interpreter in the meeting, Chapman suggested a figure which was too large for the officials to swallow. Upon being rejected, Chapman vowed "We will never race again at Le Mans!", a promise that Lotus kept until 1997, long after Chapman's death in 1982. Chapman believed the fiasco was caused by the French contender for Index of Thermal Efficiency award, René Bonnet. Gérard Crombac knew of a competitor to Bonnet, Jean Rédélé, who had a strong ambition to beat the then-dominant Automobiles René Bonnet in thermal efficiency at Le Mans, and gave the idea of helping Alpine instead of subsequent direct participation to Chapman. As a result, a 2-seater racing prototype was designed by a team of Lotus employees, Len Terry, Bob Dance and Keith Duckworth, based on Lotus 23. This design was found to be non-compliant to the 1963 Le Mans regulations, so the frame structure was changed to a steel backbone design familiar to Rédélé's team at Alpine, and became the Alpine M63. M64 of 1964 had the original frame designed by Terry, and the French Alpine M63 and M64 could fit British 6-stud Wobbly Web wheels as a testament. In 1964 Le Mans, Alpine won the Index of Thermal Efficiency with the M64 while setting a new distance record for the 1150cc Prototype class, with a M63B in the second place. Alpine went on to become the Le Mans overall winner in 1978. Restoration and replication of the Lotus 23 Beginning in the early 1980s a small group of enthusiasts began to make it possible to restore original Lotus 23 by remanufacturing parts. These parts are now easily available. It was at about this time that a Register was established for the Lotus 23. That Register is now part of the Historic Lotus Register of the UK. Some race organizers and the Historic Motor Sports Association began in 2007 to take steps to restrict race participation by replica cars. There are several sources of replicas of Lotus 23 cars. Xanthos 23 The Xanthos 23 (1999) is an exact reproduction of the 23B using the same frame design as the 1960s original. Powered by Lotus-Ford Twin Cam or its Cosworth derivatives mostly mated to Hewland Mk.8 or Mk.9, it was built by Xanthos Sports Cars in Liverpool, a UK company owned by Lotus specialist Kelvin Jones. The company now seems to be Xanthos Cars North America, Inc. Noble 23