Lotus Eleven

As mike said above the Kokopelli guy is no longer in the business. I FWIW, I drove an MGB based Kokopelli 11 around some backroad near Annapolis and got a free dinner out of the deal. He seemed like a really nice and interesting guy. I drove over to check out the car one time when I was in DC for work. It was not a true Lotus 11 replica in that it was scaled up a bit. The real things are tiny little beasts.

I prefer the Lotus 23 over the 11 but I find them both nice to look at.

Any one here have any experience with a Fury? They intrigue me a bit and I always see the ad in the back of the magazine.

T.J. wrote: Any one here have any experience with a Fury? They intrigue me a bit and I always see the ad in the back of the magazine.

Only drooling over Galek's example at Carlisle every year.

CMC was doomed by their engineering - or lack thereof. Terrible. The Kokopelli didn't look right to me, it didn't scale up right for the bigger mechanicals.

The real 11 is tiny and basically shrink-wrapped around the miniature A-series. There's no room for a typical modern four cylinder car engine. The guys at Westfield think a bike engine is the way to go.

oh, just dropping back in on this thread...

Didn't realize I actually caused some negative emotions! I was just making a joke. I shoulda used a smiley!

Seriously, I jsut give everybody the benefit of the doubt on this forum. I feel like we are all a big group of friends who joke with each other now and then.

Meant no offense! I was actually surprised I was the first to post something to that effect!

Can we get MOAR pictors?

Rob R.

I have sat in the Fury. It seemed to be a very well sorted out car. If I were ever do a kit type of thing, I would most likely do the Fury. Since its not a reproduction of anything specfic, I would feel much more free to put my own spin on the build.

The car can be ordered to accept either a Ford or a Hayabusa engine.

Leo

In reply to Leo Basile:

And from talking to Galek, I seem to remember he only sells/imports the kit one way - as a turn-key-minus. It's pretty much ready to drop in a drive train when you get it. The downside is the price is what it is: low to mid $20K with no discounted option requiring more DIY building. His reasoning is not wanting a bunch of unfinished kits floating around.

Keith Tanner wrote: The real 11 is tiny and basically shrink-wrapped around the miniature A-series. There's no room for a typical modern four cylinder car engine. The guys at Westfield think a bike engine is the way to go.

I wonder if you could use a BMW M50 to pull off a modern version of this?

Surprised nobody's mentioned the Eleven that had a Mopar slant six stuffed into it yet. That's one I would love to do some sort of kit car based clone of. It would be like having a half sized Cobra.

The Kokapeli glass is now available from Captain Jack

http://www.kineticvehicles.com/locost.html

Doesn't show up on his dated website, but I think that he was talking about $3500 or so for a set. Seems pretty reasonable to me.

One would almost wonder if someone at BaT is reading this forum:

http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1973-westfield-lotus-eleven-twin-cam/

Now that is very nice.

Oh man, I would love to drive that Westfield in anger.

MadScientistMatt wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: The real 11 is tiny and basically shrink-wrapped around the miniature A-series. There's no room for a typical modern four cylinder car engine. The guys at Westfield think a bike engine is the way to go.

I wonder if you could use a BMW M50 to pull off a modern version of this? Surprised nobody's mentioned the Eleven that had a Mopar slant six stuffed into it yet. That's one I would love to do some sort of kit car based clone of. It would be like having a half sized Cobra.

A Lotus-Valiant is on my list of post-lottery-win projects. There was some neat problem-solving in that build. I think this would be a great place for an all-aluminum Slant Six, if one could acquire one of the scrap-bin escapee prototype aluminum heads, or cast one from beer cans, or whittle one from billet.

Here's an all weather 11:

Saw this cool 15 Replica up on the dragon last year, guy was tearing up the Dragon last year when I was up there.

slantvaliant wrote:

MadScientistMatt wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: The real 11 is tiny and basically shrink-wrapped around the miniature A-series. There's no room for a typical modern four cylinder car engine. The guys at Westfield think a bike engine is the way to go.

I wonder if you could use a BMW M50 to pull off a modern version of this? Surprised nobody's mentioned the Eleven that had a Mopar slant six stuffed into it yet. That's one I would love to do some sort of kit car based clone of. It would be like having a half sized Cobra.

A Lotus-Valiant is on my list of post-lottery-win projects. There was some neat problem-solving in that build. I think this would be a great place for an all-aluminum Slant Six, if one could acquire one of the scrap-bin escapee prototype aluminum heads, or cast one from beer cans, or whittle one from billet. Here's an all weather 11:

Maybe a Nissan RB26DETT King Kong motor, couldn't be any heavier than the slant6.

Might need some wider rear rubber.

The best looking Westfield I have seen is on Bring A Trailer.com.

http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1973-westfield-lotus-eleven-twin-cam/ It is on auction as we speak.

They were made with all sorts of engines, from Coventry Climax to flathead Ford 4 cylinder. They are close to a Lotus Seven under the skin, but more aerodynamic. Weight is in the half ton range depending on the specification. They don't need much power to go fairly well. I've seen a number of them at the Lotus club track days. Not much tire fits under the thin fiberglass front end. I know of them being built with Alfa engine and transmission too.

Lotus Twin Cam appears to fit just fine. [URL=http://s1057.photobucket.com/user/Super-Seven/media/11%20Twink_zpsuczvhm4i.jpg.html][/URL]

Zombie thread 

In reply to pirate :So don't keep us in suspense. Was it the regular Lotus 11 or the LeMans?  

The Regular one has two seats with a full width windshield

 the LeMans  has one seat with the windshield wrapped around the driver and back to the headrest. 

It also had the highest tuned Climax 1100 engine.  

frenchyd,

Le Mans spec meant the car had disc brakes all 'round, a de dion rear axle and a higher tuned Climax.  The head fairing and wrap around windscreen was on option on all specs of car.

In reply to pirate :replicas of a Lotus 11 need to understand it's original design.  I worked on one and can tell you it's incredibly light.  

When I got it it had some flaws, the frame was cracked in enough places that a tool room copy of the original frame was required.  Tiny tubes,  incredibly thin gauge.  

The Climax engine was designed as a portable fire pump and used as such during WWII to be hand carried around to pull water from a nearby source ( Thames?)  it's actually lighter than most motorcycle motors 1/2 it's size. 

The aluminum bodywork isn't much thicker than aluminum foil        (or so it seems)  

In reply to RoddyMac17 : hmmmm I've only seen the single seat Lotus 11 on LeMans cars and never on more base models .   I was looking at the Lotus 11 as an affordable way to enter SCCA racing in the early 1960's 

I guess I'll have to do some research tonight to confirm 

thank you for that bit of information  

frenchyd,

The interesting thing is the single seat arrangement wasn't even legal to run at Le Mans.  

Out of curiousity, the Eleven you worked on, was it a Series 1 or Series 2?  And did you build the chassis or was it one of Bert Curtis' frames (or someone elses)?

Lately I've been mulling over whether to build another Eleven.  My friend who worked at Lotus just passed away, and it got me thinking about using the scans I took from the blueprints he liberated from the works to start building a body and chassis.  Just need to find another Climax and a small pile of money....

In reply to RoddyMac17 : yeh!  The only year a "single" seat was allowed was 1955 by 56 the windshield height and width was effectively fixed. Luckily SCCA didn't implement that rule until the early sixties so I was able to backdate my Blackjack to it's original 1958 single seat configuration. 

Based on the date I'd always assumed it was a series 1. Yes it had the DeDion rear end, disk brakes, and the Climax with dual 42 DCOE Webers.

 Yes original Lotus product including the body. However the body did get straightened back out via the English wheel rather than simply being bumped out and filled with bondo.

The frame we built was our own, using Chromemoly tubing rather than the mild steel of the original

I was doubtful it was the original body based on it's reported history and the absolutely beautiful condition but close underside examination reveled the sort of wear/ patina you simply cannot fake. 

But Oh was that body thin!!!!! If you pushed on it nearly anyplace with your thumb you'd spend an hour with a silver spoon gently rolling the resulting dent out. 

As for making a duplicate using a Climax engine,  I'm not sure it would be worth the effort.  Pretty sure they are well accounted for and even a tool room copy would fall short without a proper pedigree and documentation.  

frenchyd,

The easy way spot the difference between Elevens is the front suspension,  swing axle is Series 1, wishbone is series 2.  The chassis are quite different between the two.

As for building a duplicate, I've done it once and I'm sure I could build another for a lot less with what I know now.  Also, there are still a few "missing" cars, but I would never pass off a replica as the genuine article.  

In reply to RoddyMac17 :Thatnice to know,   So then it was a series 2 

I know fakes exist and some clubs aren't particularly critical of copies. Unscrupulous people will even try to pass off copies as original.  But danger danger the repercussions of doing so.  Years, heck decades later to have it come back and bite you,  ugh! 

However a nice tool room copy of a Lotus 11 would be fun.  

wvumtnbkr said:

This thread is useless without pics.

Come on people.  This is the second thing ever posted on the interwebs.......right after show me your hooters.