Description
This Lotus Eleven has recently been issued with a historic technical passport, valid in racing & hill climb to 31 December 2033 by Motorsport UK. The car has been owned by the same family for some 35 years and not been campaigned in that time.
The car benefits from recent work undertaken by Jerry Booen at D Type Developments Limited between May 2023 and January 2024, which included fitment of, amongst other things, new: racing belts, fire extinguisher, race battery, FIA spec dampers, close ratio smooth casing gearbox, tubular exhaust manifold, rain light and dynamo. Documentation file can be inspected for further details. In January 2024, on the rolling road, the engine produced in excess of 110BHP at 6000rpm (Please note the engine is currently fitted with DCOE Webber carburettors, but the HTP papers are for SU carburettors).
The Lotus was painted in 2017 by Race and Restoration Limited in the colour scheme you see in the photos today.
The initial build was undertaken by Martin Stretton in the 1990s with bodywork outsourced to Beaufort Restorations. Around this time, the engine was built by Bruce Spollon, with components supplied by Tony Mantle. Thereafter, extensive work was undertaken by Andrew Tart in the 2000s, with further bodywork being undertaken by Pete Southam. The current owner’s family purchased a ‘dismantled’ Lotus XI from Mike Lavers (who indicated he had imported the car from America), through Martin Stretton in the late 1980s/ early 1990s. The collection of parts included a chassis in poor condition, which was without a chassis number. A new replacement chassis was used to build the car, but the original chassis purchased from Mike Lavers accompanies the car for sale.
Representatives of the Historic Lotus Register and the FIA inspected the parts around this time and suggested the parts may have come from more than one original car, given some components were duplicated and there was no history or identification to indicate they came from the same car. The parts were not complete, for example, there was no body.
The car also has a Coventry Climax STR4 OHC 1460cc engine. Whilst the Climax engine has number FWB 6634 stamped on it, which indicates it was one of the original 1956 1460cc engines, Victor Thomas of the Historic Lotus Register considers this unlikely. From the oil filter outlets, in Victor Thomas’ opinion, it is considered the engine has been derived from a 1020cc Firepump. Bruce Spollon, now deceased, found the engine to be circa 1500cc capacity, when he dismantled the engine for rebuild in the 1990s.
