Thanks for the notes, John, Mark,
The vintage race grid here in faraway Manila is very small - 20 cars at a
race would be considered plenty. This is because imports of luxury
vehicles - and sports cars were considered such (I agree a luxurious Lotus
would be an oxymoron) - were severely restricted up to the mid-1990s. There
is no class for sports racers such as the 23. However, they do allow the 23
in the regular events on a non-competing basis.
"Crazy" might be more appropriate description of someone who has a race car
he cannot use. When I asked my Japanese friend (who races an Alfa and plays
bass guitar in our very amateurish attempts at 1960's surf music) whether we
should rush to snap up a tube guitar amp that came on the market, he said
not to worry because, like the Lotus 23, there would be no one else
interested in it.
However, the 23 has been my dream for some time, and I get a great deal of
pleasure from it. It is so much faster than my regular drive that I have to
think out kinks on the straights that I never paid attention to before.
I certainly think Sevens are appropriate topics in the List. There is an
original one in Hong Kong (with an unpainted aluminum body and cycle
fenders). It came over in 1997 to race here (came in far ahead of a very
competitive field, including a fully race prepared BMW 2002, also from Hong
Kong). The 7 has been up on blocks since then and may be for sale. If
budget allowed, I would want it.
I will visit the Simple Sevens site, John.
Andres
P.S. I have copied Chapman Era with this long note to give a semblance of
activity on the List.
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