Lotus 22 47 Ex Roly Levis

[Serge]

Hi all,

I congratulate the founder of this website that I often read.

I'm a new member of The roaring season and I'm living in Switzerland.

I've recently bought a Lotus 22 from NZ with a fantastic history. I received with the car the customs document dated on 29 November 1963.

We know that the first owner of the car was Jonathan Williams from UK who raced in Europe in 1963 with this Lotus 22. I have the list of the races he done.

Then, Jonathan sold his car to a NZ person and we know that it was Rory Levis who placed several advertising in magazines to get quickly a Lotus 22. We found this information in Jonathan Williams's book : Shooting star on a prancing horse.

My objective is to have a maximum of informations like pictures and races that this Lotus have done during his life in NZ. I only found the races done by Rory Levis in 1963.

I found several owners of this Lotus on the original customs document. The car stayed in NZ from 29 November 1963 to March 2016.

The list of the owners after Rory Levis :
- Southward Engineering (Lower Hutt) : 1964
- John Charles Wilson (Parnell) : 1965
- John Norman Littler (Papatoe) : 1967
- Peter Sony Ransom (Lower Hutt) : 1967-68
- Kelvin Cameron (Dunedin) : 1968-69
- Murray Bugler (Picton) : 1969 -78
- Kerry Rout (Christchurch) : 1978 - 2012

I hope you could help for my researches ans I thank you in advance for your support.

Kind regards from Geneva !

[Oldfart]

Hi Serge, to be accurate he is Roly, not Rory. Congratulations, and welcome aboard.
If Southward engineering owned it, you can be relatively confident that it was Kerry Grant who will show in research as the driver.

[Michael Clark]

Hi Serge - and to be pedantic, he was born Rollo - Rollo Athol Levis - hence his initials became the name of his famous RAL Special

[khyndart in CA]

Serge,
You might get some information etc. from this Roaring Season post.

http://www.theroaringseason.com/showthread.php?733-Roly-Levis-Lotus-22-1964&highlight=roly+levis+lotus

( Ken Hyndman )

[Serge]

Thank you at all for your answers !

Yes, the name wrote on the original document of customs is Rollo Athol Levis.

I will try to post the scan of the certificate of registration done in 1963.

Ken : I discovered this forum by the post that you talk after a research on Google.

It would be fine to have the scans of the pictures posted. I could put them on my historic file of my car.3977439773

[Grant Ellwood]

Hi Serge, to be accurate he is Roly, not Rory. Congratulations, and welcome aboard.
If Southward engineering owned it, you can be relatively confident that it was Kerry Grant who will show in research as the driver.

Rhys, I couldn't recall Kerry driving a 22, thought he went from the tin-tops to the Brabham. However Mr Google told me that Kerry finished 9th in the 1965 NZGP in a Lotus 22 entered by Lesco so you were right on the money Rhys.

[Grant Ellwood]

Thank you at all for your answers !

Yes, the name wrote on the original document of customs is Rollo Athol Levis.

I will try to post the scan of the certificate of registration done in 1963.

Ken : I discovered this forum by the post that you talk after a research on Google.

It would be fine to have the scans of the pictures posted. I could put them on my historic file of my car.3977439773

Those old registration papers have been great at times when trying to follow the ownership thread of early NZ race cars, wish UK had the same system in the '50s and '60s. I have a 1965 Cooper T76 F3 car in the shop for restoration and having a dickens of a job tracking its provenance, many of these cars from that era didn't always have a chassis registration plate.

[Serge]

Hi Grant,
I don't know if UK had the same system. I'm a purist on history and I spend a lot of time to find an historic race car with the clear history. It's really difficult and you can easily understand why I bought this Lotus 22 even if the distance between Switzerland et NZ is almost of 12'000 miles :).

[928]

the peter ransom mentioned was also president of the hutt valley car club

[RogerH]

I'm aware that there has been quite a bit of research done on the history of this car. I think 22/47 is actually a frame number not a chassis number. The chassis numbers were in the format 22-J-xx (presuming it was a Lotus 22 FJ). Lotus 22 frame number 22/47 (Roly's car) is a different car to Lotus 22 chassis number 22-J-47.

[Serge]

That's correct Roger for the chassis number and the frame number. The certificate of registration wrote the frame number. I'm the owner of several historic cars with a good history and often the plate number was taken off at the period because of customs taxes !

[stirlingmac]

Lesco was a brand name for Southwards products..

[Serge]

Thank you for these precious informations !

I hope to get more pictures and articles on his life in NZ from 1963.

[khyndart in CA]

Serge,
You probably have this already but I will share this excerpt from the April 1967 "Motorman" magazine about R.A.L.

"39777


(Ken Hyndman )

[khyndart in CA]

Serge,
This is another article from the NZ Formula Junior Register in August 2013.

" New to the paddock will be the ex Roly Levis Lotus 22, chassis 22 J 47 which Levis had
purchased back in period from the Jonathan Williams, Piers Courage, Anglo- Swiss Team in
the UK. Recent research has shown that 22 J 47 and its sister car 22 J 48 were originally
sold to Jean Lucien Bonnet of France. Bonnet was tragically killed in 22 J 48 in a race in Sicily.
47 was sold to Anglo Swiss and soon after, Williams was seen to be racing a Lotus 22 and it
is assumed it was this car. Whilst 47 was never raced as a FJ in NZ It has an auspious history
in New Zealand, racing in the Tasman and NZ National Formula series in the hands of Roly
Levis, then Kerry Grant when in Southwards Engineering ownership, and then Kelvin
Cameron. Having been Formula Forded the car passed into the ownership of Kerry Rout
since 1969.
The car is now with our own Noel Woodford and Mark Roberts of Christchurch and is
currently under going a rapid restoration by Mark at his company, McGregor Motorsport,
in time for the Southern Series."
39779


http://www.mcgregormotorsport.co.nz/



(Ken H)

[RogerH]

Serge,
This is another article from the NZ Formula Junior Register in August 2013.

" New to the paddock will be the ex Roly Levis Lotus 22, chassis 22 J 47 which Levis had
purchased back in period from the Jonathan Williams, Piers Courage, Anglo- Swiss Team in
the UK. Recent research has shown that 22 J 47 and its sister car 22 J 48 were originally
sold to Jean Lucien Bonnet of France. Bonnet was tragically killed in 22 J 48 in a race in Sicily.
47 was sold to Anglo Swiss and soon after, Williams was seen to be racing a Lotus 22 and it
is assumed it was this car. Whilst 47 was never raced as a FJ in NZ It has an auspious history
in New Zealand, racing in the Tasman and NZ National Formula series in the hands of Roly
Levis, then Kerry Grant when in Southwards Engineering ownership, and then Kelvin
Cameron. Having been Formula Forded the car passed into the ownership of Kerry Rout
since 1969.
The car is now with our own Noel Woodford and Mark Roberts of Christchurch and is
currently under going a rapid restoration by Mark at his company, McGregor Motorsport,
in time for the Southern Series."
39779


http://www.mcgregormotorsport.co.nz/



(Ken H)

It subsequently was determined that the early history recorded in the NZFJR article above was incorrect. The Roly car (frame 22/47) is not the ex- Jean Lucienbonnet car (chassis 22 J 47). There was also initially some confusion regarding the ex- Jonathan Williams Lotus 22 FJ car (the Roly car) and his subsequent Lotus 22 F3 car (which was possibly a clone built up in 1963/64 by "Tom the Weld").

I have a number of period photos of 22/47 and these have been provided to the last NZ owner who I presume has forwarded them to the current owner.

[Serge]

Ken : I don't have this article wrote in 1967 in "Motorman Magazine" and it will be fantastic if you can send me a scan.

I bought the car to last owner in NZ at the beginning of this year.

That's correct concerning the confusion of the beginning of the history of 22/47. The book on the life of Jonathan Williams explained everything. The car was bought by Jonathan in kit after he destroyed his FJ Merlyn at Monaco in May 1963 and Roy Thomas alias "Tom The Weld" built it and installed the engine and gearbox which were in the Merlyn.

After he sold the car to Roly, He explained that Formule Junior "was replaced for 1964 by Formule 3. It was designed to be more economical, but from my point of view, that didn't appearto be the case". Piers Courage and him decided to buy a new Lotus 22 because the Coopers were a little out of their price range. "Tom the Weld" has still helped them. The color of Jonathan williams's Lotus was the same but he added a center line red all the long of the bodywork.

Roger : the last owner gave me several original documents but not a number of period photos. He gave me the restoration photos.
So I'm very interested to get them.

[RogerH]

Roger : the last owner gave me several original documents but not a number of period photos. He gave me the restoration photos.
So I'm very interested to get them.

If you PM me with your email address I will send you all the photos I have plus documents such as Roly's advertisements in the UK motorsport magazines asking to buy a Lotus 22 - he said in the advert he didn't want any "comic prices".

[Steve Holmes]

Hi Serge, thanks for joining here and starting this fascinating thread. Do you have any current photos of the car you could share?

[Serge]

Hi Serge, thanks for joining here and starting this fascinating thread. Do you have any current photos of the car you could share?

You will find current photos as asked by Steve ATTACH=CONFIG]39796[/ATTACH]3979539797

[Serge]

39798

[Roger Dowding]

39798

Looking good Serge, just read the history in the latest NZ Classic Car magazine, with research by Michael Clark.. have passed he magazine onto my Uncle Eddie Dowding, one of the founding members of Northern Sports Car Club,in Auckland New Zealand, He used to go to Ardmore in the 1950's to watch the NZ Grand Prix .. Eddie turned 97 last October ..

[Michael Clark]

I ended up doing the research primarily because the owner before Serge is a good friend and he asked me to see if some of my records, combined with an interview I had done with Roly a few years earlier, might assist.

It was a massively time consuming exercise with no end of blind alleys, red herrings and frustrations - but interesting all the same.

The Lucienbonnet 'cul de sac' soaked up some time, as did an Irish twist that also ended up going no where. I was certainly not working alone and Roger H, a researcher par excellance, had also been beavering away as well.

[Serge]

Thank you Michael and Roger for your posts. Now we are sure of the history of 22/47 before the period of Roly Levis. The Motorman magazine and the book of Jonathan Williams gave us the informations.

Jonathan Williams is deceased 31 August 2014.

Great and I thank RogerH to have send me photos of John Wilson in 1966. My archive file is being more complete thanks to you.

[Michael Clark]

Hello Serge - the real shame of it was that by the time I got involved, Jonathan Williams had passed away. Had I got involved a little earlier, I would have had not one but two points of contact with him - one being John Julian who wrote the superb 'A year of living dangerously', and the other being a friend of mine who had worked at Ferrari with JW.

[RogerH]

To be pedantic - the period (Jonathan Williams) livery of the car was as in the current photos but without the centre red stripe and with pale blue wheel centres. The centre red stripe subsequently appeared with Williams' Lotus 22 F3 car.

[Michael Clark]

Exactly - the 22 FJ has been painted as per JW's '22/31' F3.

Roly told me how emotional it was seeing it unloaded at Auckland wharf a mere 53 and a bit years ago...

[Steve Holmes]

You will find current photos as asked by Steve ATTACH=CONFIG]39796[/ATTACH]3979539797

Thank you Serge. Outstanding!

[Serge]

To be pedantic - the period (Jonathan Williams) livery of the car was as in the current photos but without the centre red stripe and with pale blue wheel centres. The centre red stripe subsequently appeared with Williams' Lotus 22 F3 car.
You're right Roger and I modified the livery last week mainly on the bodywork. I will see on the next year for the wheels.

39807398083980939810

[Serge]

Noel sent me the Classic Car magazine and I thank you very much for the great article on this Lotus 22/47.

It's the first time I read an article on the history of my cars without any mistake ! That's perfect and congratulations !

A new picture at Dijon 2016 during a braking.40079