At 09:29 AM 8/3/04 -0400, Bill Spohn wrote (on the Twin Cam list):
Dredging through the detritus that passes for my memory bank trying to come up with the details of the Lotus sports racer that had the MG Twincam 1500 cc prototype motor installed in it - ran in the Pacific Northwest in the early 60s.

Ralph - anyone else - was it a Lotus 15, and what can you remember about it?"
-----
At 10:12 PM 8/3/04 -0400, Robin Barker wrote:
Bill,

Do you know the origins of this engine. Was it like the production 1588 cc MGA Twin Cam engine or was it based on the earlier MG T series engine?

EX186 was in northern California by the early 1960's and from the last report that I heard, its Twin Cam 1500cc engine had been separated from the car for many, many years.
-----
At 09:45 PM 8/3/04 -0500, Barney Gaylord wrote:
EX186 was in running condition at Indianapolis in 1989. Pictures here:
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/restore/rt501.htm

Story is (by rumor) that the US importer Qvale had enough pull at the MG factory to have EX186 spirited away in the night before it could go to the crusher. It was supposedly stored away in hidden warehouse space at the Qvale dealer in California for years, until some sort of a foreclusure sale or auction caused it to be hauled back into the light of day, and to change hands.

Now take a sharp left turn and wander a little off topic.

Incidentally that same dealership is now the subject of possible import of the new MG super car based on the Qvale Mangusta chassis. Presumably one of the interests of MG in the buyout of Qvale was the well established US import and dealer setup. This has been more than two years in the works now, with good progress to production, but with questionable progress toward US sales. See here for the beginning of the story:
http://chicagolandmgclub.com/whatsnew/2001.html#super_mg

There are many more followup news stories about the evolution of the MG EX80 car. Is this the ultimate descendant from the MGA Twin Cam? If you evolve through about 43 years and morph two MGA Twin Cam engines together, do you get a four-cam V8? (And does it have to say "Ford" on the engine?)
-----
At 09:25 AM 8/4/04 -0400, Bill Sphon wrote:
>>EX186 was in northern California by the early 1960's and from the last report that I heard, its Twin Cam 1500cc engine had been separated from the car for many, many years.<<

That's the engine.

Don't know if the guys in Colorado ever found it, but I have a Lotus historian breathing down my neck as I mentioned it racing in a Lotus at Seattle - but I can't lay hands on the program listing the Lotus-MG.