Club Lotus Australia Hosted CSCA 2024 Round 4 Set for August 24

Club Lotus Australia is hosting Round 4 of the 2024 CSCA Supersprint Championship on August 24, and we’d love for you to be a part of the event. Further details and entry will be available soon!

Lock the date in your diary and make an effort to get to Sydney Motorsport Park to support your club and enjoy some fantastic grass roots supersprinting on the Gardner (GP) circuit.

Entries will open soon for existing Championship competitors, but that should not deter you if you are considering driving your Lotus on the track for the first time, everyone is welcome to compete.

This is a safe & controlled environment whereby you are sprinting against the clock, not other competitors. We welcome volunteers and support crew as well to come and get involved.

Further details of the event and entry instructions will be posted soon, stay tuned for more information and entry links in the coming weeks.

We look forward to seeing you trackside for a great day of racing!

Ashton’s President’s Prattle for June 2024

Ashton's Alvis Speed 20

Hello from the delights of summer in the UK (in Flanders and Swan’s song, Farmers fear unkindly May, frost by night and hail by day.)

While it appears to have been a rather sudden introduction to winter in Australia, the planning for events ahead continues unabated. Most significant from a pre-planning perspective is the next biennial celebrations, which are slated for 7-10 March next year, based around “border country” between Victoria and NSW. Full details are still being ironed out, but accomodation is likely to be centred in Albury. So put it in the calendar now!

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Entry Now Open for CSCA 2024 Round 2 at Sydney Motorsport Park

Entries are now open for the second round of the 2024 CSCA super sprint series, to be held on Sunday 23rd June at Sydney Motorsport Park, Druitt (North) Circuit, kindly hosted by the Jaguar Driver’s Club Australia (JDCA).

For this Event, the entry is via Motorsport Australia through the member portal at https://motorsport.org.au and payment will be online via credit card.

Please review the supplementary regulations carefully.

Read on for the entry invitation, with thanks to Lionel Walker of the JDCA.

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Lotus Photos: Sandy Bay Tasmania, May 2024

Sandy Bay Tasmania May 2024

Thanks to Robert Verhey

Our friends in Tasmania get together most months at Sandy Bay to kick tyres and chat about life, Lotus and everything. Robert Verhey made it to this month’s meeting on Sunday May 5, and very kindly reached out with a few photos that you can enjoy below.

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1957-58 Lotus-Climax Type 12 Heads to Bonhams|Cars Monaco Sale, ‘Les Grandes Marques à Monaco’, on 10 May

1957-58 Lotus-Climax Type 12 chassis ‘353’

Thanks to Bonhams|Cars

A club legend, the 1957-58 Lotus-Climax Type 12 chassis ‘353’ will head to auction at Bonhams|Cars Monaco Sale, ‘Les Grandes Marques à Monaco’, on May 10 2024.

The car was Lotus’ first Formula 1 contender and was driven by Graham Hill at both his and the Lotus Formula 1 team’s Formula 1 debut in the 1958 BRDC International Trophy race at Silverstone, as well as by Hill in the Monaco Grand Prix, which he would go on to win five times.

The Lotus Type 12 was designed by Colin Chapman in late 1956 – the first of the legendary designer’s single seaters. Seven of the cars were built initially for Formula 2 competition in 1957, with five going on to become works entries. In 1958 the team fit an uprated 1960cc Coventry Climax engine to 353 with the goal of entering Formula 1, which had a maximum engine size of 2.5-litres at the time, and being competitive on tighter twisty circuits. Hill placed seventh in the Formula 1 class at their debut at Silverstone.

The car would then move to John Fisher’s hands and continue being campaigned in 1959, including by Italian Maria Theresa de Filippis, before being acquired by Frank Gardner and heading to Australia. It was maintained in remarkably original order for much of its life, and then restored by its current owner, who wrote the literal book on the model and in particular the story of chassis no. 353, Lotus 12 Chassis No. 353: The History (2006).

Chassis ‘353’ will head to auction at Bonhams|Cars Monaco Sale on May 10 2024.

1957-58 Lotus-Climax Type 12 chassis ‘353’

May 3, 1958. BRDC International Trophy, Silverstone – Graham Hill making both his own and Team Lotus’s Formula 1 racing debut in Type 12 chassis ‘353’. GPL photo.