How Lotus emerged as a period Goodwood force

Lotus’s rapid rise from humble roots in a garage behind a North London pub in 1952 was down to the charisma of founder Colin Chapman BSc (Eng), the determination and resourcefulness of cohorts and disciples in realising his clever designs, and marketing. The early production cars were race-proven and attractively priced, thus sporting motorists made a bee-line for Hornsey, cheque books at the ready, impatient to join the throng.

More than 100 Mark 6s, with cycle front mudguards and shrouded rear wheels, left the works over three years, but their super-sleek successor, the Eleven, was the game-changer. From 1956-58 the Lotus Engineering Company made around 270 examples – priced from under £1100 for the Club model – keeping employees, volunteers and a local supply chain of skilled chassis fabricators and sub-contractors working flat-out. The cash flow generated underpinned the business’s expansion and Chapman’s ambitions, which took Team Lotus grand prix racing at Monaco with Type 12s in 1958.

Chapman’s little equipe grafted until the 1961 season-closer at Sebring for its first world championship Formula 1 win, recorded by Scot Innes Ireland in a 1500cc 21. The inimitable Stirling Moss – a 500cc race winner on Goodwood’s opening day back in 1948, and unquestionably the circuit’s greatest driver, as four successive RAC Tourist Trophy wins attest – had already left Lotus’s hallmark at Monaco, driving 2500cc and 1500cc Coventry-Climax FPF-engined 18s in privateer Rob Walker’s blue warpaint in 1960 and 1961 respectively.

But the Elevens, not limited-production single-seaters, were Lotus’s bread and butter. Available in three configurations, with similar tubular steel chassis and swing-axle front suspension, the majority were powered by small, reliable, light-alloy Climax engines. Basic club-specification cars featured live-axles and drum brakes, and starred in domestic races. More expensive versions with de Dion rear ends and disc brakes scored famous class wins in the Le Mans 24 Hours and fourth overall in Florida’s gruelling Sebring 12 Hours (in 1958). Some remained zippy road burners, occasionally used on track.

The British Automobile Racing Club-organised Goodwood Members’ Meetings, inaugurated in 1949, were rich hunting grounds for Lotus owners. Inspired by the swashbuckling moustachioed Chapman – who landed the marque’s first wins in a Mk6 at the 13th and 14th MMs in the summer of 1953, then a double in the works Le Mans 9 in September 1955 – they scored 129 victories over the 71 second-tier race days run in the Chichester airfield circuit’s contemporary heyday. Closest rival MG boasted 45 (with a four-year headstart) and third-placed Jaguar 35.

That 28 competitors notched a total of 48 victories between them in Elevens is a more remarkable statistic. While drivers of the calibre of Mike Taylor (six) and Ireland (five) topped the table, the majority who experienced the joy of taking the chequered flag were weekend warriors getting a buzz from lapping the high-speed track rapidly in their streamlined roller skates, motivated in the main by 1098cc Climax FWA engines. Derek Howard and Charles Hodgson (with a 1216cc FWE unit as used in the astonishingly lithe and achingly pretty fibreglass monocoque Type 14 Elite coupes) bagged three apiece.

Future Lotus F1 victor Innes Ireland took five MM wins in Elevens, including here in 1957

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Among the other winners was Welshman Peter Boshier-Jones – the 750 Motor Club’s Ford side-valve powered 1172 Formula champion at the wheel of one in 1958, the fourth Lotus driver to claim the crown in five seasons. Peter’s moment of Goodwood glory came in 1960, while brother David was claiming the first of three straight RAC British Hillclimb titles in a Cooper-JAP V-twin incidentally. Elevens remained competitive until Hodgson closed their chapter in history at the 55th MM on 6 October 1962.

Multiple Lotus victories were common, but that was a day of days: those flying the ACBC flag took six of the eight races. As well as Hodgson, Rodney Banting (Formula Junior 20), David Porter (7), future Nomad sports-prototype financier Mark Konig and Mike Johnson (Elites) and Brian Berrow-Johnson (FJ 20) added to their CVs, Konig and Johnson’s efforts both Members’ Meeting firsts.

Quintuple Le Mans winner Derek Bell, who won a very soggy race debut in a Lotus 7 at the 60th MM in 1964, returned over subsequent seasons with F3 Lotuses powered by 1000cc Ford MAE engines. The local ace topped the pack both times, his 70th MM triumph in a 41 the marque’s penultimate victory

The era of the Type 26 Elan and Type 28 (Ford) Lotus (Consul) Cortina had dawned by this time. Kevin Keegan (namesake of the footballer yet to trigger the national radar) and UK-based Australian dentist Derek ‘Doc’ Merfield inscribed the models on the MM register in 1963, although Jack Sears and Jimmy Blumer had raced ‘Lotus Cortinas’ at the big Easter international.

Already in the spotlight were the rear-engined 23 sportscars, thanks to Mike Beckwith, who had stood out from a fleet of five 1100cc Ford-engined examples in June 1962. Beckwith and Boshier-Jones finished first and third at the 51st MM, split by Tony Hegbourne in one of the ageing but still effective Lola Mk1s first seen in 1958. Beckwith nailed four wins in short order, but the 1600cc twin-cam 23Bs arrived in 1963, carrying Mancunian Rodney Bloor and Surrey garagiste Chris Williams to victories.

Quintuple Le Mans winner Derek Bell, who won a very soggy race debut in a Lotus 7 at the 60th MM in 1964 (when future Formula 5000 champion and BRM F1 winner Peter Gethin also topped the virtual podium), returned over subsequent seasons with F3 Lotuses powered by 1000cc Ford MAE engines. The local ace topped the pack both times, his 70th MM triumph in a 41 the marque’s penultimate victory.

To Peter Pollard (Elan) fell the honour of the final one on 2 July, 1966, after which the Duke of Richmond and Gordon closed the Goodwood gates to racing. His grandson, the present Duke, reopened the venue in spectacular style in 1998 with the Revival Meeting attendees still talk about.

After a gap of almost 48 years, the 72nd Members’ Meeting strengthened the Goodwood Road Racing Club’s motorsport hand to three events in 2014. But it would take two more years until Richard Meaden (Cortina) opened the ‘new age’ tally and three before Andrew Hibberd (F1 18) hit gold in a pure Lotus.

Derek Bell won at Goodwood aboard a Lotus 41 in 1966 shortly before the circuit's closure

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