1956 Lotus Eleven

This was one of the competitors in the 50's Sports Car Race at theVintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.

It's the 1956 Lotus Eleven of Malcolm Ricketts, which the programme of the event says has a 1,480cc engine. The Lotus Eleven was a completely new car, unlike the previous production Lotuses, the Mk VIII, Mk IX and Mk X which were all based on the Lotus Mk VI. The Eleven had a steel tubular space-frame with stressed aluminium panels, and the aerodynamic body was designed by Frank Costin and was hinged at both ends to give complete access to the engine and other mechanical parts. The car was mainly designed to run in the 1,100cc class of racing, but other engines of up to 2½ litres were also used.

1956 Lotus Eleven

This car competed in the BRDC Historic Sports Car Championship Race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2004.

It's the 1956 Lotus Eleven of Malcolm Ricketts, which the programme of the event says has a 1,500cc engine. The Lotus Eleven was a completely new car, unlike the previous production Lotuses, the Mk VIII, Mk IX and Mk X which were all based on the Lotus Mk VI. The Eleven had a steel tubular space-frame with stressed aluminium panels, and the aerodynamic body was designed by Frank Costin and was hinged at both ends to give complete access to the engine and other mechanical parts. The car was mainly designed to run in the 1,100cc class of racing, but other engines of up to 2½ litres were also used.

1958 Lotus Eleven

This was one of the competitors in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's Peter Austin's 1958 Lotus Eleven, about 270 of which were built by the Lotus Company between 1956 and 1958. The Lotus Eleven was built with a variety of engines of different sizes from 750cc to 1500cc, and the programme of the event shows Peter Austin's car to have a 1,089cc engine. The red car at the side of the Lotus is Burkhard von Schenk's 1957 Maserati 300SI, and behind are the 1957 Jaguar D-Type of Sir Anthony Bamford (driven by Frank Sytner) and the 1957 Lotus Eleven of Malcolm Ricketts.

1965 Lotus 32B

This car took part in the Tasman & Intercontinental class of the HGPCA Pre '66 Rear Engined Grand Prix Cars race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2004.

It's the 2.4 litre 1965 Lotus 32B of Malcolm Ricketts. This car was a one-off derived from the 1 litre Lotus 32 that had been designed for Formula 2 racing in 1964, and was driven by Jim Clark in the 1965 New Zealand/Australia Tasman Series winning four out of the seven races and the Series Championship. Behind the Lotus 32B is another of Malcolm Ricketts' cars, a 1½ litre 1956 Lotus Eleven with which he competed in the BRDC Historic Sports Car Championship Race.

1957 Lotus Eleven Le Mans Series 2

This car competed in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the 1957 Lotus Eleven Le Mans Series 2 of Malcolm Ricketts and has a 4-cylinder inline 1,460cc Coventry Climax FWB engine. The name of Cliff Allison is displayed on the side of this car, and Cliff Allison drove a Lotus Eleven at Le Mans in 1956 and 1957 - one like the above in 1956, but the 1957 car had a headrest. Colin Chapman would race the Lotus with three different engine sizes at Le Mans to contest the 750cc, 1,100cc or 1,500cc classes.

Maserati 300S

This car is pictured in the pit lane during a practice session at the HGPCA's International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.

It's the Maserati 300S of Burkhard von Schenk, one of the last to be built and is chassis #3082. This car is often described as a 300SI, implying that it has one of the experimental fuel-injection engines that were tested by Maserati, but I've not been able to confirm that this is so. The car behind is the 1962 Lotus Elite that Malcolm Ricketts and Barry Sewell drove in the 2¼ hour long Gentleman Drivers GT and Sports Endurance Race.

On 23 December 2017 I showed photographs of three Maserati 300S sports cars at Silverstone in 1994, including that of Burkhard von Schenk pictured above.

Lotus 32B

This car competed in the Tasman & Intercontinental class of the HGPCA Pre '66 Grand Prix Cars race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003.

It's the 2½ litre 1965 Lotus 32B of Malcolm Ricketts. This car was a one-off derived from the 1 litre Lotus 32 that had been designed for Formula 2 racing in 1964, and was driven by Jim Clark in the 1965 New Zealand/Australia Tasman Series winning four out of the seven races and the Series Championship. It's pictured here at Lodge Corner during the Oulton Park race.

Lotus 58

The Force Pre-1972 Grand Prix Cars race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002 included classes for Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 5000 cars. The photograph below shows one of the cars in the Formula 2 class.

It's the 1968 Lotus 58 FVA of Malcolm Ricketts. This car was designed by Colin Chapman with DeDion front and rear suspension to try to keep the wheels vertical when cornering, in order to take advantage of the increased grip offered by the wider tyres that had been introduced in 1967. The wedge-shaped profile of the car also helped in this respect. The car was due to be tested by Jim Clark when he returned from the Hockenheim Formula 2 race, but sadly he was killed in an accident in that race and the testing was eventually carried out by Graham Hill and John Miles. They reported that although the handling of the car was excellent it was just too slow, so the project was shelved and the car was never raced in period.