Lotus-Climax

Interesting facts

The Lotus-Climax years marked the high point of Colin Chapman's engineering philosophy: his belief that 'adding power makes you faster on the straights, adding lightness makes you faster everywhere' drove the design of the Lotus 18 and, in 1962, the Lotus 25. With the Lotus 25, Chapman introduced the monocoque chassis to Formula One, a self-supporting structure that was both lighter and stiffer than the tubular spaceframes it replaced, and which has underpinned racing-car design ever since. Jim Clark swept to his first World Championship in the Lotus 25 in 1963 with seven race wins, then took a second title in 1965 in the Lotus 33 with six more victories. The pursuit of lightness came at a cost: the Lotus cars of this era were notoriously fragile, and a striking number of top drivers who suffered serious injury or death during the period were driving Lotuses. When the permitted engine capacity rose to three litres for 1966, Coventry Climax could not produce a competitive successor engine, and that failure brought the Lotus-Climax chapter to a close, pushing Chapman toward new engine partners. Lotus-Climax raced in Formula 1 from 1961 to 1967, across 7 seasons as a British team. Lotus-Climax won the Constructors' Championship 2 times, in 1963, 1965. The team scored a total of 224 constructors' championship points.