The Lotus 38 was the first rear-engined car to win the Indianapolis 500, breaking the dominance of the front-engined American roadsters. Lotus 38 – the Lotus that took the US by storm Certainly, worthy of a place on our top racing Lotuses list. The 25 was still used until well into 1965, despite the introduction of the Lotus 33 in 1964 earning a total of 14 F1 wins between 19. Jim Clark dominated the Formula 1 season of 1963 after winning seven of ten races with the Lotus 25, propelling him to his first World Championship title and Lotus’ first Constructor’s Title. Amazingly, the whole ‘bathtub’ – as it was dubbed – was only half the weight of a contemporary spaceframe, while being three times as stiff. These advances allowed Lotus to use more supple suspension, which offered great advantages in slower, tighter turns.
The monocoque was little more than a pair of D-shaped alloy box-sections (carrying fuel bags either side of the reclined driver) connected via transverse bulkheads. While not the first example of monocoque construction in motorsport, the simplicity and effectiveness of Chapman’s application combined with its success in the hands of Jim Clark, marked it as a revolution in race car design.
Such detail was typical of the small British team that would go on to would beat the powerhouses of F1.Ĭhapman’s genius was the way he extracted the most from every single component. It was a philosophy led to the Lotus 25 and its monocoque construction.
Here we see the genius of Chapman and his Lotus squad – The 18 was small, simple, and lightweight, but critically its religiously triangulated spaceframe gave it a stiffness that allowed the suspension to optimise grip from the latest generation of Dunlops. After taking the Type 18 home for another win in the 1960 US Grand Prix he returned to Monaco the next year for a second consecutive win in spectacular fashion against tough opposition from Scuderia Ferrari, who fielded three, much more powerful Sharknose 156s. Moss later recalled: ‘The best thing about this car is that it is very, very manoeuvrable, and I think the Ferraris were much harder work to race!’ The car became synonymous with Stirling Moss after he took Team Lotus to its first Formula 1 win at Monaco in 1960. Introduced in 1960, the Lotus 18 was the first rear-engined car produced by Colin Chapman’s team.
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