LOTUS TRANSPORTERS & SICILIAN INSPIRATION

I picked up a copy of the December's issue a couple of weeks ago, mainly because it had an article about the Dinky Toys Maudsley horse box. At the Historic Racing Car Show a few years ago, I bought a very early framed photo of Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor at Brands Hatch loading (or unloading) a Formula Junior Lotus 18 onto a trailer, but in the background and clearly marked "Team Lotus" is what looks suspiciously like a converted horse box transporter. It's definitely not any of the already available Lotus transporters. And then I found two more photos of the same vehicle but not showing much more detail - no front views, so very difficult to identify the chassis manufacturer. Then when I was searching eBay for something else, I came across the Dinky Maudsley and a light bulb come on in my head. So I bought a very played-with example and it does have possibilities for conversion. It's going to be quite a job as the Team Lotus 'horsebox' transporter doesn't have the side ramp doors and the Dinky model doesn't have any windows or interior detail. And some better wheels will need to be found. I did send a copy of the photo to two or three of the historic commercial vehicle monthlies to see if anyone there could identify the vehicle; one did very kindly publish my letter but the photo was reproduced so small that you could barely see any detail to identify the vehicle or the coachbuilder.

I've also started trying to convert to the Matchbox King Size 'racing car transporter' to model the transporters used by Team Lotus Racing with Ford of Britain, originally to trail the ford Lotus Cortinas around the UK. Then when that campaign finished, one was repainted in the Gold Leaf Team Lotus red, white and gold colours to carry the Lotus 62 GT car. The Matchbox model is so obviously based on the real thing, with one slight but obvious difference! It measures up a bit short too, but it's not glaringly obvious. Filling in the roof involved a lot of model putty and sanding down, but so far I'm pleased with progress. I did contemplate trying to lengthen the 'lorry' by cutting and shutting two donor models together but decided it was probably beyond my skills. However, I've also been pestering Grand Prix Models to pester Spark into making models of all three versions (the two Racing with Ford originals were slightly different, one carried one car and spares; the other carried two cars, so one had a bigger cab for passengers and additional side windows) Spark will probably release their version(s) before I've finished mine!

I read a bit more of the magazine, including your column, and was amazed to read that you had been to Sicily recently, to visit the Targa Florio circuit. I went on holiday to Palermo and Cefalu, etc, in late October for 10 days and, of course, I spent two days driving round the circuits, trying to identify the locations of the various photographs I’ve collected over the years. Are you going to make an article of your recent expedition? Did you visit the museum in Collesano? We can’t have missed each other by too much, I must admit I didn’t see anyone in the start and finish and pit area posing small model race cars for atmospheric photos while I nosied around there!

Andrew Beint, email

ED How very weird that we were in the same place only days apart! The museums and a more comprehensive photo trip are planned for the near future, to fully take in the Targa Florio Classica - I only managed the scrutineering day this time around, but there was plenty of diecastrelated inspiration to be had. And talking of diecast inspiration, I love the idea of your Team Lotus Marshall-bodied Ford Thames transporters project and would love to hear/see more as they progress. I have a pair of the old Matchbox transporters and plan to do the 'cut and shut' extension for my version - it would be great to compare them when they're done.