Letters:

A genuine hysteric?

Sir,
I enjoyed DSJ’s “Lotus Blossoms” article in the December issue. Why is it that the thought of someone going base over apex on a deliberately placed banana-skin never fails to appeal? I don’t really care what Lotus it was that Christie’s customer bought at Motorfair, nor how much he paid for it, provided that he knew what he was buying. If, however, he really was induced to purchase by a misleading description or a dishonest restoration, then its high time that auction houses were held accountable for their part in such fraudulent activities.

For the last 27 years I have campaigned a front-engined single-seater which was built in the early Fifties from a pile of unlikely pre-war bits. I have a shelf full of trophies which testify as to its effectiveness (it has the performance of an ERA up Shelsley for example), but I don’t think it was ever intended to be anything other than Hysterical, ie guaranteed to cause its driver to become “morbidly emotional” and to excite the spectators.

I am quite happy to accept that it can’t ever be Historic (didn’t the VSCC Eligibility Committee tell me so years ago?), but if the Hype & Razzmatazz Department of Christie’s-Phillips’-Sotheby’s & Co could bestow its impeccable history with an authoritative seal of approval and establish universal respectability for my “old nail” — I might just take the money and run. Caveat Emptor?

Paul Bevis, Stoulton, Worcestershire