When Bruce Gross bought the clapped-out Lotus Formula Junior from an El Paso backyard, he had no idea of the car’s early history.
His first exposure to the car was in the mid-1970s, when he raced an MGB in an autocross event in the El Paso area. He was a Lotus enthusiast and couldn’t help but take notice when an early Lotus 18 began showing up at the events. He was young, though, and could only afford to admire the car from a distance.
Later, Gross satisfied his Lotus lust in 1976 when he moved to California and bought an Elan. But five years later, he was back in El Paso and began racing again, haunted by thoughts of that Lotus 18. He needed to locate it. He looked up old SCCA event results from the mid-1970s and found the Lotus and the owner’s name.
Turns out the owner had a local speed shop.
Originally shipped to Mexico to establish a Formula Junior class there, Bruce Gross’s Lotus spent time as an autocrosser and even a drag racer! It’s enough to make constructor Colin Chapman blush! BRUCE GROSS
Gross visited the owner and found the car under a tarp in his backyard. They struck a deal, and Gross finally owned the car. What he didn’t know, however, was that the car was one of five new ones that were shipped from England to Mexico City in 1960 to establish the Formula Junior class in that country. The car finished eighth in the 1961 Mexican Grand Prix Formula Junior race with original owner Jose Luis Mulas behind the wheel. Mulas had ordered the car in light blue with red numbers to reflect his French heritage.
Here the Lotus is equipped with Zoomie headers and a Pinto overhead cam 2-liter instead of its original pushrod 1-liter engine. BRUCE GROSS
Gross ultimately traded his Lotus for a Formula Ford. The Lotus made its way back to England where it was restored and painted in the same color scheme as when it arrived in Mexico almost 60 years earlier. BRUCE GROSS
Later, the car bounced around between owners in Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas before being rebuilt, believe it or not, as a drag racer with metal-flake paint and zoomie headers. Eventually it became an autocross racer, which is the era when Gross first saw the car in the mid-1970s.
Gross bought the Lotus in 1981 and autocrossed it for the next nine years. “I was actually racing a Lotus,” Gross says. “It was the same model that my hero Jimmy Clark started his Lotus racing career with in 1960.”
When he sold it, even though he had modified it slightly, he was able to present the new owner with all the original parts he had saved, including the original Cosworth MK IV engine. “I didn’t have the money to restore the car, so I advertised it in Hemmings,” Gross says. “The ad said, ‘Want to trade Lotus Formula Junior in need of restoration for restored Lotus Formula Ford.’ I traded the car for a beautiful Lotus 51C, which allowed me to go vintage racing. It was British Racing Green with a yellow stripe and red interior.”
The car ultimately found its way back to England, where it was restored to the condition and colors it wore in the 1961 Mexican Formula Junior race. Since then, the car has been raced and displayed throughout the United Kingdom at vintage events.
“For me,” Gross says, “the ultimate Lotus freak, to find and buy that car was my ultimate goal.”