MY WEEK IN CARS
Steve Cropley
Cropley is desperate for a go in this Graham Hill-era Team Lotus racer
MONDAY
Apart from dalliances with V8s (and begging an exception for a currently owned Ford twin-turbo V6), I’ve always had a preference for small road cars with simple engines. So why I should be seized by a deep desire to try an 830bhp Chevy V8-powered ‘lost’ Lotus 66 Can-Am racer is difficult to fathom.
I came upon this mysterious machine while wandering the British Motor Museum at Gaydon with head of collections Stephen Laing and my colleague Matt Prior. We were recording a podcast for transmission on 5 November (as close as we can get to Autocar’s 130th birthday on 2 November). This car is one of a dozen fascinating Lotus prototypes the museum is bringing to the light from storage at Hethel.