1956 Lotus Eleven [Mark XI]

1956 Lotus Eleven [Mark XI] in Jay Leno's Garage (CNBC), Non-fiction TV, 2015-2025 Ep. 4.01

Class: Cars, Racecar — Model origin:

00:15:28 Background vehicle

Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
Lateef ◊ 2019-02-04 19:44	Lotus Eleven
McAfee ◊ 2019-02-04 20:28	More: -- Last edit: 2019-02-04 20:41:29
dsl ◊ 2019-02-04 22:19	9 EHX seems to have been a floating plate between various works Lotus Elevens in 1956-57. But it looks like Chapman as driver with a winner's wreath, and he didn't win very often in an Eleven. And works Elevens driven by the boss with #29 are equally rare. So by elimination, this is probably the event known as National Brands Hatch [S1.5] on 20 May 1956 which lists nothing about the car (colour, if 9 EHX or not) apart from #29. However from accounts elsewhere it seems once he had a favourite car, he kept using it (and I suppose being the Chief Cheese, no-one would dare argue), so it stands a very good chance of being chassis 160 which he used on 21 May 1956 (the next day) at Goodwood which is listed as showing 9 EHX and racing with #28. Also noted that 2 months later Chapman used an Eleven with 9 EHX in the Le Mans 24 Hours, but this was chassis 212. So #160 seems very likely as no turn-round time between Brands Hatch and Goodwood, with #212 an alternative if he'd been clever and prepared a switchable substitute beforehand for Goodwood as back-up in case something went wrong at Brands Hatch.

Author

Message

Lateef

◊ 2019-02-04 19:44

Lotus Eleven

McAfee

◊ 2019-02-04 20:28

More:

-- Last edit: 2019-02-04 20:41:29

dsl

◊ 2019-02-04 22:19

9 EHX seems to have been a floating plate between various works Lotus Elevens in 1956-57. But it looks like Chapman as driver with a winner's wreath, and he didn't win very often in an Eleven. And works Elevens driven by the boss with #29 are equally rare. So by elimination, this is probably the event known as National Brands Hatch [S1.5] on 20 May 1956 which lists nothing about the car (colour, if 9 EHX or not) apart from #29. However from accounts elsewhere it seems once he had a favourite car, he kept using it (and I suppose being the Chief Cheese, no-one would dare argue), so it stands a very good chance of being chassis 160 which he used on 21 May 1956 (the next day) at Goodwood which is listed as showing 9 EHX and racing with #28. Also noted that 2 months later Chapman used an Eleven with 9 EHX in the Le Mans 24 Hours, but this was chassis 212.

So #160 seems very likely as no turn-round time between Brands Hatch and Goodwood, with #212 an alternative if he'd been clever and prepared a switchable substitute beforehand for Goodwood as back-up in case something went wrong at Brands Hatch.

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1956 Lotus Eleven [Mark XI]