Lotus 23 Race Car

Class	Race Car
Constructor	Lotus
Year	1962
Engine	Climax and Cosworth
Transmission	manual

The Lotus 23 was a racing sports car, which was developed in 1962 by the British motorsport team Lotus.

History

The Lotus 23 was designed by Colin Chapman as a sports car two-seater, in the racing versions, the second seat was removed or covered. A rear-engine sports car announced at the 1962 Racing Car Show. It was based on the 1961 Formula Junior car, and the power unit was a choice of Climax and Cosworth-tuned Ford. A car, fitted with an early version of the twin-cam Ford-based engine and driven by Jim Clark, led for eleven laps of the 1962 Nürburgring 1000 km race until Clark, overcome by fumes from an exhaust leak, ran out of road. The cars scored many successes in British events, and from 1963 to 1966 there was made the Series Two (23B) with 140 bhp 1600 cc twin-cam Ford engine.

The Lotus 23 used the suspension of the Lotus 20, a Formula Junior racing car from 1961. The suspensions were also adopted by this monoposto. The body was made of glass fiber reinforced plastic. The Lotus 23 was designed for different displacement classes. 750 cc and 1 litre engines were used. The "B" versions had 1.5 and 1.6 litre engines from Ford.

A rear-engine sports car announced at the 1962 Racing Car Show. It was based on the 1961 Formula Junior car, and the power unit was a choice of Climax and Cosworth-tuned Ford. A car, fitted with an early version of the twin-cam Ford-based engine and driven by Jim Clark, led for eleven laps of the 1962 Nürburgring 1000
km race until Clark, overcome by fumes from an exhaust leak, ran out of road. The cars scored many successes in British events, and from 1963
to 1966 there was made the Series Two (23B) with 140 bhp 1600 cc twin-cam Ford engine.

Some vehicles had a BMW engine. The German racer Toni Fischhaber equipped 23er chassis with 1.6 and 2-liter Agreggaten and went with the car in national in circuit and hill climb at the start.

The Lotus 23 made its debut in 1962 at the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring. In heavy rain, the Scot Jim Clark took the lead from the start. The competition from Porsche, Aston Martin and Ferrari had brought sports cars to the Nordschleife, some of which had four times the performance of the small Lotus. Nevertheless, Clark finished the first lap by a margin of 27 seconds on the Porsche of Dan Gurney, only when the track began to dry after a few laps, he was slowly caught up. In the twelfth lap Clark lost control of the car and came off the track. Vapours escaping from a damaged exhaust had made him sick so he could no longer control the car. A second Lotus 23 with Peter Ashdown and Bruce Johnstone behind the wheel ended the race four laps behind champions Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien in the Ferrari Dino 246SP in eighth place overall.

The 24-hour race at Le Mans was a scandal when the ACO officials refused to accept race 23 after the technical inspection. Even before the race it became known that this was due to pressure from French racing teams, who feared for their chances in the small classes. The Lotus team had to leave and an angry Colin Chapman made his announcement never to come to Le Mans with a factory team. More than 130 pieces of this car were built by Lotus and until the mid-1960s were popular and successful racing vehicles, which are still seen at events for historic racing vehicles.