1969 Indy Lotus?

[indyrjc]

Is anything known about this car '#2 being a replica based on one of the sister cars or the original monocoque of the original car being rebuilt again?

As I recall there were a total of four Lotus 64 race cars built. The plan was to race three of them at Indianapolis with the fourth car serving as a backup if needed. It's pretty likely that car in the Barber Museum is the backup car redone as the Andretti car. It's funny how a big dollar operation with backing from Firestone and STP brought those cars to Indianapolis and not a single one even got to make a Qualification attempt. And further they were never raced anywhere else.

BTW, I can't remember the details but someone once told me that the three remaining Lotus 64s were stored in the Town of Speedway for quite some time in someone's large garage at a private residence. It might have been for over a year after 1969. Maybe someone here knows more about this.

[Indyote]

As I recall there were a total of four Lotus 64 race cars built. The plan was to race three of them at Indianapolis with the fourth car serving as a backup if needed. It's pretty likely that car in the Barber Museum is the backup car redone as the Andretti car. It's funny how a big dollar operation with backing from Firestone and STP brought those cars to Indianapolis and not a single one even got to make a Qualification attempt. And further they were never raced anywhere else.

BTW, I can't remember the details but someone once told me that the three remaining Lotus 64s were stored in the Town of Speedway for quite some time in someone's large garage at a private residence. It might have been for over a year after 1969. Maybe someone here knows more about this.

Andrew Ferguson wote a lot about all that in his wonderful book "Team Lotus the Indianapolis years".

Now to be fully complete, Ferguson died before the book was entirely finished and well known writer Doug Nye finished the work so he deserves some credits as well.
I have the feeling that Lotus is either well liked or not enjoyed at all over here, given the fact that they were mainly resposible for sealing the fate of the Roadster.
But especially if you feel kind of sympathetic towards Lotus or better, I can recommand that book in case you see a copy of it being offered for sale.

I have friends who are not into Indy like I am but they are way more into F1. And after a brief glance in my copy and reading the 1965 chapter, one of my friends who is a big Lotus F1 fan too told me that he regretted that Ferguson wasted his efforts on writing about the Indy adventures of Lotus instead of having put all his efforts in the F1 years instead. Because he wondered how such a book must have been to read, based on what he saw of the 1965 chapter he had read.

[editor]

As I recall there were a total of four Lotus 64 race cars built. The plan was to race three of them at Indianapolis with the fourth car serving as a backup if needed. It's pretty likely that car in the Barber Museum is the backup car redone as the Andretti car. It's funny how a big dollar operation with backing from Firestone and STP brought those cars to Indianapolis and not a single one even got to make a Qualification attempt. And further they were never raced anywhere else.

BTW, I can't remember the details but someone once told me that the three remaining Lotus 64s were stored in the Town of Speedway for quite some time in someone's large garage at a private residence. It might have been for over a year after 1969. Maybe someone here knows more about this.

There was nothing surprising about why Lotus never allowed the 64s to attempt to race outside of the Month of May: the reported bad blood between Colin Chapman and Andy Granatelli plus the reported bad blood between Chapman and Ford's HQ.

[kevin99]

I read somewhere that Chapman offered Mario the So... what's the average age of Track... after Mario’s wreck. Obviously him deciding was the right decision, if this is true.