History - Legend - Stories - For Sale
MKVI - MK7 S1 |
SB1000 - 1499 |
SB1500 - 1999 |
SB2000 - 2499 |
SB2500 - 2999 |
SB3000 +
important: chassis numbers
are as reported by owners -- their appearance here does not guarantee
authenticity.
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Judy Beattie's Long Lost 1962 Lotus Seven... found?
I bought SB1167 from Fred Kopenhaver (who must have gotten it from Sy Kaback) in Norristown, Pennsylvania in 1962. Fred's daughter also had one. I drove it on the street for a while, went to SCCA driver's school at Watkins Glen in 1964, successfully ran the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Series for a couple of years, ran some regional races here in the Northeast, and then sold it to buy a Lotus 23 (23S2) in 1967 (pictured).
We moved the brake lines to the passenger side (left) and installed a
heavy metal "hoop" inside the tunnel to capture the drive shaft in case the
universals broke. That happened to Buzzy Marcus at the Reading Road Races.
A universal broke and took out the brake lines and Buzzy went off the end of
the airport runway. Fortunately there was adequate runoff area and he was
unhurt, but we quickly made that modification. I was Judy Beattie (pre-marriage).
Fred Kopenhaver's garage was a wondrous place for a 19 year old to hang out. Among the cars (some for sale, some for repair, some just in storage) was a Siata 208S which Fred and Frank Schroeder and Bob Mazzi ran at Sebring in 1960. I remember it as the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
The car was black, with a 1340cc Cosworth Ford 109E, which I blew up dramatically at Connellsville, Pennsylvania. I still have a binder which includes the Owners Manual also much of a Ford Anglia manual. I worked part time as a "Cortina Specialist" at the local Ford dealer in order to buy parts at their cost. The binder also includes some correspondence with Cosworth and others. There's a beautiful passage from E. C. Martin at Alexander-Martin Developments regarding rebuilding/upgrading my blown engine in 1964: the rods are hotly pursued by the crank in their eagerness to break." Who says the English don't have humor?
The Vineland photo is a print from a slide. Someone gave me the 1965 'Winning' photo from Reading. The Marlboro photo was taken by Action Ltd. during the Refridgerator Bowl of 1966. I only had a very small print with the Action Ltd. printing across it; I had not bought the photo. Recently I had it digitized without the printing. Previous Owner Brian Hernan comments in June of 2012: I purchased 1167 from Geoffrey Tyres of Marietta GA in Feb.1982. Geoff bought it in Aug.1975 and drove it regularly as his street car. The car had a crudely fabricated roll bar installed by some prior owner, from which I assumed some prior racing activity. I was under the impression that 1167 had been in the Atlanta area from the early 70's. I bought the car as a 1340 Cosworth with twin webers, Cosmic 6" wheels and series 3 rear wings. Driving down the main straight at Road Atlanta in the early 80's I saw 0 oil pressure in what I knew was a very tired engine and coasted into the pits, never to drive the car again.
Over the next few years, I did a major skin off restoration including a new 1500 Dave Bean engine. The original wasted 1340 disappeared from my warehouse and I had a good idea where it went, but it didn't seem to matter at the time. I made molds for 8.5" series 2 rear wings to fit the tr10 rear axle and 5" rims with 4.50 racing dunlop tires. By request I also made 9.5" series 2 wings. I got about 90% finished with the restoration and ran out of "gas". Long story short and fast forward to 2008, I sold the car to Jim Downing who has completed the restoration , although I haven't seen the car in about a year. May 2017, a friend of SimpleSevens visits a small car collection, to find SB1167 fully restored!:
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History - Legend - Stories - For Sale
MKVI - MK7 S1 |
SB1000 - 1499 |
SB1500 - 1999 |
SB2000 - 2499 |
SB2500 - 2999 |
SB3000 +
important: chassis numbers
are as reported by owners -- their appearance here does not guarantee
authenticity.