joint Managing Directors at the time.

The biggest story on the racing front in Singapore in 1963 was not the upcoming Upper Thomson Road Grand Prix but the First International Japan Grand Prix scheduled for 3-4th May that year. That inaugural Grand Prix, held at the newly opened Suzuka Circuit, had internationally-known Swiss motor racing journalist Gérard “Jabby” Crombac’s fingerprints all over it. Mike Knight (featured in Rewind Magazine 012 as well as MIKE KNIGHT – LUNCH WITH CHAMPIONS), winner of the 1964 Suzuka Grand Prix, explained that Crombac and his father Bill Knight played a big part in that first Suzuka event. “Jabby put together that first race in Japan in 1963. Jabby was also responsible for getting the Magny-Cours circuit in France for Dad. They were very friendly. They were both sort of party boys and Dad had done quite a lot of land speed records in France and got to know Jabby quite well. I believe Jabby was asked to get some cars together from Europe by the JAF,” Mike told me. It was quite an undertaking to get a posse of well-known English names to Japan.

It was an interesting entry list that planned for the trip to Japan. Hill climb champion Arthur Owen was on it and had already raced in Singapore in 1963. Owen was looking into a possible business venture of importing Honda cars and bikes into Britain and so the Japanese trip served his interests. Arsenio ‘Dodgie’ Laurel from the Philippines was the Asian driver on the trip to Japan. But I digress. In Singapore, there was a buzz at the Eastern Auto office at 185 Clemenceau Avenue. Chan Lye Choon was offered the opportunity to be the first Singapore driver to be invited to race a Works Lotus. Chan was also a member of the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), on account of his international racing successes.

Lotus Cars of England had entered three works cars for the Japanese Grand Prix – a 1100cc single cam Formula Junior and two 1650cc Twin Cams with 5-speed gearboxes. Warr wrote to Chan inquiring if he would complete in Japan which his Lotus 20B. But it never happened. Chan, for various reasons, turned down the opportunity. The official word was that he felt his Lotus 20B was not eligible. Granted it was at the tail end of Chan’s illustrious career but it was also a time of great upheaval in the automobile trade in Singapore and Chan’s attention was no longer on motor racing but on the family’s Eastern Auto business. Still, he did come close to driving for Lotus.

APPENDIX 4 – SCHOMAC TIME

In 1967, Hong Kong’s Lotus importer Wallace Harper & Company had a new Lotus sports car for its customers. The Lotus Europa and its racing derivative, the 47, looked promising enough to complement Team Harper’s entries in the various classes of racing around Asia. Pilot Steve Holland was the right man for the job of running Bob Harper’s new import – a Lotus 47 with Tecalmet-Jackson fuel injected Twin Cam. This would be in addition to Harper’s other entries for Holland – a Lotus Cortina and Lotus 41 BRM-Ford. 

Chassis 47-GT-63’s debut in a major race was at the 1968 Singapore Grand Prix. After a gruelling 182 miles of racing, Australian Garrie Cooper took the chequered flag in his Elfin 600 Twin Cam. In third was Steve Holland in the Team Harper Lotus 47, an amazing result for a sports car. Holland went home with two more trophies – first in class in the Sports & GT race, and third overall in the same, behind Rodney Seow’s Elva Mk7-BMW and Denis Geary’s Lola T70. Holland raced the car again at Batu Tiga for the First Malaysian Grand Prix in 1968, and then at Macau where nine Lotus lined up for the Macau Grand Prix. The 47 occupied the second row of the grid, alongside Max Brunninghausen’s Alfa Romeo TZ2 and behind three single-seaters. The car returned to Singapore for the 1969 Grand Prix. It wasn’t placed but set FTD (and did not finish) in the Sports & GT race. When Holland switched back to single-seaters for Macau at the end of the year, the road-registered 47 was purchased by another well-known Hong Kong man.

Enter Hong Kong businessman Fred Scholle, backer and good mate of racer John Macdonald who said: “In 1968, Fred offered the finance if I prepared the cars. Fred was the real catalyst. Fred supplied the cars and I-we-friends-my biz prepared the cars. From 1969, this became ‘Schomac Racing’, and Macau was Fred’s primary interest.” 

First, there were the local Hong Kong sprints to tackle. In September, Macdonald entered the Autumn Slalom at Sek Kong airstrip in the New Territories. The Lotus 47 set FTD. Macdonald raced his Brabham BT10 FVA in Macau at the end of 1969. This gave Schomac Racing a sports car to complement the single-seater entry. Scholle raced the 47 in the Grand Prix, surprising himself with a fine fifth place behind four single-seaters! Macdonald raced the 47 in the Sports & GT race, winning ahead of M. Sanada in a works Group 6 Nissan Fairlady.

Back in Hong Kong, the first round of the local club’s hill climb season was at Golden Hill in early January 1970. In Macdonald’s hands, the Brabham set the hill climb record while the Lotus 47 won its class. Later in January, at the Wong Nai Chung Hill Climb, Macdonald bettered his record in the Brabham while the Lotus 47 won its class once more. In February at the same venue, the Lotus 47 set FTD! In June at the Sek Kong airstrip Spring Slalom, the Brabham set FTD while the Lotus won its class, yet again. This routine was repeated at the Summer Slalom at Sek Kong the next day. 

In the Sports and GT race in the 1970 Singapore Grand Prix, Macdonald set FTD and won the race in the Lotus 47. The following week at the Selangor Grand Prix Sports Car race, the Lotus 47 led for the first 23 laps (of 30) before being caught by the eventual winner, Hengkie Iriawin in an Elfin 300B Sports Car. A bent valve in the twin cam was blamed for the drop in performance. The 47 was in action in Selangor in September 1970 for the Malaysian Grand Prix Sports Car race. Macdonald had a BMW 2002 Alpina for the Saloon Car race where he finished third. A loose spark plug caused the 47’s twin cam to overheat and eventually blow a head gasket in the Sports Car race while it was running second. 

Both the Brabham BT10 and the Lotus 47 were offered for sale in September 1970 in an advertisement in the Singapore Motor Sports Club’s magazine. “By switching engines, these two cars make a perfect team for next year’s formula, with the twin cam putting out between 175-180 BHP. Many spares included for both cars,” said the owners. The price for the “Lotus 47 Twin Cam Hybrid FT200” was an expensive S$18,000. A few surmised that Scholle had tried to get out of racing as he had spent a lot of money for very little return.

In Macau in November 1970, Scholle entered the 47 in the Grand Prix while Macdonald had it for the Sports Cars race. Scholle impressed when he qualified the car on the second row, alongside Malcolm Ramsay in an Elfin 600. Macdonald started on Pole for the support race. With an engine that went off-song, the 47 was passed by Henry Lee in the ex-Richard Wong Porsche 906 on lap 12 and finished a distant second to the Porsche. 

To suit the new race regulations for 1971, Macdonald removed his fuel injected Cosworth FVA motor from his Brabham BT10 in the winter of 1970 and replaced it with a Lucas fuel injected Vegantune Twin Cam. The FVA was dropped into the Lotus 47. With its strong Hewland FT200 transmission, it created an even more potent GT racer for the 1971 race season. The 47 made an appearance at the 1971 Singapore Grand Prix support race. A picture of the car on the front page of the Eastern Sun showed Macdonald standing beside the car. In the background, a marshal was using a fire extinguisher on the smoking Lotus 47. The car had caught fire on lap 8 of the Sports & GT race. Recalled Angus Lamont, race crew for Macdonald’s cars, “The car had a terrible reputation for catching fire!” Said Macdonald, “The car was either a race winner, or it was on fire.” During Schomac’s ownership, the car caught fire at least three times!

In October 1971, after the damage from the April fire was repaired, David Ma, President of the Hong Kong Motor Sports Club, bought the car and entered it in Macau that November. Tragically, he was killed in an accident during final practice when he was braking into Statute Corner. The car was totally destroyed and the remains were dumped at sea during the return crossing by lighter from Macau to Hong Kong.

APPENDIX 5 – HUNT’S 59

Sonny Rajah’s long hair and Emiliano Zapata moustache epitomised the suave look of the period. As Malaysia and Singapore’s top single-seater racer, the press loved him. His easy-going manner belied the true nature of this very gifted driver with a real zest for the sport. The local hero shot to prominence when he won the Preliminary heat of the 1971 Penang Grand Prix in his newly-acquired Lotus 69. He followed that up by leading the 1971 Macau Grand Prix, only to crash on the last lap while in a commanding lead. His first big win came in April 1972 when he won the Malaysian Grand Prix in a March.

Kiwi racing legend Graeme Lawrence (Rewind Magazine issue 011) predicted that Sonny “will be exciting to watch.” When John Macdonald once followed Sonny for the first few laps around the streets of Macau, he observed that Sonny “made contact with much of Macau’s scenery [that] in itself is a very difficult act.” He added that Sonny “had brilliant car control” and was a “natural talent with character to boot”.

Sonny’s single-seater debut was in the 1971 Singapore Grand Prix. His Lotus 59 was said to have been hard-driving future world champion James Hunt’s mount in the European Formula 3 championships the previous year. Sonny purchased the Lotus from Hunt’s Motor Racing Enterprises race team as a rolling chassis. Recounted Sonny, “We started a team called Aries Racing because we started in March. We were going to take this SGD20,000 venture and become the driving force of motor sport in the region.” Of the four friends involved in Sonny’s adventure, only he had the most basic understanding of gear ratios, tyre compounds and car set-up. The Lotus arrived in Singapore with a second-hand Brian Hart Twin Cam engine and a set of wet weather tyres. It was “all we could afford,” he said.  Hunt’s red Lotus was repainted yellow as “nobody had yellow cars in those days.”

The car was trailered to Batu Tiga for testing as Sonny had never driven a single-seater prior to acquiring the Lotus. “Four of us at Batu Tiga, and I break the lap record. So I thought this was great stuff,” he related. They may have harboured high hopes for the season but Sonny had a battle on his hands. His family, who were “jumping up and down” entirely against his racing, would not fund him. He also faced formidable competition from established international racers, some of whom went out of their way to intimidate the young upstart Singaporean.

By the Penang Circuit Race two weekends later, circumstances had changed. The young lad set pole position after winning the short preliminary race that weekend. Keen to find out what gear ratios Sonny was running around the tight Esplanade street circuit, Kiwis Ken Smith and his race engineer, the very experienced Roly Levis (who himself raced in Singapore and Selangor in 1969 – and set FTD in his Brabham BT23C), approached Sonny. It was a fortuitous meeting of Lotus owners. They struck up a friendship and Ken and Roly gave Sonny a crash course in changing gearbox ratios. Sonny would soon be adopted as the local hero everyone in Malaysia and Singapore desired. His trademark red helmet with white polka dots would shortly make its appearance.

CONCLUSION

And that concludes this short introduction to Lotus racing in South East Asia. Hope you’ve found it interesting. Do drop a comment; share the post; rip it apart, if you must…;anything that helps improve the product and keep me interested in continuing this research. This is the work of an amateur enthusiast. Nearly all the Lotus cars that raced in the region are featured (though I lack images of the Chong Boon Seng Lotus 41) and I am positive there are wide enough gaps and errors in this research to run the QEII through. I have tried my best to mention all the cars, or at least include photos of them in action and continue to add to this article, as and when time permits. If you intend to reuse the images or lift the content, be kind enough to mention where you found it. If you would like to reuse this article in another publication, please contact me.

With thanks to an enormous number of supporters, friends and specialists, many of whom are no longer with us. Special mention to the following (not in any particular order): John Macdonald, Angus Lamont, Michael Jackson, Sir Michael Kadoorie, Neville McKay, Brian Eastman, Mike Knight, S.K. Quek, Rodney Seow, Stanley Leong, Stanley Iriawan, Dr Philip Newsome, Anne Wong, Shane Lim, Ian Boughton, Brett Boughton, Tony Maw, Tony Goodwin, Loh Yap Ting, Albert Poon, L.C. Kwan, Jim Hunter, Ian Lee, Graham Clack, Richard Wong, David Wong, Dickie Arblaster, Larry Lim, Peng Tsu Ying, Saw Kim Thiat, Terry Pearce…