Introduced for the 1970 Formula Two season, the Lotus 69 was a clean-sheet design by Dave Baldwin, created to comply with new FIA safety regulations mandating deformable fuel bag tanks. Built around a hybrid aluminum monocoque and steel spaceframe rear, it featured revised suspension, and a new chisel-nose design. It is well known that due to testing by two-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion and five-time Monaco Grand Prix winner Graham Hill, the Lotus 69 was a well-balanced and highly competitive machine securing multiple wins during its years at the pointy end of the grid at the hands of Jochen Rindt.

Lotus 69 Formula Two chassis number 3 was likely first tested by “Mr. Monaco” Graham Hill before being sold to Adam Potocki, a Frenchman from the Polish aristocracy. Potocki, who raced in Formula Three for Matra in 1968 and 1969, captured a notable win at Rouen in his first year on the circuit, finishing ahead of names like Cevert, Depailler, and Jabouille. Potocki's signature look was a helmet with three large red vertical darts on the front with red diamonds that surrounded the perimeter. For the most part during his time with the blue and white Lotus, Potocki's rookie Formula Two season was spent toward the back learning the powerful car and his new completion. Nevertheless, chassis number 3 flying the Adam Potocki Racing banner traveled to many of the important F2 races that season including Hockenheim, Rouen, Pergusa-Enna, and Imola. His best finishes for 1970 in a talented field that included numerous Le Mans winners and F1 World Champions were a pair of surprising 11th places—just outside the top 10.

Potocki returned to Formula Two for the 1971 season, again in chassis number 3. He contested five races with race entry by GTE Racing Cars that year that included Jarama, Crystal Palace, Rouen, Albi, and Vallelunga with his best finish a 5th place at a non-championship F2 race at Imola. From 1972 onward the car was sold to Guy Audebert with Potocki moving to a Brabham BT38. Christian Eichenberger of the German magazine AUTOMOBILSPORT thoroughly researched the ownership chain noting that the car was later owned by Autodiva publisher Gérard Gamand. Its next owner Gérard Cerny and Michel Ghio both raced the car in historic formula car events. After a Swiss owner named Guy Lauwers, the car landed with the consignor who entrusted the Kupka brothers' restoration company MEC Auto in Baelen, Belgium, to perform a complete ground-up restoration to the car.

Beginning in 2018, the chassis was completely stripped with the four-cylinder Cosworth and Hewland removed. The brothers assessed the condition of the car as “not bad” which is saying something for a formula car constructed as one- or two-year design! The frame was crack tested and mended as needed to ensure the car remained as original as possible.

The Cosworth showed little compression and was replaced with a Cosworth FVA 1.6-liter with a new Lucas injection system from Geoff Richardson Engineering in England. A replacement Hewland FT200 five-speed was sourced from PDS Racing to ensure a rifle-bolt shifting feel. The original bodywork was stripped and sanded revealing only blue and yellow layers and then repainted in Adam Potocki Racing's 1970 livery of white and blue. The photo-documented restoration left no stone unturned with new Continental fuel tanks, new fuel, oil, and brake lines, electrics, fresh hardware and heim joints with many hard-to-replace-parts such as the front and rear uprights renewed. In the end, invoices on file and available for review show that €120,000 was spent with the specialists at MEC Auto and the results are truly worth the great expense and time spent. Naturally, after such a thorough restoration, a small spares package accompanies the car that includes an extra nose cone, suspension pieces, a spare oil tank, and an extra set of wheels.

Since the completion of the restoration in 2019, the car has not been run in any competitive events. As such, Lotus 69 chassis number 3 offers its fortunate new owner any number of historic race series on either side of the Atlantic to test themselves and the freshly restored car in what is a very lively and competitive scene. Whether returned to the grid or preserved as a centerpiece in a curated collection, this meticulously restored Lotus represents a rare opportunity to acquire a significant piece of Formula Two history—one that still has stories left to tell.