It debuted at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix and was Colin Chapman's first single-seat racer.

It placed the driver as low as possible, reducing the height of transmission tunnel by way of a "conceptually brilliant"[2] five-speed sequential-shift transaxle located in the back.

The gearbox had a (long-undiagnosed) oil starvation problem, thus earned the nickname "Queerbox" for its unreliability.

[4] Reflecting Chapman's emphasis on engineering for lightness, these were cast in magnesium alloy, a kind of crimped cylinder, resulting in minimum material and maximum strength, without the weaknesses induced by slots in conventional designs.

In F2, the car won the class in the mixed F1/F2 1958 BRDC International Trophy, driven by Cliff Allison, but in spite of a small number of podiums, was usually drowned in a sea of Coopers.