>>Lotus 62

Lotus 62

The Lotus Type 62 race car was a development of the successful Type 47 and intended to race in the Appendix J Group 6 Prototype Class. The car was designed by Martin Waide at Lotus Components and had a space frame chassis, and featured the new Lotus 2.0 litre LV240 DOHC engine (in time this engine would become the Type 907 engine, used to power the Lotus Elite, Esprit, Eclat and Excel).

The car had limited competitive success, due mainly to problems with the Vauxhall derived engine block. The car's most successful race was finishing 3rd position at the Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park in 1969.

>>Lotus 59

Lotus 59

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Lotus 59
James Hunt's Lotus 59 Formula 3 car from 1970
Overview
Manufacturer	Lotus Components Ltd.
Production	1969-1970
Designer	Dave Baldwin
Body and chassis
Class	Formula Two, Formula B, Formula Three, Formula Ford
Body style	Open wheel
Powertrain
Engine	F2: 1598 cc Cosworth FVA FB: 1594 cc Cosworth Mk.XIII F3: 997 cc Cosworth MAE FF: 1599 cc Ford Crossflow
Transmission	59B: Hewland FT200 59: Hewland Mk.6
Dimensions
Wheelbase	92.5 inches
Kerb weight	390 KG
Chronology
Predecessor	Lotus 41
Successor	Lotus 69

The Lotus 59 is a racing car built by Lotus Components Ltd. for the 1969 and 1970 seasons of Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula Ford and Formula B.

Design

Following the failure (at least in sales) of the Lotus 41, Lotus 59 was designed from the ground up by Dave Baldwin using rectangle steel tubing in a complex spaceframe configuration. This configuration was in response to the customer complaints on difficult and expensive repair on aluminium alloy monocoque Lotus 35 and the welded steel tubing and sheet steel combination on Lotus 41 of John Joyce design. The frame tubes were used as water passage to/from the radiator on the F3/FF versions, but were not used on the F2/FB version, using long water pipes mounted outside of the body instead. Oil cooler was mounted on the rear-most bulkhead above the transmission.

Lotus 59 originally came in two versions; 59 for Formula 3 and Formula Ford, 59B for Formula 2 and Formula B, all sharing the same 92.5" wheelbase, which was 2.5" longer than the previous 41/41X. Suspension was very conventional with double wishbone and outboard spring/damper unit up front, with top link and lower reversed wishbone combined with upper and lower radius arms and outboard spring/damper unit in the rear. Brakes were outboard in the front and rear.

Lotus 59B in Formula B configuration. Note the water feed pipe to radiator on the body side

However, the front anti-dive geometry which was introduded on the Lotus 31, and the rear anti-squat geometry with unparallel radius arms (that counters the rear camber and toe-in reductions under braking) which was introduced with the 41C, were fully developed on the 41X (which had multiple suspension arm attachment points), and the setup found to be the best is incorporated into the 59 frame. While the 59 used Triumph Herald front uprights, the 59B used the Formula Two version Lotus 41X uprights and brakes shared with Lotus 47A. Hubs and wheels were knock-off type with spin-on central lock nut, except for the Formula Ford version, which had the Ford production 4 lugnut configuration as per the formula.

The 59 appeared for the first time on 27 December 1968 at the Brands Hatch Boxing Day meeting. After some initial problems on spring rates and on the oil circuit were solved, the design proved successful. Its strong point was the superb road holding which enabled the driver to put the power down more effectively than the competition exiting the corners on less-than-perfect road surface.

For 1970, 59B was succeeded by Lotus 69. The 59 was mostly unchanged for the year, but the chisel-shaped nose of Lotus 69 was retrofitted in mid-season. This new configuration is commonly known as 59A for F3, and as 59FB for Formula Ford.

Due to the closure of Lotus Components in 1971, Lotus 59 production records are incomplete, erratic and unreliable. However, about 46 chassis are believed to have been made with the newest known record of chassis number "59xF3/FF/46" with the build date of "13/12/70".
As it is customary for Lotus Components products, initial 59 frame assembly was carried out in-house, and then taken over by Arch Motors. The earliest known 'AM' serial number stamp is "AM-59FB5" on chassis number "59xB/F2/38".

Dave Baldwin joined many other Lotus Components employees to form GRD in 1971, and continued to support Lotus 59 and 69 users.

Cosworth Mk.XIII on 59B. Note the water return pipe shown lower right. Also, the angle difference between upper and lower radius arms is clearly seen

Engines

59B - Formula 2 - 1598 cc Cosworth FVA
59B - Formula B - 1594 cc Cosworth Mk.XIII
59 - Formula 3 - 997 cc Cosworth MAE
59 - Formula Ford - 1599 cc Ford Crossflow

1969 Lotus 59 Formula 3 997cc engine.

Records

Emerson Fittipaldi on a Lotus 59 in the 1969 F3 Guards Trophy at Brands Hatch. Note the lack of body side water pipe in this F3 configuration

Lotus 59B in Formula 2 configuration with Winkelmann Racing livery

The successes include Jochen Rindt, who dominated or shared the podium with Jackie Stewart or Jean-Pierre Beltoise in almost all the 1969 F2 races he entered, driving the semi-works Roy Winkelmann Racing 59B, but was excluded from the championship standings because he (along with Stewart and Beltoise) was a "graded driver".

His non-graded teammates, Alan Rollinson and John Miles, scored some points in the championship, but were no match against the non-graded Johnny Servoz-Gavin on MatraMS7-Ford, Hubert Hahne on Lola T102-BMW, François Cévert on Tecno-Ford, and Henri Pescarolo on Matra MS7-Ford.
Gold Leaf Team Lotus ran Roy Pike and Mo Nunn on 59B in British F2 races in the 1969 season.

Emerson Fittipaldi on a 59 won nine F3 races in the MCD Lombard Championship to become the 1969 champion. Also, Freddy Kottulinsky and Tetsu Ikuzawa won several F3 races on the 59 in 1969.

For the 1970 season, Emerson Fittipaldi and Tetsu Ikuzawa moved up to Formula Two with the less successful semi-works Lotus 69, and finished the season in the 3rd and 6th places respectively, beaten by Clay Regazzoni on Tecno-Ford and Derek Bell on Brabham BT30-Ford/BMW. James Hunt won several races in his Molyslip Lotus 59, including coming 2nd in heat 1 and winning heat 2 at Brands Hatch 17 July 1970. Hunt also famously crashed into Dave Morgan at Crystal Palace in October of that year, Murray Walker coined the word shunt at that meeting.

James Hunt 17 July 1970 winning Lotus 59 Formula 3 car

In F3, Carlos Pace on a 59 won the F3 Forward Trust Championship in the UK for the 1970 season. Freddy Kottulinsky and Sten Axelsson of the Lipton Tea team won four Formula 3 European Championship races.

>>Lotus 56

Lotus 56

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Lotus 56
Lotus 56B

Dave Walker in the 56B at Zandvoort
Category	Formula One USAC IndyCar
Constructor	Team Lotus
Designer(s)	Colin Chapman (Technical Director) Maurice Philippe (Chief Designer)
Predecessor	72 (F1) 42 (USAC IndyCar)
Successor	72 (F1) 64 (USAC IndyCar)
Technical specifications
Chassis	Aluminium monocoque
Suspension (front)	double wishbones, inboard coil springs over dampers
Suspension (rear)	double wishbones, inboard coil springs over dampers
Engine	Pratt & Whitney gas turbine mid-mounted
Transmission	no gearbox or clutch Four-wheel drive
Weight	612kg (USAC IndyCar) 600kg (F1)
Fuel	STP (USAC IndyCar) Shell (F1)
Tyres	Firestone
Competition history
Notable entrants	Gold Leaf Team Lotus (F1) World Wide Racing (F1)
Notable drivers	Dave Walker (F1)  Reine Wisell (F1)  Emerson Fittipaldi (F1)
Debut	1968 Indianapolis 500 (USAC IndyCar) 1971 Dutch Grand Prix (F1)
Races Wins Poles F.Laps 3 0 0 0
n.b. Unless otherwise stated, all data refer to Formula One World Championship Grands Prix only.

The Lotus 56 was a gas turbine-powered four-wheel driven racing car, designed by Maurice Philippe as Team Lotus' 1968 STP-backed entry in the Indianapolis 500, replacing the successful Lotus 38 and the 1967 STP-Paxton Turbocar. The 4WD concept was also used in the 1969 Lotus 63 F1 car, and the wedge shape became a prominent feature of the world championships winning Lotus 72. As Lotus 56B, a modified version designed by Maurice Philippe and Colin Chapman, the gas turbine car returned in Gold Leaf colours at a few 1971 Formula One events.

Indy 500

Joe Leonard's Lotus 56 at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Lotus 56 on a Demonstration run.

The Lotus 56 used a modified version of the ST6 gas turbine used on the STP-Paxton Turbocar ("Silent Sam") that almost won in 1967. The ST6 was based on a small aircraft engine that would become one of the most popular turboprop aircraft engines in history. But the car itself was an entirely new and more advanced design which introduced a distinctive aerodynamic wedge-shaped body rather than a cigar-shape, in the year of the introduction of front and rear wings to F1.USAC, the governing body of the Indy 500, had implemented new rules aimed at handicapping turbine powered racing cars by drastically reducing the air intake size. The Lotus 56 made up for reduced power with a sophisticated suspension design, retaining the four-wheel drive concept of the Silent Sam, but with lighter weight, and advanced aerodynamics.

Lotus had suffered the death of driver Jim Clark in a Formula 2 race in Germany. Mike Spence was killed at Indianapolis while testing one of four 56s built. The remaining three cars with Graham Hill, Joe Leonard, and Art Pollard were entered for the race, with Leonard claiming pole position. Unlike the year before, when the STP-Paxton Turbocar easily outperformed the other cars in the race, in the race the turbine cars were relatively evenly matched with the other top contenders, much of which must be attributed to aerodynamics and chassis design and not to the turbine engine. Hill's car crashed, Pollard's car broke down, while Leonard was leading with just a handful of laps to go when the a fuel pump shaft failed. Shortly thereafter, the USAC imposed additional restrictions on turbine cars that essentially removed them from competition. For the second year in a row STP turbine cars had brought innovation to the Indy 500 and had failed to win while leading within a few laps of the end of the race. USAC subsequently banned turbine cars and four-wheel drive completely, but it was unusual enough that Mattel produced a model of the "Lotus Turbine" as one of the popular mass-produced die cast Hot Wheels cars.

In 1971 the Lotus 56 was raced in Formula 1 on occasion by Team Lotus but the large fuel tanks required to allow it to run an entire race without refuelling left it overweight and uncompetitive.

The Lotus 56, while never winning a race, demonstrated the importance of aerodynamics in racing cars, along with Jim Hall's Chaparrals, and effectively set the mould for open-wheeled racing cars for the next ten years. Chapman's Lotus 72 employed the same wedge nose shape and went on to win three world championships in Formula 1.

Formula One

Colin Chapman developed the 56 as a potential F1 contender, part of his plan to have a single design to compete at both the Indy 500 and in Formula 1, but it was too heavy and never competitive. The car was designated as the 56B and Emerson Fittipaldi tried it in the 1971 Race of Champions and International Trophy non-Championship meetings. At Brands Hatch, during wet practice, the 56 was far and away the fastest car on the track, but the race was held in dry weather and the car was lost in midfield. At the Silverstone-based International Trophy, the car only lasted three laps of the first heat before suspension failure forced Fittipaldi's retirement. Dave Walker ran the car in the Dutch Grand Prix, and had progressed from 22nd to 10th in five laps of the very wet track, before sliding off the road and into retirement. Fittipaldi used the car again in that year's 1971 Italian Grand Prix and managed to bring the fragile design home 8th.

Formula One World Championship results

Year	Entrant	Engine	Tyres	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	WCC	Pts.
1971	Gold Leaf Team Lotus World Wide Racing	Pratt & Whitney ST6 gas turbine	F		RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA	0	NC
				Dave Walker				Ret
				Reine Wisell						NC
				Emerson Fittipaldi									8

Formula One non-championship results

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Tyres	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1971	Gold Leaf Team Lotus	F		ARG	ROC	QUE	SPR	INT	RIN	OUL	VIC
			Emerson Fittipaldi		Ret			Ret
			Reine Wisell				Ret

>>Lotus 49

Lotus 49

Lotus 49

Category	Formula One
Constructor	Lotus
Designer(s)	Colin Chapman (Technical director) Maurice Philippe (Chief designer)
Predecessor	Lotus 43
Successor	Lotus 63 / Lotus 72
Technical specifications
Chassis	Aluminium monocoque
Axle track	152.4 front and rear
Wheelbase	2,413 mm (95.0 in)
Engine	Ford Cosworth DFV, 2,998 cc (183 cu in), V8, NA, mid-mounted
Transmission	Hewland-Lotus 5-speed manual gearbox
Weight	501 kg (1,105 lb)
Fuel	Esso (9 GP), Shell
Tyres	Firestone, Dunlop
Competition history
Notable entrants	Gold Leaf Team Lotus Rob Walker Racing Team
Notable drivers	Jim Clark  Graham Hill  Mario Andretti  Jochen Rindt  Jo Siffert  Emerson Fittipaldi
Debut	1967 Dutch Grand Prix
Races Wins Podiums Poles F.Laps 42 12 23 19 13
Constructors' Championships	2 (1968, 1970^)
Drivers' Championships	2 (Graham Hill, 1968 / Jochen Rindt, 1970)

The Lotus 49 was a Formula One racing car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1967 F1 season. It was designed around the Cosworth DFV engine that would power most of the Formula One grid through the 1970s. It was one of the first F1 cars to use a stressed-member drivetrain to reduce weight, and the first to be widely copied by other teams.

Jim Clark won on the car's debut, in 1967, and it would also provide him with the last win of his career, in 1968. Graham Hill went on to win that year's title and the car continued winning races until 1970.

Concept

After a difficult first year for Lotus in the three-litre formula, Chapman went back to the drawing board and came up with a design that was both back to basics, and forward-thinking. Taking inspiration from earlier designs, particularly the Lotus 43 and Lotus 38 Indycar, the 49 was the first F1 car to be powered by the Ford Cosworth DFV engine, after Chapman convinced Ford to build an F1 power-plant.

The 49 was an advanced design in Formula 1 because of its chassis configuration. The specially-designed engine became a stress-bearing structural member (seen earlier with the H16 engine in the Lotus 43 and BRM P83, and prior to that in the front-engined Lancia D50 of 1954), bolted to the monocoque at one end and the suspension and gearbox at the other. Since then, virtually all Formula 1 cars have been built this way.

The 49 was a testbed for several new pieces of racecar technology and presentation. Lotus was the first team to use aerofoil wings, which appeared partway through 1968. Originally these wings were bolted directly to the suspension and were supported by slender struts. The wings were mounted several feet above the chassis of the car for effective use in clean air, however after several breakages which led to dangerous accidents, the high wings were banned and Lotus was forced to mount the wings directly to the bodywork.

Racing history

Jim Clark being congratulated by Colin Chapman after winning with the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix, the Lotus 49's first World Championship race

In testing, Graham Hill found the Lotus 49 easy to drive and responsive, but the power of the Ford engine difficult to handle at first. The V8 would give sudden bursts of power that Hill had reservations about. However, Jim Clarkwon its debut race at Zandvoort with ease and took another three wins during the season, but early unreliability with the DFV ended his championship hopes. It had problems in its first race for Hill, and it had spark plug trouble at the Belgian Grand Prix, held on the 8.76 mile (14.73 kilometer) Spa-Francorchamps. Clark and Hill fell victim to its reliability issues at the French Grand Prix, held at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit (a smaller circuit using only part of the track used for the Le Mans 24 Hours), and lost to Jack Brabham. Clark then ran out of fuel at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix. Mechanical failures cost Lotus the championship that year, but it was felt that 1968 would be a better year after Cosworth and Lotus perfected their designs, which were clearly the way forward.

A Lotus 49 with Ford V-8 engine drawing

Clark won the first race of the 1968 season, the South African Grand Prix and the Tasman Series in Australia, but was killed in an F2 race at Hockenheim. Hill took over as team leader and won his second World Championship title, after clinching three Grand Prix wins - including the fourth of his five Monaco Grands Prix. Jo Siffert also drove a 49, owned by Rob Walker, to win the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch that year, the last time a car entered by a genuine privateer won a championship Formula 1 race. The 49 also took Jochen Rindt to his first victory, in 1969, at Watkins Glen, New York, before he drove the type to its last win, in the 1970 Monaco Grand Prix.

The 49 was intended to be replaced by the Lotus 63 midway through 1969, but when that car proved to be a failure, an improved version of the 49, the 49C, was pressed into service until a suitable car could be built. The 49 took twelve wins and contributed to two drivers' and constructors' world championships, before it was replaced by the Lotus 72 during 1970. The final appearances of the 49C were in 1971, with Wilson Fittipaldi finishing ninth in the 1971 Argentine Grand Prix, and Tony Trimmer finishing sixth in the Spring Cup at Oulton Park.

Of the twelve 49s built, seven remain. Chassis R3 (driven by Hill, then sold to privateer John Love) is the only example of the original 1967 cars still in existence, and is on display at the National Motor Museum in Hampshire.

World Championship results

(results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Chassis	Entrant	Tyres	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Points†	WCC†
1967	Lotus 49	Team Lotus	F		RSA	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	CAN	ITA	USA	MEX			44	2nd
				Jim Clark			1	6	Ret	1	Ret	Ret	3	1	1
				Graham Hill			Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	4	Ret	2	Ret
				Eppie Wietzes								DSQ
				Giancarlo Baghetti									Ret
				Moises Solana										Ret	Ret
1968	§Lotus 49 Lotus 49B	Team Lotus	F		RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA	CAN	USA	MEX		62	1st
				Jim Clark	1§
				Graham Hill	2§
		Gold Leaf Team Lotus				1§	1	Ret	9	Ret	Ret	2	Ret	4	2	1
				Jackie Oliver			Ret§	5	NC	DNS	Ret	11	Ret	Ret	DNS	3
				Mario Andretti									DNS		Ret
				Bill Brack										Ret
				Moises Solana												Ret§
		Rob Walker/Jack Durlacher Racing		Jo Siffert		Ret§	Ret§	7§	Ret§	11§	1	Ret	Ret	Ret	5	6
1969	§Lotus 49 Lotus 49B	Gold Leaf Team Lotus	F		RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA	CAN	USA	MEX			42	3rd
				Graham Hill	2	Ret	1	7	6	7	4	9	Ret	Ret
				Jochen Rindt	Ret	Ret		Ret	Ret	4	Ret	2	3	1	Ret
				Mario Andretti	Ret
				Richard Attwood			4
		Rob Walker/Jack Durlacher Racing		Jo Siffert	4	Ret	3	2	9	8	11‡	8	Ret	Ret	Ret
		Ecurie Bonnier		Jo Bonnier							Ret
		Team Gunston	D	John Love	Ret§
		Pete Lovely Volkswagen Inc.		Pete Lovely									7	Ret	9
1970	§Lotus 49 ¶Lotus 49B Lotus 49C	Gold Leaf Team Lotus Garvey Team Lotus World Wide Racing	F		RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA	MEX	59^	1st^
				Jochen Rindt	13		1	Ret
				John Miles	5		DNQ
				Alex Soler-Roig		DNQ				DNQ
				Emerson Fittipaldi							8	4	15
		R.R.C. Walker Racing Brooke Bond OxoRacing/Rob Walker		Graham Hill	6	4	5	Ret	NC	10	6	Ret
				Brian Redman	DNS
		Scuderia Scribante		Dave Charlton	12
		Team Gunston	D	John Love	8§
		Pete Lovely Volkswagen Inc.	F	Pete Lovely					DNQ¶	DNQ¶	NC¶					DNQ¶

^† Points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the first six finishers at each round, but only the best placed car for each make was eligible to score points. The best five results from the first six rounds and the best four results from the last five rounds were retained in 1967 and 1969, five from the first six and five from the last six in 1968, and the best six results from the first seven rounds and the best five from the last six rounds were retained in 1970.

^‡ Formula Two cars occupied fifth to tenth positions in the 1969 German Grand Prix, but were not eligible for championship points. The points for fifth and sixth were awarded to the drivers of the eleventh and twelfth placed cars.

^{^} Total points scored by all Lotus-Ford cars, including 45 points scored by drivers of Lotus 72 variants.

Racing colours

A Lotus 49 presented as it would have appeared in the early part of the 1968 season, just prior to the introduction of Gold Leaf Team Lotus colours

From its introduction in 1967 works Lotus 49s were painted in Lotus's traditional British racing green with yellow centre-stripe. Over the following 16 months the design gained increasing numbers of sponsor patches and large driver name strips, while retaining the traditional base scheme. However, for the 1967-1968 Tasman Series races Team Lotus's 2.5 litre engined 49s were painted red, cream and gold — the colours of Gold Leaf cigarettes — after Chapman signed a lucrative sponsorship deal. This colour scheme was introduced for the 1968 World Championship at the second race of the season, in Spain.

Lotus 49s were also run by the privateer Rob Walker Racing Team, who painted their car in Walker's traditional dark blue with white nose band, and American Pete Lovely, whose car (chassis R11) was painted in the American national racing colours of white with a blue centre-stripe.

Gallery

Lotus 49B 

Jochen Rindt at the 1969 German Grand Prix 

rear suspension of the Lotus 49B 

Cosworth-V8 in the Lotus 49B 

The Cosworth DFV engine as installed into an early-1968 spec Lotus 49 

View of Lotus 49B showing high rear wing fixed directly to suspension 

A Lotus 49B with the original, banned rear wing being demonstrated at the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed 

The 49C being demonstrated in 2005