Car-Vid Classics: Lotus last to first

Over 10m views and a direct connection to DRIVEN Car Guide

Counting down to the Bathurst 1000 next weekend, there are many iconic TV moments, but in modern times, similarly famous ones on YouTube. Greg Murphy’s qualifying lap is one obvious one.

Back in February 2005, YouTube launched, and in October that same year, the Bathurst 1000 hosted a support race for the Lotus Trophy Series, a one-make, two-model category, with (Class A) 141kW Exiges and 89kW Elises (Class B).

Weather often intervenes at Bathurst, and rainfall just before Saturday morning’s race 2 reverse-grid race would prove pivotal. From 14th on the grid, the driver of a Class B Elise passes four cars by turn one, despite being squeezed close to the wall and having the driver’s window folded forwards.

Over the next 4km, a magical lap would reveal gaps to go for, some made a little more forcefully than others, with no more contact than a light bump coming out of the Cutting.

At the top of the mountain, a dry line would make passing tricky, with most of the frontrunning cars very cautious, but cutting a line through the traffic, the red camera car passes three cars going over Skyline, through the Dipper, and then rounding up the final car coming on to Conrod Straight to claim the lead — seconds before yellow flags come out for an incident behind, and then a safety car.

The POV video was recorded on MiniDV handicam — a potato by today’s standards — predating GoPros by almost five years. It was uploaded to YouTube but copyright software allowed others to replicate and upload their own copies to YouTube.

That means the actual view count is fractured, but by 2020, the video racked up combined views of more than 10 million. So popular was it that a New York kids’ amusement ride company paid $10k for the rights to the first 2 mins of footage to use in one of its fibreglass ride cars at supermarkets.

The reason there’s so much known detail is because the footage was produced and driven by our own DRIVEN Car Guide editor Dean Evans, who paid $10k — coincidentally — to lease and run the Elise at the 2005 Bathurst event. In the 1000, Marcos Ambrose would create balaclava-gate and Mark Skaife would win, but the YouTube clip of a Lotus going from last to first continues to remain an underground cult classic.