1962 Lotus Type 23A Roadster

This Lotus 23A with chassis number 23/88 is a very early car built for the 24 Hours of LeMans and was once owned by Stirling Moss. It was originally sold to British Racing Partners (Stirling Moss Formula 1 money) owned by Stirling Moss, his father Alfred, and Ken Gregory, Stirling's business manager. Their sponsor was the finance house UDT-Laystall. Entered by UDT in LeMans for Les Leston and Tom Shelly as a semi-factory entry. The LeMans debacle is well documented as two Lotus 23s were basically forced not to compete by the French because they would have been too competitive and it cause quite a stir. Sold shortly after LeMans and driven by Bernard Consten and Jose Rosinski to a 1st at both the FIA Makes July 1962 Auvergne Trophy Event and the 1000 kms of Montihery, held October of 1962. At Auvergne, it placed 9th overall behind six Ferrari's and an Aston Martin DB4GT out of 45 cars entered. Competed successfully in many races by Consten and Rosinski and later by Vincent Palermo in France, when owned by ETS Royal-P'Elysees, importers of Lotus in France. It then went to Japan into Ito Mitsuo's Collection, returning to California in 1994. It was purchased by David Bingham and raced actively by him during the last 10 years, winning the USRRC Under Two-Liter Sports Racing Championship in 2001.