History

During the early 1960s this Lotus 23B chassis was purchased from Lotus and was fitted with  Six Ariel motorcycle engines  in tandem to form a type of V-12 motor. It was thought that more power could be produced from the six high-revving two-cycle motors than with a conventional four cylinder engine. Starting in 1964/65 the car was track tested and run in competition with only limited success, as the complicated setup was difficult to control.

This same Lotus 23B chassis was purchased by Mike Rawlings in 1968 from Cheshunt Service Station, where Lotus typically re-sells racing cars. Under Mike Rawlings' ownership, a  4-cylinder Twincam engine set up by Holbay was installed and the car was campaigned for a number of seasons with altered bodywork as a  Rawlson.  Later it was sold to someone in France.

Roger Hurst in England bought the chassis from the then-current French owner in 1984 as a restoration project. In 1989 Barry Sheppard of Rawlson verified in writing that Hurst's chassis was the ex-Rotorvic and Rawlson chassis. Not having found the time to restore the car, Hurst sold the chassis in 1992 to Henry Tombs.

In 1999 the Utah Lotus Museum owner purchased the car in an agreement with Henry Tombs that he would completely restore it, before delivery, to original period specifications with a 180-hp Lotus Twincam engine.