Lotus 11,chassis 345, was completed on the ides of March, 1958. It was the first of three 1100cc team Lotus cars built specially to contest the English sports racing series that year. 345 was issued to Keith Hall, 347 to Alan Stacy and 349 to Peter Ashdown. These cars were identical spec S2 LeMans, with appendix C coachwork (full width screen and no headrest) and all were built with lighter than standard aluminum panels and the only known 11s built with an ultra-thin fibergalss nose and tail. All three were fitted with wobbly web wheels and 4DTN was fitted with Weber sand cast DCO3 carbs from new, which it retains. The other two cars were raced in bare alloy panels with colored BRG fiberglass nose and tail. Keith painted his in his normal home mix light green, which I have duplicated from a color chip supplied by him. It was road registered 4DTN and I retain the 1959 tax disc, as further validity of the car's heritage.

4DTN's first race was the Goodwood Easter Monday April 1958. I believe it was 3rd. Keith won several other races at Aintree and Oulton Park, amoung others, before returning to Crystal Palace, where he had triumphed so well in the previous two years, with his earlier 11s. Luck was not with him that weekend and he crashed in practice going up ramp bend. 4DTN was returned to the works for rebuild and Keith recovered from his injuries, perhaps returning to the track again at Goodwood for the 6-hour race. They completed the rest of the season without incident, but under family pressure, Keith retired from racing. 4DTN then spent a year with the Bertam brothers in Scotland before being sold off to the US.

There were three owners in the Kansas City area, two in Indianapolis and now two (including myself) in Columbus, Ohio. The fiberglass nose and tail are the ones fitted by the works when 4DTN was rebuilt from the Crystal Pallace crash and are probably the oldest original Lotus fiberglass in existence. I bought the car which was in desperate need of a total rebuild in December 1985 and restored it over the next three years. I have been racing it in vintage events over the last 12 years, mostly in the east, but with one pilgrimage to the 1995 Monterey Historics, when Lotus was the featured marque. I still have the original FWA but upgraded to a FWE I built on a bored firepump block with a Bearcat outboard head.