1956 Lotus Eleven Le Mans Configuration

[brevennaugh]

Vintage raced Lotus Eleven priced at $169,000. All offers considered.
Would be willing to take an interesting lesser valued vintage car in trade.
Contact Bruce Revennaugh at 512-755-2128 for more information.


[SIZE=2]LOTUSELEVEN (S/N 150)[/SIZE][SIZE=2] RACEHISTORY[/SIZE]


[SIZE=2]Lotus Eleven #150, a 1500ccFWB Coventry Climax powered, Lemans style race car was firstpurchased by Mr. Ralph Miller of Lincoln, Nebraska. He took deliveryin late February, early March of 1956 from the Lotus factory. Serialnumber 150 is the first serial number designated to the Lotus Eleven.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Shortly after taking delivery,Miller was on his way to Sebring to enter the 1956 12 hour race beingheld on March 24[/SIZE]^{[SIZE=2]th[/SIZE]}[SIZE=2]. As it ultimately worked out, he was the first and only Lotus Elevento race at Sebring in 1956. His co-driver was Dr. Harold Fenner. The car retired early after 40 some laps after experiencingelectrical problems.

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[SIZE=2]Miller continued to race thecar for most of 1956. He entered it at events at Eagle Mountain,Texas and Road America, Wisconsin, among other places. By the end ofthe year, faced with financial and marital problems, he sold the carto Loyal Katskee of Wichita, Kansas. Loyal raced the car a coupletimes before selling it to Bobby Aylward, also of Wichita.
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[SIZE=2]Bobby raced the carextensively for the next couple years at events including those heldin Galveston, Texas; Mansfield, Louisiana; and Stillwater, Oklahoma. [/SIZE][SIZE=2]Bobby eventually traded the car to Jim Hall (Carroll ShelbyMotors of Dallas) for a Maserati birdcage.
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[SIZE=2]Bill Parham of Ft. Worth,Texas, bought the Lotus from Shelby Motors. He raced it in the Ft. Worth area for a year or so.

[/SIZE][SIZE=2]At that point, the racinghistory and the ownership history is unknown for the next 10 years. One of Parham’s crew, a gentleman named David Jones, recalls seeingthe car behind a body shop in Ft. Worth around 1963. He remembersthat the head fairing was missing. Who owed it, what it was doing atthe body shop is unknown.
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[SIZE=2]The car reappears in 1970 inLawton Oklahoma at Ft. Sill (an Army base) when a young servicemannamed Stephen Klein purchased the car. He recalls that it came witha silver trailer, was powered by a 3 cylinder Saab, and was parkedbehind a gas station when he first saw it. The hood of the car looksidentical to when Parham owed it. Note the holes in the nose besidethe air intake and under the headlights. A full windshield had beeninstalled, the head fairing and the tonneau were still missing and anew roll bar had been installed. It was running and drivable. [/SIZE][SIZE=2]Klein took it home to St.Joseph, MO. when he left the service.
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[SIZE=2]Note: My personal speculationis that a serviceman stationed at Ft. Sill acquired the car in theearly 60’s and converted it into a H Modified racer with a Saabengine. The SCCA outlawed the Lemans type windscreens in 1965necessitating the full windshield. It appears that it was preparedto be a racer. Whether it ever raced and own owned if it did is amystery.
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[SIZE=2]In 1973 Bill Ballentine of St.Joseph, Missouri purchased the car from Klein. It was in terribledisrepair. Fortunately, the little handmade Lotus factory 150 serialnumber plaque was still attached to the car. Bill kept the car forabout five years. He used the car as a donor car to repair anotherLotus Eleven he owed. He also sold off various parts. Eventually hesold the remains of the car to Bill Hutton (engine builder) ofKnoxville, Tennessee around 1978. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]Hutton sold off the remainingparts that were still with the car and hung the frame on the ceilingof his shop.
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[SIZE=2]The frame stayed on theceiling until around 1986. At that point, a visitor to the Huttonshop saw the frame and realized it was the frame for a Lotus Eleven.
[/SIZE][SIZE=2]In the late eighties the framewas purchased and sent to the UK for restoration. Mike Brotherwoodwas commissioned to do the restoration. The frame was very useablebut totally stripped. A new body was purchased from Williams andPritchard. All the other bits were provided by Brotherwood. By1991, Michael Lavers of the UK had purchased the car. He vintageraced it extensively in the UK and Europe. FIA papers were obtainedin April 1991. Some of the scrutineering tickets from that periodare still attached to the cowling of the car.
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[SIZE=2]In the late nineties, Michaelsold the car to Dr. Ed Berre of Cincinnati, Ohio. Ed brought the carto the US and re-restored it. Ed raced the car from the late 90’sthrough 2003 at a variety of vintage events at Road America,Mid-Ohio, Summit Point, etc.

[/SIZE][SIZE=2]Thepresent owner, Bruce Revennaugh, bought the car in early 2005. Thecar has been vintage race with the CVAR vintage race group onoccasion since 2005. The last time it was raced was in May 2014[/SIZE][SIZE=2].
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