TONY SHUTE
Best known for his work with Lotus, Tony Shute started at Vauxhall and later developed cutting-edge tyres at Goodyear
1. In the 1980s I worked for Goodyear in Luxembourg – a country the size of Norfolk. I was one of five engineers with a special driving licence and one of these signs to put in a test car’s windscreen. There were no motorways but I got 120mph out of hot hatches on the A-roads.
2. When my wife Lyn was ill, she took up art because she found it therapeutic. She likes to capture wildlife in pastels and my favourite is this close-up of a cockerel.
3. I love the iPhone’s design and construction – so rigid, so tactile, yet it’s not obvious what it is. It looks as though it has just one switch yet it works brilliantly.
4. Bought for me for my ninth birthday, this hammer has been the most useful tool I’ve ever owned. I’ve built Chevette HS and Magnum rally cars with it, along with a string of Lotuses, including a 61, 69 and Elan. I use it for tapping out bolts but years ago I tried to use it as a lever and snapped the handle, so I had to make a new one from applewood, wedged in with a nail.
5. Vauxhall allowed employees to buy surplus materials, and in 1973 I bought this reel of seatbelt thread for 10p. It’s ideal for plumb lines: perfect for setting-up the camber on a car, along with the toe-in, toe-out and bump steer. I’ve used it to setup the suspension of all my racing cars.
6. My son Robin’s radio-controlled cars could survive huge crashes, which made me wonder: could a real car could be made from the same materials? The result was the Exposé – 340R prototype number 1. It sired the 2-Eleven and was originally owned by Lotus. I have won numerous hillclimbing class awards in it. It’s the lightest Elise ever made, at just 540kg.
7. My daughter Jessica is a gifted musician. While I enjoy listening to the music, I can also appreciate the engineering that goes into creating an instrument such as this.
8. The F is the rarest of the Lotus Type 69s, last of the single-seaters offered by the factory. Just 22 were made of 62 Type 69s. Powered by a Ford pushrod engine that revs to 9000rpm, it has 170bhp and weighs 400kg. I won the Paul Matty Lotus Hillclimb Championship in it last year.
9. I learned to ski when I was 21 and every year we go to Chamonix. I love snow and ice, for skiing and driving – the changing conditions make things unpredictable. These all-mountain Head skis are great for fresh snow as well as for tackling pistes.