Lot 298: Lotus Type 19 Sports-Racing Two-Seater

The Lotus 19 offered here was restored to its current formusing numerous original period componentsand was intended for British and European historic, and American Vintage, sports-car racing. It uses a British-made replacement chassis frame constructed in the late 1980sas, in truth, do most Lotus competition cars in regular use today since the original frames were designed with something approaching a 40-hour service life in mind rather than 40 years. This car incorporates a variety of perfectly original Lotus-Climax Type 19 components with what we understand to be the following history. In 1963 an ex-UDT-Laystall Racing Team Lotus 19 was sold to the prominent Australian owner/driver Frank Matich. It is believed to have been the UDT-Laystall racing organization's 'wire-wheeled' team car, one of three sister Type 19s which had been campaigned through 1961-62 in their pale-green racing colors by drivers including Moss himself, Innes Ireland, Cliff Allison and Henry Taylor. In Frank Matich's hands, his ex-UDT team car was raced with tremendous success 'down under', latterly with Total Oil company sponsorship. At one point the car was crashed very heavilywe believe at Warwick Farm circuit, Sydneyby Matich's mechanic. It was subsequently rebuilt with a new chassis frame as a Lotus 19B, and at some stage passed into the ownership of wealthy enthusiast Laurie O'Neil. Among the material acquired by O'Neil were the suspension sets, body sections, and substantial salvaged components from the original crashed Type 19. These parts were acquired, we understand, from O'Neil by David Piper and sold on to Peter Bloore in the UK in the late 1980s; Mr. Bloore also acquiring additional related material direct from Mr O'Neil. Frank Matich, meanwhile, had used the basis of the rebuilt Lotus 19B as the core of his large-capacity Elfin unlimited-capacity class sports-racing car. Peter Bloore then had a Type 19 chassis made for this restoration project, and sold it disassemble to prominent American collector/driver Joel Finn. Former Team Lotus and Jim Clark mechanic Cedric Selzer finished restoring and assembling the car, fitting a Colotti gearbox. It is considered in essence to embody all that remains of the UDT-Laystall/Frank Matich original Lotus Type 19as distinct from Matich's replacement Australian-assembled Lotus 19B. Following his acquisition of another Lotus 19, Finn then sold this car to another enthusiast who raced it and subsequently donated it to the Larz Anderson Museum in Boston. Acquired by the vendor in 2001, this 19 has recently benefited internally from a fresh Lotus gearbox, new half shafts, new brakes, and race prep work, all done by Jon Fossi in Portland, OR. Externally, new front and rear fiberglass painted in period correct colors by Tom Black's Garage, also of Portland, OR, and a new windscreen has been fitted. A dyno run and tune by Jay Ivey has also been performed. Having already enjoyed an active racing history, this 19 is ready to continue racing with little extra prep work required. At the time of going to press this example was being inspected by a representative from ACCUS-FIA, and it is anticipated that an FIA Historic Technical Passport will have been issued by the time of sale. Offered on a Bill of Sale.