The Lotus Eleven.

This car is not of this world.

Edgar Allen Poe said that perfection was not achievable in this life.

Well, either Colin Chapman and Frank Costin proved him wrong or they were from a higher place. Since Costin was no angel, we can rule out heavenly intervention. Yet, I still think that they didn’t belong here among us earthlings. The Eleven is virtually perfect, and perfection isn’t something we see here.

The first time I saw an Eleven in the flesh was at Mid-Ohio in 1988. I stood slack jawed as “Team Deep Steam” rounded the hairpin in what looked to be a highly polished UFO. I concluded that I had somehow stepped through a worm hole in Lexington Ohio when the Eleven seemed to levitate around the track.

Prior to this event I believed that Malcolm Sayer had a corner on liquid metal design, but here was a car whose fluid form upstaged even the great Jaguars of the ’50s. It even moved like a flying saucer. After some thought, I determined that the round shapes peaking out from under the objects mercury skin were not wheels…

…they were landing gear.