2019-06-01 Classic Cars

SENDUS

YOURBARNFINDS

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Le Mans Elite... (almost)
This dismantled Lotus Elite is more of a stalled
project than a true barn find, but it has a
tantalising history. Chassis 1037 was a private entry
to Le Mans in 1959, bought just eleven days before
the race by Dickie Stoop, an ex-Spitfire pilot and
accomplished racing driver.
It practised and was scrutineered, but then
suffered an accident on a public road before the
race began and was withdrawn. It needed to be
rebuilt into a new chassis-body unit (CBU) later
that year, the Elite being a GRP monocoque.
After various owners and a couple of colour
changes, it eventually surfaced as a non-running
red car in 2007. Since then it’s been stripped and
needs reassembling and finishing. The rebuilt
engine offered with it is not the original so the
value of this kit of parts perhaps lies more in
its identity than in its material pieces. It’s being
auctioned by Historics at Brooklands on May 18,
estimated at £45,000-£55,000.

Themustard-colouredmarauder

This dusty 1953 Riley RMF left the UK for an early life in Singapore,

presumably the property of a well-to-do ex-pat. It returned in 1957 and

settled in Aylesbury, Bucks, passing through other hands before finding

a new keeper in Reading. It remained with this family for many decades,

recently offered as part of an estate sale handled by Special

Auction Services in Newbury in April.

Says SAS’s Robin O’Connor, ‘The car suffered a cracked

engine block in 1989 so the engine was rebuilt with a new

cylinder block and with shell bearings replacing the white

metal. Only a few hundred miles later it failed its MoT on a

few small points and was taken off the road, yet for some

reason it was never fixed.

It seems pretty sound,

bar a soft bit at thebase

of one A-pillar, andthe

doors shut very well.’

The pub-mustardRiley

crossed the block aswe

went to press.

Abufflogbook, Lotusfactoryrecords

andboxesof smallcomponents

are all included in the ‘kit’

Quibus exeruntem ere et

aborumqui nonsecta sedia

et quatem qui a cuptate

in association with

Despite the car spending

almost 30 years in a shed, its

2.5-litre straight-four turns freely

Stoop’s Elite was recorded

as DNS (Did Not Start) in

the Le Mans results