Three new additions to the audio library
The latest additions to the MSMT audio library, Voices from the Past, include a rare interview with Peter Kirwan Taylor, the designer of the first Lotus Elite.
Often forgotten in automotive circles, Kirwan Taylor was not a professional designer but a chartered accountant who became a very successful merchant banker. He came to Colin Chapman’s attention when he produced an aerodynamic body for his own Lotus Mk 6 and worked in his spare time to shape and develop the 1957 Elite, which had a novel glass-fibre monocoque body/chassis. He maintained contact with Chapman for many years, serving as a non-executive director of Lotus.
Peter Kirwan Taylor was interviewed by Jonathan Wood in 1982. He died in 2014, aged 84. The two other new files in the Voices from the Past library are interviews with Harold Beach, chief engineer at Aston Martin in the DB4/5/6 era, and Anthony Wedgwood Benn, government minister for industry at the time of state control of British Leyland.
The audio files are available, free-of-charge, to download on application to msedgwickmt@gmail.com For the full list see the Audio Files section.
Illustrations: Colin Chapman and Peter Kirwan Taylor with the Elite, Styling model for the Elite, DB Zagato which contained Harold Beach input, BL matters spoken of by Anthony Wedgwood Benn - Jaguar, Sale of Rover to BMW in 1994, Mini and MG ZTT. Photos courtesy Giles Chapman, Bob and Kim Cartwright.
