Bekaert sold another of the 1.5-litre Tornados to his friend David Render, who entered it in competition against its creator. Unsurprisingly, Render’s was out of touch with the ‘ultimate’ 600, but he had a trick up his sleeve. He asked a longtime friend – one Colin Chapman – for his advice on how to outdo his friend-cum-adversary, and soon afterwards a 1.6-litre Lotus twin-cam with 145bhp found itself almost nestled in the rear engine bay (hence the permanently raised bootlid). Subsequently, Render accomplished 50 wins in various hillclimb and sprint events in the little whirlwind.
In the early Seventies, Render moved on to larger, more powerful machines, and ownership was passed to Tony Castle-Miller of Fiat and Abarth specialist Middle Barton Garage. After taking part in circuit racing for several years at the helm of the spritely but unforgiving little machine, 'TC-M' (as he is widely known) decided it would serve better in Abarth 1000 guise, and rebuilt it as such. He sold the set of Tornado parts in the early Eighties, but after 24 years of reconsidering his decision, he promptly assumed the responsibility of reviving the Tornado when the complete package fatefully came back on the market.
Now fully returned to the specification of its Lotus-engined golden era, as pictured here, the car can regularly be seen zipping around the back roads of Oxfordshire, UK. According to TC-M, the fun factor is as apparent as ever beside the comparatively huge sporting ‘superminis’ of today, and the rear-biased weight distribution prompts comparisons with an early 911 – albeit in a junior form, of course.
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Photos: Michael Ward / Auto Italia
from ClassicDriver