Beschreibung
Sutol Motorsport Ltd. was a small company in the West Midlands established by Murray Lewis and a number of former Lotus employees in the late 1980's. They produced Lotus 23B replicas in kit form using a modified version of the original chassis and bodywork from the original moulds.
This car left the factory in February 1989 to be delivered to Mr Edward Chester of Berwick on Tweed. (original invoice on record) Mr Chester bought the car for racing, but had it registered for the road so that he could enter road-going classes and he raced the car at Knockhill, Ingliston and Croft. At this time the car had an 1840 BDA engine no doubt making it very competitive. (V5 still states 1840 cc but car now has 1650 cc Twin Cam)
In 1999 the car was sold, via a dealer, to Mr Neil Vickerman of Huddersfield. Mr Vickerman, a professional automotive engineer, set about the restoration of the car as a private project. This transpired to be a long term, complete nut and bolt re-build from chassis up. Executed to a very high standard to produce essentially a brand new car. All new parts purchased and fabricated to order are documented in an extensive history complete with a file of photographs of the process. To compliment the cars restoration a newly built, high specification Lotus Twin Cam engine was fitted.
Mr Vickerman completed all but the bodywork for the car and then sold it on to an enthusiast in Northumberland who intended to finish the restoration, but didn't. In 2015 the car came south to Kent but again the new owner didn't get round to sorting out the bodywork and sold it to finance another project.
The current owner bought the car in October 2016 and since then it has had refurbishment and professional re-spray of the bodywork, a newly fabricated roll hoop certified to current MSA standard, new tyres all round, recovered seats, new harnesses, and a rolling road set up and tune of the engine.
Specification:
Newly built 1650 cc Lotus Ford Twin Cam. Dry sumped, big valve head with unleaded inserts. It has QED 320 cams and the Weber carbs. were jetted to QED spec. Van Diemen cast alloy dry sump pan with a Pace pump and tank. BRM cam cover and toothed belt alternator and water pump drive. Twin fuel tanks in bespoke fabricated aluminium side pods. the gearbox is VW case with Hewland internals built by PDS. Competition clutch. New electrics throughout, race battery and master cut off switch. All new Smiths instruments including electronic speedo. and rev. counter. The steering rack is Lotus Elan, with double adjustable track rod attachments. Front brakes also Elan but with drilled and grooved discs. Rear brakes use AP FF racing callipers with FF front discs. All brake lines are Goodrich braided stainless steel , no solid lines, all t pieces etc. stainless. The braking system is split front and rear with an adjustable balance bar. The master cylinders are Wilwood including that used for the hydraulic fly off hand break. Rear uprights are Royale, shock absorbers are Spax adjustable and all wishbones, links and anti roll bars are newly made and nickel plated. Wheels are Compomotive alloys and are as new, the tyres are new e marked Kumho V70A Super-Softs.
