My Lotus classics

It was love at first sight.

"They were light years ahead of the opposition," says Geertsma, now 70.

"They were lighter, had four disc brakes, a wheel in each corner, independent suspension and a stiff chassis. Lotus was first in many areas with fibreglass bumpers, Formula 1 ground effects, monocoque chassis and the engine as part of the car itself."

During the '50s and '60s, Geertsma saw Lotus founder and engineer Colin Chapman driving an Elise and legendary F1 driver Jim Clark in a Lotus 25 at the circuit. It's little wonder, then, that the Ipswich businessman got into racing Lotuses after he migrated to Australia.

"I had my leg amputated from cancer in 1957, so when I got into racing in 1994 I went looking for race car drivers," he says.

"We had a Lotus 18 Formula Junior with several different drivers, but the best was Jerry Perkins, brother of Larry. Terry and Larry raced in Europe. Larry won the Formula 3 championship and Terry had won the Copenhagen race. Terry always put in 10 out of 10 in performance whenever he got behind the wheel and they are both very good mechanics."

The racing team folded in 2007, but Geertsma's love affair with Lotus has persisted off the track. He bought his first road-going Lotus, a 1960 Elite he picked up in Melbourne in 1985 for $19,000.

"I thought, 'What have you done, you idiot?'," he says.

The original car with chassis number 1082 was a Lotus demonstrator with a Maxima body which was destroyed in June 1960 in north Wales when Lotus sales manager Ian McLeod drove head on into a bus. McLeod was severely injured while passenger and Canadian motoring journalist Tom Davenport died on impact.

The current car uses the gearbox and a few other parts from the original but now has chassis number 1449 with a Bristol body. It is powered by a four-cylinder 1216cc engine with a lightweight alloy head and block.

Lotus rated power at a tiny 56kW and torque at 104Nm, but because the fibreglass monocoque vehicle only weighed about 660kg, it was super-quick and nimble.

It's now worth about $75,000 and Geertsma wouldn't part with it.

"I'd sell my family before I'd sell the Elite," he says. "The Elite is Chapman's first road-going car. It's virtually a race car for the road. You could just put a number on the side, race it and be a winner."

He also had a 1977 Porsche 911 which he crashed and burnt. In 1990, he replaced the Porsche with a 1967 Lotus Elan SE he bought in Sydney for $17,500. It is now worth about $40,000.

"It was partly restored, but it wasn't a good job, so I had to start the restoration again from the beginning," he says.

He replaced the gearbox with a four-speed box from an MG Magnette, but the rest is standard. It is powered by a 1558cc four-cylinder cast-iron block and alloy-head engine with 78kW and 146Nm.
Geertsma says it's not only more powerful than the Elite, but smaller in every dimension and weighs only about 640kg.

"I'll be keeping these cars for the kids," he says.