18/10/2026
Lotus Eleven Iriatre – a brief history, as far as we know
Our Eleven was built in Argentina by the architect Iriatre. He had been in contact with Chris Smith of Westfield, who supplied templates and other materials to make production in Argentina easier.
Three of these cars were exported to France, all with left-hand drive. Ours ended up in Perpignan in the south of France.
It apparently took part in many historic motoring events. It certainly carried plenty of event stickers, from Avignon and Vaucluse to Monaco and Sardinia!
Probably in the late 1990s, it was sold to Barcelona and later to Valencia. There are also photographs of it racing in Barcelona.
In May 2023, I flew to Valencia to collect the Eleven and drive it home to Franconia in Germany. I reckoned my chances of making it all the way were a good 60%! 😄
Unfortunately, I only managed about three hours before the first repair stop. Some very friendly Spaniards helped me at a garage and arranged for the completely clogged radiator to be reconditioned in a neighbouring town.
The next day, however, the problems became worse. In the May heat — around 32°C on the coastal motorway between Valencia and Barcelona — the cooling and carburettor problems proved too much.
I broke down on an uphill stretch of motorway about 100 km before Barcelona.
With telephone support and arrangements made by ADAC in Germany — another heartfelt thank you for their help — I was recovered after just over two hours and taken to an ADAC partner garage.
The radiator was leaking again, and the carburettor problems remained.
Even so, the journey had been wonderful: thousands of flowering oleander bushes along the motorway, and what must have been more than a hundred enthusiastic Spaniards cheering, waving and taking photographs as they passed.
But that was the end of the road for this particular adventure!
I took a taxi the remaining 100 km to Barcelona Airport. My wife Silvia had organised a flight home for me. I checked in late that evening, around 9 pm, then found a quiet corner of the terminal and slept on the floor.
Early the next morning, I flew home.
The Eleven followed about six weeks later.
It then took us until December to turn the “wreck” into a roadworthy car and get it registered in Germany.
A big thank you to TÜV Süd in Fürth, and especially to the inspector who put so much effort into helping us. Many others had simply turned us away, showing little interest or willingness to help.
The main difficulty was that, as a one-off car, the Eleven had no technical data sheets or existing German approval to refer to. The fact that it had already been registered in France and Spain, with the relevant paperwork, seemed to count for very little with most of them.
Shortly before Christmas, we finally had the German registration. From March onwards, we were out on the road!
There was so much fun — and so many breakdowns. Vali came to rescue me with a trailer or truck more times than I can count! But we enjoyed wonderful drives through the Haßberge, the Franconian Forest, the Spessart and Thuringia, and as far as the Rossfeld and the Grossglockner.
An especially big thank you to Vali for all the help, repairs and tuning — and for putting up with it all, with plenty of swearing along the way! 😂🔧
In autumn 2025, after our trip to the Grossglockner, the major rebuild began.
We stripped the car down and sanded it back, revealing its original blue paint underneath. Then came the rebuild, reusing the old parts.
This collection of photographs follows our journey from May 2023 to the present day.
From 5 November 2026, the Eleven will be on display at Retro Classics Bavaria in Nuremberg.
