"Mackey's chassis #236 is one of seven "wide Chassis" Elevens constructed in early 1956.  They represent one of Chapman's few mistakes in interpreting rules.  They were build to conform to his interpretation of the FIA Appendix C rules for sports cars, and had a wider chassis center section to provide the required shoulder width in the cockpit.  Some of these cars were raced at Sebring and LeMans and those cars can be identified by the fuel filler located in the center of the scuttle. 

Ignazio Lozano purchased and raced one of these cars in California after he drove it at Sebring in 1956.  Pat Pigott may have had another.  Two of the cars were shown at Earl's court in 1956 and did not go to Sebring or LeMans.  #236 is one of them.  Chapman soon determined that the standard Eleven chassis configuration met the letter of the rules and so there were no more wide chassis cars.

The car was sold to Jay Chamberlain in the US after the Earl's court show.  It was most probably the car used during the press announcment introducing Jay as the US West Coast distributor for Lotus cars.  I have not yet determined who raced the car with its original Climax motor, it may have been Jack Webb of "Dragnet" fame as there is a photo of him trying out an Eleven which is most probably #236. 

The Climax motor was lunched at some point (I still have many of the broken bits) and the car was converted to Alfa 1300 power by Ed Mackey, who was a long time Cal Club Alfa racer.  Ed always used number 212.  Several of the program scans on Frank Sheffield's web site show Ed racing the Alfa powered Eleven from late 1961 through 1963. 

The photo on your web site shows the car with an unusual looking head fairing, the characteristic "Appendix C" windscreen, and the bulge in the bonnet to clear the Alfa motor.  Artifacts and remnants of all of these com- ponents are clearly evident in #236 as purchased from Joe Dykzuel in 2000.  I have some "during restoration" photos of the car if you are interested in putting them on your site. 

Bob Engberg posted a "mysteries" entry on your site looking for additional information on this car but so far no luck."

From Etceterini expert John DeBoer:   (12-18-07)

"Bob Engberg asked about Ed Mackey (not "Mackay") and his Lotus XI with race #212. Mackey's "Lotus-Alfa" entries (race #212) came from Topanga, CA during 1961-63. The car was Alfa Romeo-powered and was listed in entries generally as 1450cc. The earliest entry I've seen (1961) has the car listed as being white and the engine at 1487cc so there is the chance that the car was modified a bit in the 1961/62 time period. Mackey previously raced a Giulietta spyder in the 1959-61 time period."