Thirty-five years after Jochen Rindt won the Formula One World Championship title posthumously for Team Lotus, two of his most famous racing cars from that 1970 season are set to hit the tracks again. The Formula One Lotus 49 and Formula Two Lotus 69 have been hidden away out of the public eye for most of the intervening period. Now they have both been bought by enthusiast Joe Willenpart, who has also acquired the former Gold Leaf Team Lotus Formula One transporter from the late 1960s—affectionately known as HMS Hethel—and had it painstakingly restored to carry the cars around in!
Both cars have been meticulously, but sympathetically, refettled over the winter. To celebrate their recommissioning the cars, together with the newly, restored transporter, recently attended a reunion of Gold Leaf Team Lotus personnel at Ketteringham Hall, the spiritual home of Team Lotus. Those present included members of the Chapman family, Jochen’s 1970 teammate, John Miles, and more than a dozen mechanics. They were also joined by the ex–Graham Hill Lotus 49, sister car in the 1969 and 1970 works Lotus Formula One team.
Submitted by Michael Oliver
