Forgotten Classics: Lotus, Between Seven and Eleven

Most American car enthusiasts know about the Lotus Seven*, Colin Chapman's second effort at a production club racer which appeared in 1957 and was sold in kit form because of English tax laws. What they may have forgotten or never known is that between the launch of its very similar predecessor, the cycle-fendered Lotus Mk. VI, in 1952, and the first Seven, Lotus also built the Mk. VIII, Mk. IX, and Mk. X.  While the Mk. VI was credited by its maker with being the first "production" Lotus, it was sold as a kit, so final assembly was up to owners, and it took until the end of production in July 1957 for Lotus to sell around 110.  By contrast, the Mark VIII pictured was only sold as a complete car (well, complete unless you wanted creature comforts).  Lotus sold 7 or 8 specimens of the aerodynamic Mk. VIII, 30 of its closely-related sister the Mark IX, and 6 or 7 of the Bristol-engined Mark X.  And those cars were produced over a shorter period, 1954 through '55, so perhaps they should count as the first Lotus production models...

The Mk VIII was the first Lotus with an envelope body, in this case a 20-gauge aluminum skin designed by Frank Costin, built by Williams & Pritchard and draped over a lightly modified Mk VI chassis.  The white car above, the first Mk. VIII built, was delivered late to its owner, racer Tip Cunane, because, among other reasons, the original tubular space frame had to be redesigned to allow easy removal of the engine. This originally took over 12 hours and required partial engine disassembly; perhaps this led to the story that LOTUS stood for Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious. The "other reasons" apparently included Chapman using Cunane's deposit to build the Lotus team Mk. VIII.  That team Mk VIII, piloted by Chapman, gained fame for Lotus when it and a Mk. VI driven by Peter Gammon beat Hans Herrmann's 4-cam, factory team Porsche Spyder at Silverstone in 1954.  Power came from an MG 1500 four.  Frank Costin's design included the wild stabilizing fins that were given more vertical edges on the following Mk. IX shown below, parked next to a Mk. VI. This shortened the car; the MG-powered Mk. IX also had a revised space frame design which eliminated the need for stiffening panels (the Mk. VIII had a stressed belly pan).  

Meanwhile, potential customers had noticed Lotus success on British tracks and requested a car that would accommodate a bigger engine. One engine that was popular in British club racing at the time was the Bristol* 2-liter, closely based upon the pre-WWII BMW 328 design. The Bristol had the advantage of being reliable and available, but the tall, long-stroke inline six did no favors for the lines of the Mark X, as the revised car was called.  The unpainted example below was recently sold, dents and all...

Even when the Mk. X was given a nice coat of paint and polished up a bit, it was hard to ignore that big lump in the bonnet to clear the Bristol six. Under the sleek bodywork, the Mk. X chassis was very similar to the Mark VIII, which meant that the triangulated space frame weighed an amazing 35 pounds, that the rear brakes were inboard, the front suspension was by swing axles, and the rear suspension featured a De Dion tube.  One area where the Mk. X differed, however, from Marks VIII and IX, was in the braking system.  The Lotus Mk. X was the first Lotus to feature four-wheel disc brakes...

One Mk. X was exported to the USA for James Dean*, the movie actor, but he died in his Porsche Spyder before he could drive the car.  It was likely the only one not to feature disc brakes, allegedly because Dunlop hadn't cleared them for export.  

The Lotus Mk. VIII, IX and X established Lotus as a builder of modern sports racers, and the body design by ex-De Havilland aerodynamicist Frank Costin made traditional, taller front-engined racers look obsolete. Frank's brother Mike served as technical director at Lotus before joining Keith Duckworth in 1958 to make racing engines: Costin was the "Cos" in Cosworth Engineering...

The low seating position and small-diameter steering wheel were a sign of things to come, even if the long-stroke Bristol engine was not.  Chapman's design team had another surprise in store for club racers and aspiring pros, and it would appear the next year, in 1956. The Climax-engined, Frank Costin-styled Lotus Eleven would finally make Lotus famous in America, too... 

*Footnote:  We told the story of the Lotus that preceded the Mark VIII, the Lotus Seven, and its modern Caterham cousins, in "Caterham Cars: Multiples of Seven", posted on March 11, 2018. We took a look at another landmark, the fiberglass monocoque Lotus 14 (the original Elite) and drew a contrast with a fiberglass disaster from the same period, in "Worst Car Designs Ever, Part 2: Plastic Promise, Plastic Peril", posted here on July 31, 2016.  We profiled the Bristol, along with Bristol's Le Mans race cars, in "Forgotten Classics: Muddling Through With Bristol", posted Sept. 22, 2016.  And we happened upon a memorial to actor and racer James Dean "On a Lonely Highway in California", posted on January 18, 2016.

Photo Credits:
Top:  Wikimedia

2nd:  flickr.com

3rd:  Wikimedia

4th:  bonhams.com

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