For Sale: 1956 Lotus Eleven Le Mans Sports Racer
Images via Bonhams
This gorgeous 1956 Lotus Eleven Le Mans sports racer has had many amazing motorsport adventures in its lifetime and quite a lot of detective work has gone into unraveling the mysteries of its history. It’s believed to have won the 1.1-liter Sports class of the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It’s heading to auction at Bonhams’ upcoming Quail Lodge auction.
Three cars were built for the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans. Two ran with 1100cc Climax motors; one driven by Reg Bicknell and Peter Jopp, and the other with Cliff Allison and Keith Hall at the wheel. The third car had a 1500cc engine up front and was piloted by Colin Chapman and Mac Fraser.
That car made it through twenty of the twenty four hours before dropping out thanks to an engine failure. The second, chassis 211, was forced out of the race after Cliff Allison collided with a dog that had wandered onto the Mulsanne straight.
The third car went on to finish seventh overall, winning the 1.1-liter Sports class. The car we’re talking about today, chassis 210 (XJH 902), is believed to be that car.
Like many cars from the history of motorsport, picing its story together requires a bit of investigation work. Chassis 210 was raced by Peter Hannen at Silverstone, in Spain and in the Czech Republic before being sold to Joe Sheppard in the US. At this point, it disappeared.
In 1974 a Lotus Eleven was found in a barn in the Southeastern United States with no chassis plate. Back in 1956 Chapman had arrived at Le Mans with his Elevens only to be knocked back by scrutineers who deemed the base cars too narrow. So – he widened them, resulting in just five wide-chassis Elevens built for racing in that period. The three cars which raced at Le Mans back in 1956 all had distinguishing features, however, including secondary headlamps on the nose and a ‘Vee’ windscreen. The car which popped up in the barn matched their description.
This got people wondering. It was a wide-chassis car, of which only one was not accounted for, with evidence on its nose of where its secondary Le Mans headlamps had once been and a rivet pattern on its tail. On the inside of the tail was the name of Stan Brown, panel-beater at Williams & Pritchard.
The car went back to the UK in ’89 and was inspected by Lotus historian Graham Capel, who found some discrepancies but concluded that, without a positive chassis plate identification and by process of elimination, the car was likely to be the 1956 Le Mans class-winning car.
Chassis 210’s current owner took ownership of it in 2006 and had it fully restored by Steve Hart Racing in Norfolk, giving it a new alloy body shell. The original shell was retained and will be included in the car’s sale. The original engine was also replaced, but that was way back in 1957 by a FWA Climax, and the car uses an MGA gearbox. This motor has received an overhaul by Crossthwaite and Gardner.
The car’s back in British Racing Green, fighting fit and ready to race. With its interesting, and likely significant, Lotus motorsport history, we’re glad that it’s no longer hidden away in a barn, and hope to see it back on track in fighting form.
It will head to auction on August the 14th, 2015, at Bonhams’ Quail Lodge Sale. Head to their site here for more information.
Images via Bonhams
