This car is a bit of a mystery, but it is believed that Williams & Pritchard had a hand in its bodywork. Research on this car is still at an early stage and any first hand-knowledge is welcomed. Don Stark in California owns the car which was formerly the Saturn GT, and has contacted the Register to help publicise further the car in the hope that it jogs someone's memory!

In the late sixties, it became popular to convert Lotus 23's into enclosed GT cars to take advantage of more favourable race rules. As far as Don has been able to ascertain, Jack Paterson purchased this car from an unknown owner in 1969 for whom he had been running it, possibly as the "Challenge GT" (raced at Crystal Palace in August 1969). It was bought as a rolling Lotus 23 chassis with enclosed GT bodywork in alloy, and in the recollection of Jim Morley who shared the car with Jack, it had been built by W&P. The car was originally fitted with a Ford engine, then subsequently a 1600 Lotus twin-cam engine and in race records for 1969 is described as a "Saturn GT", the name Saturn having been derived from the lunar rockets of the time.

For the 1970 season, the car was converted to a spider and stripped of its enclosed canopy with expensive windscreen (again, work possibly by W&P) and raced as an open car. During this period it was most successful clocking up 11 claimed wins and was fitted with a 2 litre Martin V8 engine and FT-200 gearbox giving around 200 bhp. Paterson sold the car in 1971. Interestingly the Martin V8 was developed for the Tastevin Monica, a car for which W&P built a prototype body around that time.

Race records on www.racingsportscars.com show that in 1972 the car passed into the ownership of a Ray Hutchinson who raced the car in Holland for Bosman Racing with a 1570cc engine in the '72 season, and with a 1300cc engine in the '73 season. Jim Morley believes the car may have received a replacement nose around that time.

In 1974 the car was advertised in Autosport magazine having made its way back the North East of England with a Cosworth Ford 1300 engine, with what appears to be a snorkel air intake at the rear added.

The car was imported into the US in 1976 by Mike Gue, still with its spider alloy bodywork intact. It was rebodied back into standard Lotus 23 bodywork prior to Don's ownership.

There may also be a connection with John Willment, given that Jack Paterson was racing a Lotus 23 for Willment in 1966/67, had recently bought (and possibly then sold) a 23 from him, and the Saturn GT wore red and white in a very similar configuration to the Willment team colours. In addition, Willment was familiar with W&P, having had them body Ferrari chasis 101l / 01C (the first ever Ferrari) for him way back in 1951, whilst it was in his ownership. This was a cunning way of avoiding import tax at the time! We hope to have some more information on this long lost important Ferrari bodywork in due course.

This car has been discussed at length on the Autosport Atlas F1 Bulletin Board Nostalgia Forum, and the Register and Don are both keen to know anything further about this car, including who commissioned the original alloy bodywork from W&P, and from's Don's perspective, any details about the prior ownership and identity details of the car on which it was based.

top: side profile during 1969 season, middle top: topless in 1970, middle lower: Autosport 1971 sale advert, bottom: Autosport 1974 sale advert