Ashley Smithy Garage

[kelvin lee]

Does anyone remember Ashley Smithy Garage running a couple of Lotus Sevens from 1964 to 1970. My car is chassis No SB1380, reg. 611 UTU, originally owned and raced by Natalie Goodwin. I understand that Natalie raced the car in the Ashley Smithy Team, painted orange with the spoof reg. NAT 1 on the front and then when she bought the ex David Porter Lotus 7/20 it was also painted orange with NAT 1 on the front, which could cause some confusion. SB1380 was then taken over by Ashley Smithy Garage in 1964 and I understand from Natalie that it was driven by Don Hume? and Frazer Crombie? together with another Lotus 7 carrying the numbers NIT 1 and NUT 1 on the front but possibly still having their original numbers on the back. My car was sold to a Ian Scholes of Liverpool in February 1970 and then bought by a David Baxter also of Liverpool in June 1970. Rob May bought the car from David Baxter in the late 1980's and hill climbed it sucessfully. I have continued to hill climb the car since buying it in 2003.

[kelvin lee]

I have been in contact with David Baxter who bought 611 UTU from Ian Scholes in 1970. David claims that he progressively modified the car during his ownership, fitting a 1600 crossflow engine and ran it in the clubmans class, mainly at Aintree but also kept it road registered and drove it all over the country to meetings. Can anyone remember David Baxter running this car?

[kelvin lee]

Any race results or photos would be greatly appreciated, I'm sure someone must have some information.