Lotus Eleven / Maserati

The Lotus Eleven was designed around the Coventry-climax engine, yet within months of the introduction a few of the cars were already powered by Maserati. Those cars, chassis’ 155, 158 and 192, gave rise to warnings that Maserati might begin making Lotus-like frames. “Nonsense.” said Colin Chapman. “First of all, they'll put Maserati engines in the Eleven frames, and the frames will break. Our engines weigh 200 pounds; the Maseratis close to 400. So they'll stiffen frames in the conventional way, and they'll be useless.” ⁱ Although the Maserati-powered Elevens had a fair measure of success, Chapman was partly right on the outcome. Still, sports car racing history was changed by the experiment. These three Lotus-Maseratis will now be described in the order they reached the track.

based on research by Victor Thomas