AUTOSPORT, JANUARY 10, 1969
Captions: The beautifully finished 47D shows no sign of its one-off background.
The shape of the new FF 61 is certainly unusual, and Lotus claim considerable aerodynamic advantages over its rivals.
ON the eve of the Racing Car Show press day, Lotus held a press conference in the unusual venue of Euston Station, where two exciting new models on show in the concourse attracted a lot of attention, One of these was the latest wedge-shaped Formula Ford car, the Type 61, which is featured on our front cover. This car is of particular interest to AUTOSPORT readers, as it is the splendid prize in our special Racing Car Show Competition (see centre pages of supplement with this issue). The car that you can win is displayed on the AUTOSPORT stand (No 15) at the show at Olympia
The other car, the Lotus 470, is most unlikely ever to reach production. It's a fascinating engineering exercise built by Lotus at the request of GKN and Vandervell, who will use it as a guinea-pig for all types of product testing. Tucked into the tail is a light-alloy 3.5-litre Rover VB, which should give it pretty phenomenal performance.
The Lotus 61 FF is apart from its dramatic shape, broadly similar to the 51 with a multi-tubular spaceframe, the upper rubes of which carry coolant, and sled undertray to impart additional stillness. Suspension is by the familiar wishbone/coil-damper setup, with a single lop link and radius arms at the rear.
Not included in the basic price of £999 are adjustable Armstrong dampers, plated suspension parts and seal harness, and naturally the engine is in standard form, but as, Lotus have sale marketing rights of Holbay's new LH 105 Formula Ford engine most 61 s will use this unit, which has a guaranteed minimum of 105 bhp. The Hewland Mk 6 gearbox is standard.
The wedge-shaped body is 3ins deep at the nose, rising to 30 ins at the tail. The cross-flow radiator is canted forward in the nose to achieve the low profile, and the oil cooler is mounted high in the tail, served by a NACA duct.
The lotus 51 will remain available for the time being, but Lotus
expect to sell over 400 61s this year. Initial production will be
mainly for export-s-Lotus FF cars have been sold in 13 countries,
with over Ion going to the USA and Canada for Formula F last year.
Seven 61, are going to Jim Russell, who will operate two FF teams:
Dave Walker, Maurice Harkness and Carlos Avalone of Brazil in one,
and chosen novice pupils of Russell's racing drivers' school in
the other.
The special Lotus 47 that has been built for GKN has as its basis the usual 47 back-bone, but it has been lengthened 3 ins to mount the compact light-alloy Rover unit ahead of the hack axle. A twin-plate clutch takes the drive t0 a five-speed ZF Formula 1 gearbox. The engine is in standard 195 bhp form at the moment with twin SU carburetters and 2l0 lbs-ft of torque, but four down-draught Webers are to be fitted, and the hydraulic tappets will he replaced by solid ones. The 13-ins wheels have 7-l/2-ins rims which carry Goodyear 185-70 HR tyres. Two ducted crossflow radiators are mounted in parallel in the nose, and there are twin thermostatic fans. Interior trim is sumptuously carried out in tan leather, and there is full carpeting, radio, electric windows, aeroflow ventilation and similar niceties. Nevertheless overall weight is kept below 18 cwt, so the car should have tremendous performance.
From GKN's point of view this is just what they need, for they will use the car as a test-bed for a large number of the great variety of components they manufacture for the motor industry. GKN also fed the car ernphasises the healthy state of the British component market, in which a small manufacturer can "buyout" a large number of sub-assemblies and components with minimum capital outlay. The Lotus probably uses fewer GKN bits than the average family car, but it does have Vandervell hearings, flywheel, sump, antiroll bar, etc; Birfield drive shafts (incorporating a new type of constant velocity joint still under development); and, from other parts of the organisation, wheels, alloy castings, clutch plates, con-rods, bumpers, push-rods, alternator components, rocker pad inserts, nuts and bolts and numerous other items. Just one of the purposes to which the car will be put is to test a new method of camshaft manufacture, and experimental dry bushing is being tried in the steering.
At the conference Colin Chapman outlined details of Team Lotus racing plans for 1969, which will be their busiest year ever. In Formula I Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt will have conventional cars to start with, but by halfway through the season the entirely new Grand Prix Lotus with wedge shape and four-wheel-drive will appear. Incidentally, Lotus have been very busy with wind-tunnel testing over the winter, and {he cars will have a new shape as well as aerofoils-although the aerofoils will look rather different from what we have seen so far. In reply to critics of the application of aerofoils in racing, Colin stressed that there was a very definite usefulness in this line of development, even for touring car applications, and that it was by no means a blind alley. Road cars of the future may not have wings, but they will certainly have shapes designed to create negative lift-Lotus road cars will have this in a couple of years or so.
At Indianapolis Lotus will field three new cars, again in conjunction with STP. These will be 4wd machines for Hill, Rindt and Andretti, and will use the turbocharged version of the four-earn Ford Indy engine. Mario Andretti will also drive a third Formula 1 Lotus whenever his American racing commitments allow.
As forecast in AUTOSPORT recently, in Formula 2 Lotus will link up with Winkelmann Racing, who have been behind Jochen Rindt's fantastic run of success in F2 Brab- hams over the past couple of seasons. Alan Rees will be team manager, and Jochen and Graham Hill will do such Formula 2 events as their other engagements allow, in brand-new cars which have yet to be announced. When Hill and Rindt are not available, John Miles and another driver still to be nominated will drive the F2 cars.
John Miles will also drive the new Lotus 59 F3 car, which had its first outing at the Christmas Brands Hatch meeting and was described in Pit and Paddock last week. In addition Lotus will build a prototype Formula 5000 this year, based on the 49 Formula 1 car, although with all their other commitments this may not be ready until May. The type of engine has not been finalised, but it will be developed by Holbay Engines as part of their F5000 engine programme.
In Group 6 Lotus will have another new car, the Type 62, which will use the Vauxhall-based LV220 overhead-cam engine in an entirely new chassis. This should make its bow early in the season.
This is a very complex programme, and Colin Chapman paid tribute to the separate teams of designers and mechanics assigned to each project, without which the whole thing would be impossible. Once again this season, Lotus will be racing as Gold Leaf Team Lotus in Formula I, Group 6 and Formula 3; they will run on Firestone tyres and Shell oil and Fuel, with additional components from Girling, Lucas and Ferodo, and of course they will use Ford engines. As well as their Indy tie-up with STP, they may have a further link with Granatelli in Europe, as STP are starting an increased marketing drive this side of the Atlantic.
Following rumours of projected CanAm activity by Lotus (Pit and Paddock last week), Colin Chapman admitted that Lotus were actively investigating the prospect of a Can-Am programme, but he stated that no firm programme was yet under way. Some of the Formula 1, Indy and Formula 5000 components would, he said, be suitable for adaptation for a Group 7 car-the 4wd of the former, for instance.
Group Lotus Car Companies produced 3038 vehicles in 1968, which means that they achieved their production target despite a year of unrest in the motor and component industries. This year their target is 4000 units, of which 500 will be racing cars from Lotus Components Ltd.
Captions:
The 61's oil cooler is mounted high in the tail of
the car and served by a NACA duct.
Beside it is
the carburetter trumpet of the Holbay-tuned engine.
The
47D is sumptuously finished in hide, walnut, and carpet.
Multum in parvo: The Rover V8 engine is
almost hidden between
the spare wheel
compartment of the 47D.