Lotus 18
The 1960-built Lotus 18 was the first mid-engine - Lotus and a milestone in the motorsport history.
The racing car had a compact tubular space frame and was 27 kg lighter than its predecessor, the Lotus 16 . For the suspension, triangular wishbones of unequal length were used at the front, at the rear the car had triangular wishbones at the bottom (with the point inward) and trailing arms, and at the top the transverse control arm was the drive shaft and trailing arms and a stabilizer. All four disc brakes were on the wheel carriers.
The Lotus 18 was built for the Formula 1 and Formula 2 categories with 4- and later 8-cylinder engines from Climax and for Formula Junior ex works with Ford -Kent engines from the Ford Anglia 105E. Some Formula Junior cars had a BMC engine, and the German Gerhard Mitter relied on a DKW engine.
The Lotus 18 was available in a wide variety of variants, as the many privateers who used the car kept making adjustments. Rob Walker's 18 had a completely different power transmission than the works cars. The most exotic variants had Vanwall , Borgward or Maserati engines. In 1960, 125 of this racing car were built. That results in a production of at least two cars a week, a very high number for a small racing car manufacturer like Lotus.
Innes Ireland was the debut rider of the Factory 18. At the Argentine Grand Prix at the beginning of 1960, he was briefly in the lead and ended up sixth. This was followed by victories in both Formula 1 and the Formula 2 Easter race in Thruxton . Stirling Moss won the Monaco Grand Prix in Rob Walker's 18cc and celebrated Lotus’s first victory in the Formula 1 World Championship. In the constructors' championship in 1960, Lotus finished second behind Cooper .
In 1961 the works cars got a revised body. In Formula 1, some of the racing cars ran under the name Lotus 18/21, which usually indicated a private vehicle and the V8 engine from Climax and an adapted chassis from the Lotus 21 . The car was unbeatable in Formula Junior and was overwhelmingly successful there.
Two Lotus 18s with Borgward engines were entered in 1963 and 1964 by the German team Borgward-Kuhnke-Lotus for several motorsport events, including the 1963 German Grand Prix.
literature
- David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
