Lotus Eleven

Was in Pensacola Florida today doing some running around and saw a gray what appeared to be a Lotus Eleven driving on the street. I'm assuming it was a kit of some kind given the value nowadays of the originals. At any rate it looked very cool. I'm aware of the Westfield and Kokopelli kits but are there any other kits around. Also are there other Lotus replicas (besides 7's)of the early sports racer being made like Mark 9's or 10's. Looked as if the guy driving was having a great time! Tried to catch up in traffic but never got close enough for a really good look.

I was only aware of the Westfield, and didn't know about the Kokopelli. I saw a street-driven Westfield a few years ago in SoCal and had a chance to talk to the owner. He said it was intimidating to drive on the street because it's so tiny. They're probably better as dedicated track day cars.

In reply to Gary:I know exactly what you are talking about! Yesterday I was near the back of a line at a stop light. Light went green, no one moved. Honking started and people started splitting off into other lanes. Finally I got close enough to see a very nice TR-4 was broke down. So I parked on the side and helped the guy oush it out of traffic.

It was so small that no one approaching even knew the car was even there until they saw us standing upright. We both thought we would be hit more than once! A TD with only one tail/brake light? No way in today's cell phone using traffic!

Back in the 80's R&T's Peter Egan built a Westfield 11 and wrote a series of articles on the build. Then he proceeded to drive it cross country and wrote articles about that too. I must have re-read all of those articles dozens of times. Still wouldn't mind having a Westfield, except I might prefer some more modern Japanese engine than the A-series Egan put in his.

I also seem to remember that there were 23B replicas built, a quick google search shows that Xanthos and Noble both built replicas at some point. But with all respect to the 23B's racing pedigree, I still think the 11 is the better looking Lotus.

In reply to SEADave:

After reading pirate's initial post I investigated the Kokopelli kits because I wasn't familiar with them. They offer an MGB based kit, a Miata based kit, and a GM V6 based kit. And they're domestic (East Coast, mid-Atlantic).

I know CMC was working on an Eleven kit when they went under. Not sure if they finished any or not, but I saw one in the corner of their shop and it was a great looking car.

racerdave600 wrote: I know CMC was working on an Eleven kit when they went under. Not sure if they finished any or not, but I saw one in the corner of their shop and it was a great looking car.

I went there to see the Eleven and came very close to writing a check. It would have been money down the drain. Too bad he couldn't pull it off.

This thread is useless without pics.

In reply to wvumtnbkr: Ahh, but we're supposed to be "enablers" here ... not spoon-feeders. There's this thing called "The Google" you might want to investigate.

In reply to Gary:

I am "investigating" this car forum. There are no cool pics of cool cars in this thread while discussing cool cars.

First pic that comes up when googling "cool car pics".

"Can we please stop hot linking pics"

In reply to wvumtnbkr:No pics? Check out the picture of Peter Egan's 11! They don't get cooler than that!

In reply to SEADave: Yes we all feasted on Peter Egan articles for decades! I recently decided to not renew Road and Driver because A. I couldn't tell it apart Car & Track anymore. B. Mr Egan is starting a well deserved retirement. I'll just keep my eye out and buy the occasional issue with an Egan article on the news stand.

The reason I asked the question about other kit manufactuers was the car that I saw was left hand drive and did not have the fairing behind the drivers head. The roll bar streched across the width of the car with a Petty bar going down to the inside of the passenger foot well. Tires were pretty narrow. I would have really liked to talk to the guy to see what it actually was!

In reply to Rupert:

Regarding the pictures, I think SEADave added them to his post after wvumtnbkr's snarky message appeared. Originally this thread was completely devoid of pictures. Now we have some nice ones. But we all know what an Eleven looks like anyway.

In reply to Gary:

Yes, I added the pics later in response to the statement that more pics were needed. Instead of putting a new post I just added them to my existing post, which may in part explain why I am still a "reader" after 4 1/2 years on the forum.

In reply to SEADave:

That's OK, don't feel bad, it took me about 7 years to reach Half Dork status. But you're close ... only 20 more to reach a new status.

In reply to Gary:

Hey I didn't think that was snarky, and I didn't know what an eleven looked like.

Now I want one, though.

In reply to tuna55:I've learned on these forums that at any given time, you may say something with no inference meant at all. Yet others, which includes me as well, might perceive it as snarky or worse.

I think it has a lot to do with the lack of being able to view facial expressions.

I never really loved the 11, but I really like that 23B.

I believe that the Kokopelli molds are now in Oregon.

http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=16780&hilit=Kokopelli

This is from the LocostUSA site that I also check out. His name is Jack McCormack.

In reply to tuna55:

I agree with Rupert. I guess it's all in the interpretation. But in my old-fashioned opinion, rather than dripping "This thread is useless without pics," I'd think a more appropriate and dignified way to convey the same meaning would be something such as "I'm not familiar with a Lotus Eleven. Could someone please post a picture for those of us who aren't?" But that's only my old-fashioned way of thinking. After all I am a geezer.

But SEADave saved the day and posted a few pics and hopefully everybody is happy.

Gary wrote: In reply to tuna55: I agree with Rupert. I guess it's all in the interpretation. But in my old-fashioned opinion, rather than dripping "This thread is useless without pics," I'd think a more appropriate and dignified way to convey the same meaning would be something such as "I'm not familiar with a Lotus Eleven. Could someone please post a picture for those of us who aren't?" But that's only my old-fashioned way of thinking. After all I am a geezer. But at the end of the day SEADave saved the day and posted a few pics and hopefully everybody is happy.

Hurray!

I'm 32, no geezer, but I'm mostly bald, so you'd probably think I was if you saw me making a funny facial expression in order for my off-color comment to appear not snarky.

Hasbro wrote:

racerdave600 wrote: I know CMC was working on an Eleven kit when they went under. Not sure if they finished any or not, but I saw one in the corner of their shop and it was a great looking car.

I went there to see the Eleven and came very close to writing a check. It would have been money down the drain. Too bad he couldn't pull it off.

I drove the CMC 7 replica they built at the Mitty at a Lotus convention in Birmingham, and it was a seriously fun, if not very well sorted car. As soon as you touched the wheel you'd have to go to opposite lock it had so much oversteer. It was close to undriveable, but I still managed top 5 in the autocross if I remember correctly. That car was so much fun, as was the Lotus club.

With a business manager and proper sorting, CMC I think could have survived.

Woody wrote: I never really loved the 11, but I really like that 23B.

The Fury Menace imported by Galek Motorsports is a reasonably close replica.

http://galekmotorsports.com/menace/index.html?gmm_details