Lost & found
Nigel Fox from Wiltshire has been a Lotus enthusiast for many years, but always hankered after an aluminium-bodied car. Now, he has one, an ex-works Lotus Eleven that competed in the 1957 Sebring 12 Hours. Last year, while looking through the Club Lotus magazine, he saw a small ad for a Lotus Eleven with racing history. It wasn’t until he phoned the owner that he found it was in Milwaukee. The history sounded interesting and the condition was described as good, the car having been stored under cover, unused, since 1991. Fox and Lotus expert Mike Brotherwood flew to America to have a look, and found it as described with a lot of spares. Fox bought it, with the trailer it had been sitting on for 26 years.
Colin Chapman wanted to sell cars in the USA and, to afford entries for events such as Sebring, he’d pre-sell cars and let owners take delivery after the race. Sometimes, if the new owner was an experienced racer, they would be entered as Team Lotus. This was the case with Fox’s car, purchased by the Puerto Rico Auto Club and driven by Victor Merino, Luis Pedrerra and Rafael Rosales to 32nd overall and third in class.
Other races included a win at Nassau Speed Week in ’58, and it returned to the USA in 1962. In 1980 it was bought by Dave Dunn and a 1200cc Coventry Climax engine replaced the original 1097cc unit. He last raced it in 1991, then cracks were found in the frame and it was put into storage.
The Eleven arrived in the UK in November 2017; there were no problems importing it, but customs didn’t have a class for historic trailers! Fox wanted to drive it to the Le Mans Classic with the Historic Lotus Register, so Brotherwood undertook a chassis-up restoration and Bob Dove rebuilt the engine. Brotherwood was amazed by how original it was, with some racing additions he’d only ever heard of. The car made it to Le Mans with virtually no problems. Fox is now in two minds: leave it green, or repaint it red as it raced at Sebring.
‘The Lotus came with the trailer it had been sitting on for 26 years’