| Lotus Eleven #1 ... |
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 They initials stand for Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, the designer, builder & founder of LOTUS. Lotus Elevenwikipedia  A Lotus Eleven at the Lotus Brands Hatch Celebration The Lotus Eleven was a racing car built in various versions by Lotus from 1956 until 1958. The later versions built in 1958 are sometimes referred to as Lotus 13, altho this was not an official designation. In total, about 270 Elevens of all versions were built. The Lotus ElevenThe Eleven was designed by Colin Chapman & fitted w/a sleek body designed by aerodynamicist Frank Costin. Its std version, dubbed Le Mans, was fitted w/a 1500cc (92 cu/in) Coventry Climax engine mounted in the front of a tubular space frame & featured a De Dion rear axle & Girling disc brakes. Fully loaded, the car weighed only about 1,000 lbs. Versions for a 1100cc (67 cu/in) Climax engine (Club) & a 1172cc (72 cu/in) Ford engine (Sport) were also produced; both featured a live rear axle & drum brakes. Some versions of the Le Mans were fitted w/a closed body w/gullwing doors to meet GT specifications.  Lotus Eleven at Donington Park In 1957, the Eleven underwent a major design change, including a new front suspension & improvements to the drivetrain. Altho officially called Eleven Series 2, these late models are sometimes informally referred to as Lotus 13s, since they were produced between the 12 & 14 models & the 13 designation was not used by Lotus. The Westfield Sports The rear of a Westfield replica Beginning in 1982, Westfield Sportscars started production of a faithful replica of the 1957 Le Mans racer w/a fiberglass body, available as either a finished car or a kit car. Called the Westfield Sports, the factory-finished cars were usually fitted w/an uprated 1275cc BMC ‘A’ engine (the same engine that was used by such classics as the MG Midget & the Austin Healey Sprite), altho some factory cars were fitted w/Ford Kent engines. Kit cars were sold w/out engines, & owners have fitted anything from the Coventry Climax to Lotus DOHC & Alfa engines to the chassis. In 1983, the magazine R&T featured an article about the Westfield XI replica, telling the story of how the magazine's team built a kit car & subsequently took it for a 5,000 mile cross-country trip from California to Wisconsin. The article is said to have sold more Westfields than anything else the company could do to advertise their cars. Production of the original Westfield XI ceased in 1986, altho the company offered unsold kits until about 1988. In 2004 Westfield re-started production of the Westfield XI, still based on the A-series engine. PARTICIPATION DES LOTUS XI AUX “24 HEURES DU MANS 1957”Conversations & Recollections w/Jay Chamberlain By Russ Hoenig www.lotuseleven.org/participation_des_lotus_xi.htm         
 Team Lotus drivers remembered Le Mans this way: As you breast the brow of a blind hump 500 meters before the Mulsanne corner for the 1st few times, your foot to the floor, the marker board indicating turn right, you start to lift off, unnecessarily so as over the other side there is another ¼ mile to go. As the XI goes over the bumps & humps at full speed, about 135 mph, the shape acted like a wing & made the steering very light. It did not take long to start enjoying the famous corners, Arnage, the cambered Indianapolis, & the Esses. The thrill of pulling maximum revs & then changing into top gear just as you pass the pits is never to be forgotten. Jay Chamberlain drove Le Mans for the 1st time that year & recalls the challenge: “Chapman built a really fine little race car, but that’s all they did. I mean they raced them right out of the box & assumed that, ‘from the factory’ was the best that these cars would ever be. I got them in touch w/Dunlop, & we measured the circumference of every Lotus XI tire that they were to supply for Le Mans, & set about matching tires. What resulted was an unbelievable improvement in handling. We used this thruout the season including introducing Colin to the time honored ‘sprint car’ traditions of staggering tires & frame jacking. We wedged the rear springs on the Le Mans cars & even experimented w/shimming the deDion to alter the rear camber & toe-in. “Colin was very resistant to any of those changes to His cars, so after all of the long, hard hours of preparation, we would work after hours setting the cars up to handle. We experimented w/all of this, plus cam profiles & timing, as well as carb settings. All of this quite normal preparation for racing in the States, but again remember that ‘from the factory’ was the best that these cars would ever be. “Wednesday’s practice in Ashdown’s backup 1100 was spent trying to learn the track under Colin’s scrutiny. After each of us had done some laps, we took the team 1100s out to make sure that all was ready & the loose ends had been fixed. Mac (Herbert Mackay Fraser) had the 1500 out but it was plagued w/overheating, which by the time the mechanics had corrected, the valves were starting to go. With the team cars ready, we continued to practice in Ashdown’s 1100 backup car, each taking turns trying to become accustomed to driving the course in the dark. “Thursday’s afternoon practice was going a lot better along w/my 1st driving of the 1500 car, but I still could not better Mac’s time. Mac was a downhill & slalom skier & he used that balance & rhythm in his driving. Later Colin took the 1500 out & set a new course record for the 1500cc class, taking only 5 laps to do it. That gave all the other 1500 teams an awful lot to worry about. Altho it was not to be, as just before the end of practice, Mac failed to pass the pits. The 1500 had dropped an intake valve on the Mulsanne. “The only other 1500 engine running that Colin knew of was back in England & was fitted as a marine engine as I remember. There was not enough time to retrieve this engine & convert it from marine use to our use. Colin scratched the 1500, rearranged drivers & cars, so Mac & I ended up w/Peter Ashdown & Alan Stacey’s reserve entry 1100 car. “Race plans for us called for fuel & driver changes every 35 laps, which worked out to just under 3 hours driving time. Our car, in fact all of the cars ran w/out mechanical problems, even tho Colin had anticipated electrical problems, & had a 2nd wiring harness installed as backup under the cowl. We ended up 9th OA, 1st in the 1100 class, & followed the 750 car w/2nd in the Index of Performance. “This was a great moment for all of us, & it seemed to me that now that the race was over it was time to celebrate, but all anybody else wanted to do was take photographs & congratulate each other. As soon as it was prudent, we went up to the Girling & Dunlop rooms above the pits for some food & drink, w/the emphasis on drink. The mechanics enjoyed this, but not for long as everything had to be packed up & taken w/the cars to Rouen for the next sports car race. “We stayed for the awards dinner & presentations to which we were late in arriving. Colin picked up the money & we took over the 1st unoccupied table, which, quite handily, was next to the table the fashion models were seated at. Some of those ladies are in one of the photos. “This was the high point of my 1957 European racing association w/Chapman. The next weekend of racing at Rouen was OK for me, coming in 2nd to a Porsche in the team’s 1500 single-cam car. Mac had a wheel hub break in the Le Mans entry 1500 DOHC car, which is very scary to have happen in an Eleven. The following weekend at Rheims, I destroyed the 1100 car in practice, & ended up in a Paris hospital. Poor Mac was killed during the race in the 1500 Le Mans car. The excitement of Le Mans was over.” The information above has been gleaned from conversations I had w/Jay Chamberlain along w/records, recollections & conversations w/Colin Chapman & Graham Hill. The photos are from Mike Costin & various other friends of the history of the LOTUS Eleven. |
