Costin isn’t a brand that many people know about these days, but if you’ve every heard of Marcos or Cosworth, then in some ways you already know a little about the company. You see the Costin brothers started racing cars shortly after WWII and in the mid ’60s they decided to start their own racing company. They had some success, but it was their other endeavors that most people know about. Mike went on to start Cosworth (guess where “Cos” in Cosworth comes from?) and Frank partnered up with Roger Nathan to build a prototype race car, which is the car you see above. Frank went on to start Marcos, Mike had lots of success with Cosworth and this poor prototype ended up in a shed!

Forty five years later and the prototype isn’t in very good shape, but boy did it fetch some serious money this past weekend at the H&H auction. When the finally hammer dropped, it had been bid up to over $90,000, with fees the buyer ended up paying just over $105,000! Why would anyone pay so much for a worn out old race car you might ask? Calling this car special would be a bit of an understatement to say the least!

This car has serious pedigree. Frank wasn’t just a car guy with a dream, he worked at Lotus prior to designing the car. He followed the same principals with this car as he did when he designed a Lotus, keep it simple and make it light. Weighing in well below a thousand pounds, with fluids, this thing is a featherweight. Power came from a 1 liter Hillman Imp engine that Roger Nathan tuned. If you don’t know who Roger is, he made a name for himself racing a Lotus Elite and a Brabham BT8. His tuned Imp engine churned out 97 horsepower, that doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s nearly 100 horses per liter!

With the engine in the car, Costin-Nathan hit the track running. They had a few mechanical hiccups, but with Roger at the wheel, they saw considerable success. Eventually the car was fitted with a more powerful 1600 Ford Twin Cam, which is still in it today. Sadly, this engine had serious mechanical issues for the next owner Chris Meek and the car was sold off. The engine was rebuilt by the next owner, but it never saw the track ever again. It’s sad to see it in such a state now, but thankfully the new owner plans on fully restoring it to it’s original glory! This is one I sure would love to watch come together. So do any of you remember seeing this car race in ’66?

Special thanks to our friends at BoldRide for this tip!