Rewrite Le Mans history with this Elite kit

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Now, speaking of rare opportunities… Those who have always dreamt of a historic Le Mans racer of days when the cars entered at the circuit of La Sarthe didn’t all look similar – this is your chance. A Lotus Elite – a beautiful car on its own if you ask us – that made it to Le Mans is coming up for sale soon.

Or wait a minute – did it really race at Le Mans? It didn’t. That doesn’t however, make it too much less attractive as it certainly has an interesting history, both with its Le Mans sojourn and for its characterful racing driver and owner. That driver was Flight Lieutenant James Richard Stoop, better known as Dickie Stoop (last picture below), who was a keen racing amateur in the late 1940s before being contracted by Frazer Nash cars and later Porsche and AC. Stoop raced 10 times at Le Mans.

For 1959 Colin Chapman entered three Elites to the 24-hours race, one of them famously coming first in class and eighth overall. Less known is that a fourth Lotus Elite was due to run in the 1959 24-hours race. That was this particular car, wearing chassis number 1037, painted dark blue and bought privately by Stoop just eleven days prior to Le Mans and made ready to be entered with British drivers Douglas Graham and Mike McKee never the less. But then trouble struck the car, as it was involved in a road accident and had to be retracted from the race.

Much of the car’s later history is shrouded in mystery although repaints in red (1970) and purple (1973) have been found. After that it turns more mysterious, until the car reappeared in 2007 as a non-runner. It was stripped with the idea to undergo a full restoration, but the death of its owner last year, gave a halt to that. The original engine is missing, although another Coventry Climax comes with it. All of the rest appears to be there. More information can be found here. Estimated to sell at £45- to £55,000, we’d want to end with the seller’s words: “This Lotus Elite is a rare opportunity to acquire a genuine period Le Mans entrant and will surely be invited to the most premiere events including, of course, the Le Mans Classic.”

(Words editor, pictures Historics Auctioneers)

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