Jack Stone

On black rims, heading towards Uxbridge this morning

Great to see one in the wild. Heading north on Horton Rd by QM reservoir.

Great scheme. When I owned my red Esprit GT3 I toyed with the idea of making it Gold Leaf TL, to try to emulate the wonderful wedge that is the Lotus Type 56B turbine F1 car.

First video I’ve seen of an Emeya on the road

Could be to do with the aircraft's ownership/financing. Although the owner is German-based (Kai Nieklausen), the Cirium fleet database shows the "trust owner" as a US company: Sky West Aviation Inc. There are plenty of 414s on the German reg, so it is unlikely to be cert related. Although transferring assets between different registers can be problematic.

Mike in the Lotus Type 56 during practice for the 1968 Indianapolis 500 (pic via https://grandprixinsider.wordpress.com)

Barrie, the Mike Spence memorial is located in sector "(CR)" on the left side of the map below. You can park very close by. My motorsport pal Richard Jenkins wrote the superb Spence book and has recently published an excellent history of Tyrrell.

Team Lotus (and BRM) F1 driver Mike Spence died at the wheel of a Lotus Type 56 turbine 4WD on 7 May 1968 during practice for the Indianapolis 500. He had replaced Jimmy in the STP TL Indy team, racing alongside Graham Hill. Mike had been extremely quick up until his accident, posting the fastest lap despite being an Indy rookie. He may well have gone on to take pole. At the time of his death, Mike had a Lotus dealership in Maidenhead town centre, and resided nearby with his new wife Lynn. His funeral was held in Bray church (my childhood village - and not far from where @Bazza 907 grew up) and he was subsequently cremated and interred at Slough crematorium. After several fruitless searches over the years, I finally tracked down his memorial in the cemetery five or six years ago. I now always try to attend his final resting place on the anniversary of his birth (30 Dec) and death to tend the memorial and leave a token of respect (usually travelling there by Lotus). Yesterday would have been Mike's 87th birthday... RIP (sadly, Lynn died in 2022).

@aquiss B&C is a great dealership, but West Horsley showroom in my experience can feel a bit "Mary Celeste" on a Saturday if you drop by and have not booked an appointment. Sales manager Jamie doesn't tend to work weekends these days and somethimes the staffing can be a bit on the light side, especially if they're out on a demo run.

Lotus Cars China recreated the iconic Esprit/Cessna 414 G-PRIX/Chapman pic for the Shanghai Eletre launch in March (see below). Clive told me that the 414 displayed in Shanghai was a fibreglass mock-up, but amazingly the original TL Chancellor is flying today back in its JP-TL colours, on US reg N414BW. Based in Germany.

@Mark Blanchard Unfortunately, this isn't a period pic from 1975 but actually a bit of pastiche, presumably set up during the making of the film Rush at Blackbushe in 2012 with the old JP-TL transporter. The Type 72 is decked out in 1975 signage (e.g. Duckhams Q, Ronnie running number "5"). But you can see that the transporter bears the name of Emerson Fittipaldi, who left TL at end of 1973. The old JPS transporter (that now resides in a side-road in Chertsey) was used in the filming of Rush: https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/action-at-blackbushe/ I snapped a pic of my V8 Esprit with the JP-TL transporter a couple of years back.

Video of a well-attended Lotus event in Japan. Some interesting machinery on display.

And the Nimbus at the front appears to be on non-stock rims

Emira formation down under