Just had a gander at George’s latest track day video. Pulling out of the pits I saw a Lotus 47 Gold Leaf.
Can you shed any more light on car/ history George?
That’s the McCarthy boys and their dad’s Type 47 replica. It started life as a Europa Twincam Special, and was turned into a pretty faitfhul Type 47, albeit using the very best of modern componentry. It’s easily as quick, if not quicker than my Exige, so for an old girl it fair flies!
185bhp or so and 600kg and about knee-height. Just magic!
Had a good ding-dong battle with him but didn’t have my cameras attached that session 
To call it a replica is to do it a bit of a disservice really. The McCarthy lads don’t generally do things by halves. Their dad also has a Seven S4 you could eat a gourmet meal off it’s so clean. One of the brothers has a pretty nasty sounding Cobra replica and Paul built this Zakspeed Escort replica:
As you can see, “replica” isn’t really fair given the attention to detail. Makes my car look positively slap-dash in comparison.
Looks like a Banks Europa???
May be similar, but this was built here in NZ from scratch I do believe.
ChrisB will be along in a minute…he has a history with 47s /Europas n stuff.
It’s pretty rare for a Twin Cam to be converted this way, but not unique. Most 47/62 conversions statrted life as S2’s.
It’ll be interesting to hear some more on the car 
I’ve been trying to find whether there were ever any articles done on it. I know all I know from yarning to Paul about it at HD a few weeks back. Wish I had more info now.
He definitely said it started life as a Special, JPS livery and all, got the Renault arse grafted on and went from there. There’s an awful lot of nice touches on it beneath the skin, pure racer though, not ever intended as a road car.
A brave guy chopping up an original special 
It does look the part though…
Love the Escort and the Lotus
Good to see them used in anger as well
It does look a lot like a Banks Europa… that uses a 47A bodyshell (which it what it looks like…) - to change a twincam into a 47A you would have to change all but the centre section; the back end is totally different, and the front end is also slightly different. This car has also got s1 (47) style doors… They must have done a lot of work to it!
A replica 47A (with a removable body, as apposed to a type 47 with a bonded on body) would have F2 type twin trailing link suspension (so ditching the twincam rear end), a lotus twincam engine and a hewland box…
Banks did (still do) a 47A replica with a Vauxhall 2l (about 250 bhp)and renault box - I had one, it was beautiful (in my eye! and fast, but not as quick as my elise
I could go on all day about 47s… but I’ll stop there…! 
I can confirm that it has the F2 trailing link rear end, a Lotus twincam and a Hewland transaxle… for what that’s worth
well it’s not Banks then! Sounds more like a ‘recreation’ than a replica
So it’s a recreation of a 47A - Lotus only ever built two* 47As - GT69 and GT70 which were the famous Gold Leaf works cars… all the rest were GT47s with the bonded on body and the lancia rear lights…
- but some 47A shells did find thier way out of the factory…
Would like to see a picture of the interior and the engine bay…!
Banks 47A replica for sale here:
http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/45848/banks_lotus_europa.html
[quote=tlracer]Banks 47A replica for sale here:
http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/45848/banks_lotus_europa.html [/quote]
Nope, that is a 62S also built by Banks
Look what I started!
Thanks George for all the info. Seems like a lot of people on here like the 47
The Banks 62 is only a very vague ‘copy’ of Lotus 62… Richard Winter did a lot of restoration work on one (of only 2, again!) 62s and ‘promised’ the owner that he wouldn’t make a replica of the car… so while the 47A uses an exact copy of an original 47A shell, the 62 is not even close, and uses standard europa doors (the 62 didn’t)… it’s really just an excuse to make the Europa look a bit more outrageous!
That one should go well though! Interesting that it’s powered by Honda (62 was 2L slant vauxhall) and is being sold by Plans!
Given the interest level let’s guess which Exiger list this amongst his many ongoing ‘projects’
Looks like an S1 with those tail lights??
Go on Benja, spill the beans…
[quote=chrisb]The Banks 62 is only a very vague ‘copy’ of Lotus 62… Richard Winter did a lot of restoration work on one (of only 2, again!) 62s and ‘promised’ the owner that he wouldn’t make a replica of the car…
[/quote]
Yeah, a chap by the name of Bollinger i believe (not the champagne though). It was displayed at the Brands Hatch 40th celebration in 1998, as it was flown over from California especially for the Goodwood FoS. It won best car in show at Brands, but never ran too well on the day sadly (driven by the owners son). I was with Banks that weekend & it was a real priveledge to get so close to such a rare car. The (then) Japanese owner of the other 62 came over to take pics etc, as his 62 was in bits. A great weekend.
I have some pics tucked away i could get scanned & posted here if anyone is interested?