Beschreibung:

In 1960 the American entrepreneur Lloyd P. 'Lucky' Casner's Camoradi racing team set the FIA Sports Car World Championship series alight with some stupendous performances by its Maserati Tipo 61 'Birdcage' cars, driven by Dan Gurney, Casner himself, Masten Gregory and none other than Stirling Moss. The acronym 'Camoradi' derived from 'Casner Motors Inc Racing Division' and the operation was originally heavily backed by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which was seeking to establish a foothold in international road racing. For the following year, 1961, team driver Masten Gregory persuaded the flamboyant 'Lucky' Casner that the team should also mount a serious assault upon Formula 1. To this end Camoradi International was formed with a base in Europe, and a new Cooper T53 'Lowline' car was acquired for Gregory. However Ian Burgess, the team's newly-joined number two driver (who passed away only last month, on May 18) said he knew where he could acquire "a very cheap Lotus 18", and according to his testimony he had contested one or two Formula 2 races under the Scuderia Centro-Sud banner at the wheel of just such a 1½ -litre Maserati-powered car (chassis '902') in 1960. That car was brought to England and Ian Burgess – who always displayed an extrovertly entrepreneurial approach on his own account - reached an agreement with Colin Chapman of Lotus for the car to be taken to the Lotus factory at Cheshunt for refurbishment and to be put back to standard Coventry Climax-engined specification, Burgess purchasing a Climax FPF 4-cylinder to be installed in place of the discarded Italian unit. However, recent research suggests that contrary to Mr Burgess's recollection, Lotus sold the 18-Maserati that he recalled to Italian amateur Prince Gaetano Starrabba, and the Climax-powered car that Burgess later acquired onCamoradi's behalf was in fact a brand new one (chassis serial '908' now offered here). This car was race-prepared by Camoradi chief mechanic Bob Wallace – later of Lamborghini development engineering fame - but there was so little time to get it to Pau for the first race of the 1961 season, that Wallace was still working on the new Type 18 in the back of the transporter as it trundled south through France. Needless to say, the hastily 'leaned-together' car didn't finish the race. After this abortive Pau debut, Wallace returned to Modena to look after the team's sportscars and preparation of the Lotus 18 then devolved upon a "London-based Italian called Giovanni" and Irishman Aiden Jones, whom Camoradi manager Tony Mawe had recruited from Weir Lodge Garage in Chertsey, Surrey. This arrangement gave them access to Weir Lodge's workshop facility, and a corner was also made available there to leading car body-builder Maurice Gomm. The 1961 Pau Grand Prix was followed by a similar non-Championship Formula 1 race on the Heysel circuit at Brussels, in which Ian Burgess and the Camoradi-entered Lotus-Climax 18 finished eighth. He was then disqualified from the Aintree '200' (for taking on oil during the race – specifically prohibited under the new 1½-litre Formula 1 regulations for 1961-65). Three Camoradi International team entries were made for the Intercontinental Formula BRDC International Trophy race at Silverstone on May 6 that year, two Lotus 18s and their 'Lowline' Cooper Type 53. However, none of the cars appeared in this up-to-3-litre event. Fortunes then improved – quite literally considering the attractive cash prizes - in the Naples GP, in Italy, in which Ian Burgess finished fourth, after surviving a lurid spin at the hairpin bend at the bottom of the Posillipo hill. No private equipe could hope to compete on even terms with the works teams, even those using supposedly identical 4-cylinder Coventry Climax engines, and Ian Burgess in the Camoradi Lotus failed to qualify for its first two World Championship Grand Prix races, the Dutch and the Belgian. The combination then finished 14th in the French GP, a result repeated