1959 Lotus Elite owned by Bob Akin

1959 Lotus Elite Description

I’m happy to be able to offer a very rare 1959 Lotus Elite with an amazing history for sale. This Elite, chassis #1222, was owned by Sebring legend Bob Akin and has stacks of paperwork showing an extensive provenance.

This Elite was sold new in Perth, Scotland to Tommy Dickson, being first registered in February 1961 with the color being recorded as black (on the registration paper, it has red crossed out and black written in). It was issued the plate 178ELF at that time. The attached black and white photoshows Mr. Dickson racing the car and records indicate that the car was not road registered after 1966. It was exported from Loughborough, England to Connecticut in June 1984. Records at this time indicate the car was green.

The car was passed between a few East Coast owners until Bob Akin acquired this Elite in 1987. The car was in an accident and had been repaired improperly, but Bob Akin Motorsports restored the car properly at a reported cost of over $100,000. This car was Bob Akin’s personal project and had a staggering amount of work put into it. Notes indicate that at this time it had a Stage 5 Marcovicci-Wenz Engineering 1216CC engine installed, along with having all the internal box sections of the fiberglass body filled with foam to increase rigidity. A full roll cage was fabricated and a fully adjustable suspension setup was installed (this setup was tuned and retuned by Akin to perfection). The body was extensively modified to be more aerodynamic with changes such as shaving off the front and rear bumpers and moving the gas cap inside. Akin first registered the Elite in the US 1990 in New York and sold the car to Sports and Specialist Cars, Inc of Princeton, NJ in September 2000. It passed between more East Coast owners who raced the car in VSCCA and SVRA competitions with great success until it was acquired by the current owner in 2014 and brought to California.

The car is still equipped with the Marcovicci-Wenz Coventry Climax 1216CC engine, which makes a reported 120HP. It has Carillo rods and a Moldex crank and is fueled by twin Weber DCOEs.

Included is a V.S.C.C.A logbook, making it eligible for all vintage racing organizations. A New York title is included and the lights still work if the owner wanted to make the car street legal again. I would be more than happy to share a PDF copy of the car's history including copies of insurance, registration and other paperwork under Bob Akin's name with a potential buyer.