The first Lotus to be imported into North America<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

The first thing an owner seems to do is join the Historic Lotus Register (HLR), trace the history of your Lotus and start the search of other such cars in your area. With the assistance of the HLR (Mk VI registrar Charles Helps, Vic Thomas, founder of the HLR), I quickly confirmed that POP, as my Mk VI is fondly referred to, was first owned by Ian H. Smith, the author of the first history books on Lotus ( ‘Lotus, the First Ten years’, ‘Lotus, the Story of the Marque’, and ‘The Story of Lotus – 1947-1960 Birth of a Legend’). As Ian had chronicled the building of POP in the first book, I had a detailed history – including such facts as the engine was built by Mike Costin (Mike was running a small division of Lotus, ‘Racing Engines Ltd’), he had specified Mk IX brakes (those 11″ magnesium finned items produced by Lotus), and knock-on wire wheels. Probably one of the most interesting facts was that Colin himself conducted the test drive (how many people can claim this!). Ian raced POP for two successful seasons – primarily Hill climbs, Sprints and several circuit races.<\/p>\n

POP’s second owner was Roy Millbank, a farmer and racing enthusiast from the Shoebury areea. Roy raced the “wheels off of the car”, winning over 100 races on the well know circuits in England (Brands Hatch, Silverstone, among others).<\/p>\n

$\"Millbanks$ <\/a> $\"Millbanks$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Roy managed, through his driving skills and car preparation to keep this Mk VI more than competitive with much newer and more sophisticated (not to mention streamlined) adversaries. until it’s sale in 1960 – fully 6 years after its build date. The sale even was featured in the local newspaper.<\/p>\n

$\"Press$ <\/a><\/p>\n

With POP’s race years over, the car was simply maintained in original condition be several subsequent owners, Today, POP lives a much less stressful life, only used for exhibition races – the last one being at the Barber Motorsports facility in Birmingham, AL USA last month.<\/p>\n

$\"POP$ <\/a> $\"Track$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Today, POP attends many exhibits and shows and it provides the introduction for me to expound on the rich history of Lotus to both the newest Lotus owners and non-Lotus owners alike., a task that I dearly enjoy.<\/p>\n

Thank you Pat Dennis for this excellent article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"