Bob Graham
<rdgraham17@comcast.net>
1963 Series 2
FRAME #1633
My Lotus is a 1963 Super Seven,frame # 1633 stamped into a small welded tag on frame rail in front of the passenger seat. ID Plate has long been missing.
The car was raced in the late sixties by Don Kearney, then of Clearwater Florida. The story of its history before that is unclear. Don is now deceased but his daughter, who still runs a race prep business in Washington D.C. area where Don had later relocated, related the story of the car to me...
Don at the time was racing a Triumph Spitfire with some success. He was several times S.E. SCCA champion. Don lamented the fact that if he only had a Lotus Super Seven he could win the National Runoffs. An old friend who hung around the shop one day appeared with a trailer and a slightly bent Seven which had been in an accident. He told Don if he could fix it he had his car for the Runoffs. Don set to repairing the damaged car which needed among other things new sheet metal for the scuttle, bonnet and dash which had been crushed. These he hand fashioned in time to qualify the car for the Runoffs. That year, 1968, they were held at Riverside Raceway in California. The Scrutineers gave Don a hard time about some of his changes to the car but finally relented and let him run.
He finished a creditable fourth behind three TR 4s. Don later took the car to Savanna, Georgia to race. During the standing start the clutch blew up scattering the parts through the top of the bonnet totally unnerving Don. The only thing that saved his feet and legs was a piece of steel put in the foot well for just such an incident. Don sold the car on the spot.
It seems that the car lay dormant for the next 30 odd years in the back of a race prep shop in Alpharetta, Georgia until being purchased by Elliot Evans of New Orleans. Elliot did a sympathetic restoration of the car leaving much of it just as raced by Don. Due to poor health Elliot was forced to sell the car. It was bought for a wealthy client, who collected original race cars, by a broker in Florida. Unfortunately before delivery could be completed the client died leaving the broker to find a buyer for the car to recoup his investment. This is where I come into the picture. Seeing an ad for the car I arranged to buy it.
During my search for its history I not only found and talked to Don's daughter but was allowed to copy family pictures of Don and the car. I also found pictures of it in a period Road & Track at the Riverside Run Offs. Also pictures were found of the car at Virginia International Raceway in 1968 qualifying for the run offs. Mr. Evans also supplied photos of the car when found and during his rebuild. All of these verify that this is, with no question, Don Kearneys old race car. There are distinct details of the rebuilt scuttle and dash that verify this beyond doubt. Elliot's pictures also verify that when he received the car it was still in the paint job put on for the Run offs. Elliot did strip the car to bare frame to reinforce the frame with gussets. He than put the same sheet metal back in place.
At this juncture I am busy going through the car to bring it up to my own standards of track worthiness. These include putting an original style Bonnet, Scuttle and Dash with all new instruments back in the car along with an original style Lotus competition red leather wrapped steering wheel (I still need the original Lotus plastic center emblem-HELP!). The car came with a host of paper work documenting every part Elliot used in his rebuild of the engine. From what I can assume from talking to Don's daughter there is some question of exactly what the engine spec was when the car was raced. What ever it was it would have been to D Production spec in 68, the class in which it ran. It is now a Ford Cortina 1500 non cross flow with twin Webber DCOE 40's and the original Cortina gearbox running to a reinforced Triumph rear-end.
