Grassroots Motorsports

Updates

• At the races April 13

  Lotus 61 sneaking around on the inside at the drop of the green. Moved from …

• early photos May 07

  white car is the Jim Russell racer

Comments

Tim Baxter:

Woohoo. First vote up! Sweet.
Oct 15, 2008 7:48 a.m.

GameboyRMH:

We demand more pics! And we want info on the car in the background, is that an Esprit?
Oct 20, 2008 8:54 a.m.

Lesley:

More info please! Tell us about the history of this beautiful car.
Apr 10, 2009 6:48 a.m.

abrussich:

The car is build number 104. It was originally purchased in 1969 for use in the Jim russell School of Driving. The original J.R. sticker is still on the roll bar brace. Sometime in the 70's it was sold to the next owner out in California, who raced it for a number of years in SCCA competition. The owner had scored several class victories and championshiops in that time. I have all the Log books and photos of the car in it's various paint schemes. Sorry, they are polaroids and I do not have anyway of digitizing them. At some point the previous owner suffered a blown engine and the car ended up sitting dormant for a period of time. When I got it the #4 cylinder looked like a grenade had been let off in it. The car had also been whacked pretty good on the left side and the gear box was in really sad and worn out condition. This being the second car in our team we proceeded to replace those items which appeared to need repair. My mistake there, should have just stripped it down and rebuilt everything. Vintage racing is still new to me so there is a bit of a learning curve involved. Just about every mechanical piece on the car has either been rebuilt or replaced. A nasty, tricky gremlin in the new oil pump cost me two and a half engine rebuilds before we were able to pin down the problem. The gear box is a complete rebuild. The previous owner was about 8 inches shorter and a large number of pounds lighter than I am so a major pedal relocation effort and seat modification were required to fit my lard but stature. The cockpit opening was widened and the nose was shortend in order to increase air flow across the radiator with which to handle the Texas heat. A large duct was also added on the top of the nose to help extract heat from the radiator without it travelling through the cockpit as it would have done normally. All the electronics and fuel system components have been replaced and the carberator is brand new. The exhaust system was treated with a Polydyn coating to provide better heat transfer and the oil lines were upgraded to a higher quality of tubing. Still to do on the car is to replace the original heavy brass radiator with a new light weight aluminum one, new rotors, bearings and pads, and a taller roll bar. After a year wasted trying to get the car running right and the gremlins evicted, the car is now running very well and is showing to be competitive in it's class, as demonstrated by a fourth out of twenty placing at the last race in Hallett. The car is a lot of fun and even though it's not the fastest or best performing car out there it is a blast to drive. With a smaller, leaner and meaner driver who knows. The car is owned by Team LOST Ltd. and lives happily in Houston.
Apr 13, 2009 6:01 a.m.

aussiesmg:

Glorious, you must bring it to the Mitty next year, Lotus is the featured brand
Jul 21, 2009 7:02 p.m.

JetMech:

Awesome. Voted up, of course!
Nov 3, 2009 9:02 p.m.

triumph5:

Very, very nice Lotus.
Sep 15, 2010 7:12 p.m.

Matt B:

Drool. That is all.
Sep 29, 2010 11:22 a.m.