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LOTUS CORTINA - #3 JIM MCKEOWN - NEPTUNE RACING TEAM (1964)
| Product Code: | A86437 |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer: | Biante Model Cars |
| Category: | Touring Car |
| Scale: | 1:18 |
| Bonus Points Cost: | 3,546 |
| Price (excl. GST): | $177.27 |
| Plus GST (Aus. Only): | $17.73 |
| Total (incl. GST): | $195.00 AUD |
Status: In Stock
LOTUS CORTINA - #3, JIM MCKEOWN - NEPTUNE RACING TEAM
In the 1960s, Australian touring car racing was beginning to take over from open wheelers as the most popular form of the sport in this country.
The likes of Bob Jane, Ian Geoghegan, and Norm Beechey were right at the forefront and the men who would become legends of the sport were right in the middle of one of the most important elements in modern motorsport: the introduction of sponsorship.
One of the new names to appear on the flanks of these touring cars was an Australian oil company, Neptune.
Its Trident marketing logo (the three-pointed spear the emblem of the mythical King Neptune) was a familiar site on race tracks in the 1960s as the company (which itself was owned by Shell) sponsored three of the top touring car drivers of the time.
Norm Beechey, Peter Manton and Jim McKeown were united under the Neptune Racing Team banner, despite all driving different types of cars.
The team first appeared in its deep blue liveries at the beginning of 1964, with team leader Beechey behind the wheel of a Holden EH S4 (before moving to a Ford Mustang a year later), Manton in his familiar Mini Cooper S and McKeown in the giant-killing Lotus Cortina.
The three drivers and their machines would prove to be at the forefront of touring car racing all over the country for that season and the next few to follow.
McKeown – who was the first driver in Australia to race a Lotus Cortina - debuted in Neptune colours at Calder Park on Australia Day, January 26 1964. His car was purchased as a stock standard version straight from the showroom at Peter Coffey Motors in Melbourne
McKeown’s Lotus Cortina was special and an improvement over the previous Cortina GT. Assembled by Colin Chapman’s Lotus company in the UK with body shells provided by Ford, the Lotus Cortina featured light alloy door skins and boot and bonnet panels as well as an alloy clutch.
A close-ratio gearbox from the Lotus Elan was added with a Lotus-designed rear suspension system of coil springs replacing the standard leaf springs. The car was lower than the existing Cortina and the twin-cam engine powering it would prove to be a force in the hands of the highly experienced McKeown.
The Neptune Racing Team would prove to be one of the slickest outfits in the pits and paddock areas, but come late July that year they would find themselves at Lakeside in Queensland trying to win the Australian Touring Car Championship.
Determined by a single race between 1960 and 1968, the ATCC was building its importance alongside one-race state championships and the variety of other races for touring cars held around the country.
All three Neptune cars entered, with the 20 car field determined by the fastest 20 laps completed by cars in four 10-lap heat races that were run in classes determined by engine size.
McKeown’s 1m08.2s lap put him on pole ahead of Ian Geoghegan’s Cortina GT, Bob Jane’s Jaguar MkII, Brian Muir’s Holden S4 and then Beechey’s similar car.
But the pole sitter would be blown away off the line for the 50-lap championship race and McKeown found himself fourth at the end of the first lap.
The corner later known as ‘Hungry Corner’ (but then known as ‘KLG’) claimed Clem Smith’s Valiant and then the Holden of Warren Weldon, but worse was to come.
McKeown got the Lotus too wide through the corner and clipped Weldon’s abandoned Holden. It flicked the Cortina into the fence and came to a halt with crushed front suspension.
Geoghegan would go on to win the race over Beechey and Jane, but the Neptune Racing Team would live to fight another day.
McKeown campaigned Cortina’s for the next few season, including a change to Shell colours as the parent company took over sponsorship and Neptune was phased out.
The former sportscar ace would move into a Porsche 911 later in his career in touring car and sports sedan racing, but he and the Neptune Lotus Cortina will forever remain linked in Australian touring car history.
This Jim McKeown Lotus Cortina has been modeled on its first appearance at Calder Park, 26 January 1964.
Please note: Images shown above are for illustrative purposes only and may be a real car image or images of a prototype sample.
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