Lotus 16
The Lotus 16 was a single-seater - racing cars in 1958, the Lotus was developed and used to 1960th
The Lotus 16 was the successor model to the Lotus 12 and was conceived, designed and built as a Formula 1 as well as a Formula 2 racing car. Like its predecessor, the 16 was a front-engined racing car, but significantly more oval and more elegant in its lines than the Lotus 12. The car had a light but very fragile tubular space frame. The suspensions were identical to those of the Lotus 12. The 2-liter, 4-cylinder FPF engine supplied by Climax was installed at a slight incline in order to be able to keep the front section narrow. The power transmission ran along the left side of the cockpit. Colin Chapman worked closely with Frank Costin , who was responsible for the aerodynamic aluminum body , on the design .
In Formula 1, the Lotus 16 made its debut at the 1958 French Grand Prix with Graham Hill at the wheel. Hill retired on 33 laps of the race with an overheated engine. The best result in 1958 was Hill's sixth place at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza . The fact that front-engine technology in monopostos came to an end at the end of the 1950s was also evident on the 16. Lotus has long been working on the team's first mid-engine racing car, the Lotus 18 . Therefore, the car was no longer developed in 1959. Innes Ireland achieved the best result in Formula 1 with fourth place at the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix . In Formula 2, too, the successes remained modest. After the 16 was replaced by the Lotus 18 at the beginning of the 1960 season, the works cars were sold to private drivers.
literature
- David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
- Anthony Pritchard: Lotus. The Competition Cars. Haynes Publishing, Sparkford 2006, ISBN 1-84425-006-7 .
