Heikki at Hethel
Classic Team Lotus provided a trio of historic F1 cars for Heikki Kovalainen to demo at Lotus Cars’ Hethel test track last Tuesday as a curtainraiser for the CTL Festival scheduled for 20th June at Snetterton when at least one example of every Lotus F1 car ever built will be present.
Heikki started with the Type 25 with 1.5-litre Coventry-Climax power, moving on to the Gold Leaf Type 49 (Graham Hill’s 1968 and 69 Monaco winning car) and finishing with the Type 77 lent by Chris Locke. It was a treat to see them driven by an ace, and impressive to see how quickly he got the hang of them, never having driven a historic race car before. Great bloke, and very articulate about their handling characteristics.