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Tuesday, 15 June 2021

1956 Lotus Eleven

This car competed in the BRDC Historic Sports Car Championship Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003.
It's the 1956 Lotus Eleven of Neil Davies which the programme of the event says has a 1,480cc engine. The Lotus Eleven was designed by Colin Chapman and the aerodynamic body by Frank Costin and was intended to compete in the 1,100cc sports car class. A Lotus Eleven with a 1,098cc Coventry Climax engine driven by Reg Bicknell and Peter Jopp finished in seventh place in the 1956 Le Mans 24 Hour Race, winning the 1,100cc class. The Lotus Eleven was raced with various other engine sizes up to 1,500cc, and for the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hour Race Coventry Climax produced the 744cc FWC engine that enabled the Lotus Eleven of Cliff Allison and Keith Hall to win the 750cc class, and also the Index of Performance.

The car immediately behind the Lotus is the 1956 Cooper T39 Bobtail of Marshall Bailey that competed (with the number 19) in the Bonhams Drum Brake Sports Car Race. The number 6 car appears to be the 1955 Jaguar D-Type XKD505 that won the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour Race driven by Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb, but the car isn't listed in any of the races in the programme of this event. Just visible on the right-hand side with the WEB 6 number plate is the 1950 Jaguar XK120 of Nigel Webb.

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