“Lotus built it for Dimis Mavropoulos, he was a Cypriot rally champion. It was built for rallying but I believe it did the one rally and then Lotus asked Andy Dawson to turn it into a rallycross car. Dimis had it as a black car then, and he ran it for about two years. Then it was sold to Brian Betteridge who rallycrossed it, then someone else used it as a circuit car. I saw it in
in about 1980. It was just a rolling shell and the engine and gearbox had been sold off, so I bought it all, with a full set of body moulds, then traced the engine and gearbox and put it back together and rallycrossed it. I was Group B rally champion at Croft Circuit for three years with this car. It’s a pre-production car from 1972 – they didn’t make the cars ‘til 1976. I was told by Dimis and Lotus that it did the Turin Motor Show. I can’t be sure but it was the only one with that louvred back end at the show.”
“I don’t believe in standing and showing them, I believe in using them, so I’ve done Goodwood, this is the ninth year I’ve done Goodwood, and I do things like the Silverstone Classic and Cholmondeley Pageant of Power and different events to do with Group B cars.”
What did you make of today?
“I’ve never been here before ever. It’s good. It’s quite short, and the tyres that I’ve got, they’ve been in the loft for 25 years! They’re terrible, they’re just like rocks. I’ll have to get some new ones.”