Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Login
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • Motorsport
    • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
    • LAKESIDE DTC RESULTS
  • Magazine
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Galleries
  • Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Archives
F3_pic1

Garage Find

Words and pictures by Steve Lennox

One of the great things about being a Lotus enthusiast is that you get to meet all kinds of other motoring and motorsport enthusiasts. To this end a friend of mine has been pestering me to meet one of her friends on the Gold Coast who has a very interesting garage, also her friend wanted to see my Europa, as he has a black Exige.

So on the recent Ekka holiday I went for a drive to the coast to meet Gary Johns, a stalwart of Australian motorsport – having raced all his life in a variety of cars. I arrived at a very nice house with a double garage door. That was deceiving. This garage ran the whole length of the house, and contained some very interesting cars and motorsport memorabilia.

When we went in I saw four very interesting cars, 2 open wheeler race cars, a very rare Lotus Exige Type 72, and a very original Honda NSX. Looking at the walls there were posters and photos from a lifetime of motoring and motorsports. One particular example was a ‘vintage’ Jack Brabham poster signed by Jack. Photos of Healey, bug eyed sprite, MGA and many others all in action on the track.

We got talking and Gary has raced and owned many cars, but has a soft spot for Lotus having owned and raced them. He owned a 1964 Elan that he raced and sold onto his brother who raced it at Bathurst in the 60s in the Marque Sportscar class.

A very interesting Lotus I saw in one of his photos that he also owned (and lamented that he should have never sold) was a Type 59 F3 car. This car won the Gold Star series in the hands of Leo Geoghegan in 1970. Gary bought it off his brother a few years later when it was powered by a twin cam engine. He brought it back to the original racing spec with the 2.0lt Waggott engine. Gary said that was the only Type 59 in Australia.

Looking around the garage my first ogle was at the 2010 Lotus Exige Type 72 one of only three brought to Australia. This car was absolutely original and in mint condition, it just couldn’t be faulted, I checked the odometer it only had 250km on the speedo. Inside it still smelt like a new car absolutely as it left the factory.

Next was the 1994 Honda NSX, again mint condition with only 5000km on the clock. They are a true supercar even by today’s standards. Gary said he was considering a Porsche or Ferrari when he bought the NSX, but when he drove them all he ended up with the Honda. As he said, in its day it was way ahead of the other supercars.

Then onto the Team Australia Indy car (2002 Reynard). This was driven by Marcus Marshall when Indy cars were racing on the Gold Coast. It was quite badly crashed and Gary has painstakingly restored to original. It is just missing the engine; this may be installed later if Indy cars come back to the Gold Coast. Gary shared that this car did burnouts on the Story Bridge in 2006 to promote Indy Cars. Not sure if anyone remembers.

The last car was an F3 open wheeler, the latest 08/11 chassis with an unusual VW power plant. This 2.0lt engine was built by Spiess in Germany. Gary said it is very competitive, when steered by some of these fast young guys. He still runs a motorsport team “Gary Johns F3 Motorsport” and gets to the track for any F3 races in SE Queensland.

It was a great way to spend a few hours, and a big thanks to Gary for sharing his cars and enthusiasm. Gary has offered to host the Lotus Club on our next ‘Tour de Sheds’, and may even come along to check out the other sheds in and around SE Queensland.

Exige_pic1 Exige_pic2 Exige_pic3 Exige_pic4 F3_pic1 F3_pic3 F3-pic2 Indy_Car_Pic1 Indy_Car_pic2 Indy_Car_pic3 Leo_Geogehan_Lotus_Type59 NSX_pic1 NSX_pic2 NSX_pic3
[Show thumbnails]
The Mapleton Run Early Lucas Ignition Systems Plus Tune

Related Posts

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

plus2-banner

Articles, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Technical

Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane

helmet-banner

Articles, Homepage, Racing

$10 HEAD/$10 HELMET

Random images

IMG_2904 8. Just chatting & dreaming 20160522_101433 _MG_4680 as Smart Object-1 Col-Tim-Best-1950-1995 Vyvyan-Shane 14-Extra-breakfast-companions-above 24-Cameron-approaching-the-eastern-loop 18-Marees-knitting-circle.jpg MG_6566- dtc-shane 20140928_093122 singer 07 MG_9560 MG_9479 DSC_0046 IMG_6509 IMG_9041 118_1810_IMG Adam 20220220_093714 David-Yule-by-SDPICS The-Ringuet-Family The-old-the-new_gw Lotus-left-right-centre_gw Greg-Chris-Bray Group-8.18-Mike-Moore-saves-on-front-right-tyre-wear-A-Stevens Kris McKerron 2004 Lotus Elise 111R - 2 gw_Lotus line up Joe-keeping-Sally-Matt-entertained Lloyd Dick A comfort stop along the way 20170424_133300_001 20170226_070103 Geoff-lr 20161105_100109 Drivers Briefing P1010438 P9180024c1 IMG_5136 IMG_7381 122_2239_IMG IMG_8493 IMG_0333 F1000015 P1060073 IMG_8561 IMG_8780 main-38 image005 main-31a main-28 main-39 Uphill-racer Gathering-at-OReillys-3 29_MG_2671 IMG_4489 IMG_8616 image_231 image_170 image_014 IMG_3720 MG_4288 04e img_1027 DSC_1539 PICT7268 IMG_4001 IMG_3943 IMG_8099 IMG_8043 20130511_101604 The-new-two-wheel-toy first-alight 20181021_104810 phils-evora-1 John and Debbie's Evora 2 IMG-3983 Mike-Goodfellow-showing-Bridie-the-way.-By-Trapnell-Creations McLaren cols-flat-2 D74_9597_full IMG_6150 IMGP8651 img_2031 img_2039 Ready-for-Action Inside the brewery_gw IMG_6157 Parked at Qld Transport Museum 1 main-22 just-a-bit-of-fun model-t-badging Lotus-Cars-Qld-Display-1 IMGP8448 IMGP8584 Leigh-Russel-and-judge-Carolyn 20170709_104531

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios