Patrik Eklof
eklof@email.com
1962 Lotus Super Seven SII
Ford 116E Cosworth, 1498cc
SB1619
Norway

According to the Lotus production records SB1619 left the Lotus factory in Delamare Road, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire as follows:

Chassis #: SB1619
Ex works: 19 October 1962
Engine: Ford 116E Cosworth, 1498cc
Body by: Alert
Carburettors: Weber 40DCOE2
Colour: Bare aluminium and yellow fenders and nose

The purchaser was Mr. John Love, who later became South African Formula One Champion – six times. Love, who had made a name for himself on the race tracks in Southern Africa in the second half of the 1950s, had left Rhodesia in 1960 to explore a racing career in Europe.

Starting in the Fitzwilliam Formula Junior team driving a Lola, he soon landed a contract with Ken Tyrrell’s team. He drove Tyrrell’s Cooper-BMC Formula Juniors during both the 1961 and 1962 seasons. In 1962 Love also won the British Saloon Car Championship in a Tyrrell Mini Cooper. Towards the end of the 1962 season Love had an accident at the Albi race circuit in France, injuring his left arm. The injury would restrict the movement of his arms for the rest of his racing career.

After the accident John Love returned to Southern Africa. But he was not planning to give up racing – on the contrary. Before leaving England he shipped an ex-works Cooper T55 Climax Formula One car to Durban. Love had also agreed to bring a racing car for Tony Jefferies in Rhodesia.

“I had hoped to miss out the Sports Car ‘step-up the ladder’ and it was my intension at the time to import a Formula Junior car, which John Love had kindly offered to purchase while in England. Towards the end of last season it became apparent that there was going to be very little future for Formula Junior racing here in Rhodesia or in South Africa. Formula 1 was out of the question – financially – in addition to which I was not sure that I had the ability to drive a single-seater car. […]. I therefore decided to compromise and import the new Lotus Super Seven ‘1500’ which had recently been announced.”

“After frantic telephone calls to John Love in London, and through his influence and co-operation, I managed to have one of the first "1500" models shipped to Durban,” Tony Jefferies later wrote in the February issue of the Dunlop Rhodesian Gazette in 1963 (read the full story previous page).