The ex-Jo Siffert European Championship Winning Car
1961 Lotus 20 Formula Junior Monoposto
Chassis no. 900

This Lotus 20 Formula Junior originally belonged to the legendary Swiss Formula 1 and works Porsche sports car driver, Jo Siffert. He bought the car new from Lotus Components in May 1961, replacing a borrowed Lotus 18, and campaigned it successfully across Europe throughout the year, winning the European Formula Junior Championship. He also ran the car successfully in several hill climb events. In Jo Siffert's hands, the car's 1961 race results included:

Grand Prix des Frontières Chimay 3rd
Oulton Park 9th
Rouen-les-Essarts Grand Prix 4th
Terrano Grand Prix 1st
Caserta Grand Prix 2nd
Mont Ventoux 1st
Reims Meeting 3rd
Messina Grand Prix DNF (accident)
Enna Grand Prix 1st
Cadours 1st
Coupe du Salon 3rd
Coupe de Paris 1st

Jo Siffert replaced the Lotus 20 with a Lotus 22 in early 1962, which he raced just four times before beginning his Formula 1 career in a Lotus 24. Many owners of classic racing cars claim that theirs was owned/driven by some icon. In this case, this car really was Jo Siffert's and the evidence goes back to Jo racing a borrowed Lotus 18 briefly in 1960. That car was registered in Switzerland and the owner had paid the import duty. To avoid this minor technicality (and considerable cost), Jo persuaded Lotus to add the same Lotus 18 chassis number to the new car, so he could claim it has just come back from repairs in England!

Jo kept this car throughout his life and it was a feature in the showroom of his Porsche dealership in Fribourg. Eventually, some years after Jo's tragic death at Brands Hatch in 1971, the car was brought back to UK by Grant Wilson (now the Formula Junior Historic Racing Association's Technical Delegate). The Lotus was rebuilt to an exceptional standard condition by Peter Denty, with mandatory safety modifications to the roll bar and coolant pipes. More recently, a bespoke glassfibre body was made for the car by Glidepath, and this remains undamaged (the new body can be seen in photographs of the car with the white band on the nose. The original body panels are still available.

Since then, the car has been raced successfully in most of the major Formula Junior events: Pau, Goodwood Revival, Goodwood Members Meeting, Silverstone Classic, the UK Championships, etc, with many class wins and numerous podiums, and a 2nd overall in the 2007 UK Formula Junior Championships.

The car is reported to be in excellent condition and ready to race in every respect. The vendor advises that it has proved to be very reliable and that the 1100cc Ford Cosworth 105E engine was rebuilt by Stuart Rolt only five race meetings ago, when Stuart fitted a new original 105E block and a new Richardson cylinder head. This car was originally built with a VW-based Hewland gearbox, and in recent years the internals were replaced with all new components by PDS Racing. Bob Juggins at Absolute Race Engineering has sorted the handling and the car is said to be a delight to drive.

Today, Lotus 20/FJ/900 is in excellent race-winning condition, true to its original racing heritage, and as correct as possible to the original 1961 specification (full details available). A wide range of the usual spares comes with the car, which will be supplied with fresh HTP/FIA papers.