X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Team Lotus


Bernard Miles

His son John Miles was a Grand Prix driver in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the Lotus team.

Lotus Racing

Pacific Team Lotus, participant in the 1994 and 1995 Formula One seasons

Lotus Renault

Team Lotus, which used Renault engines between 1983 and 1986 with the constructor name of Lotus Renault

Team Lotus

More racing success followed with the 26R, the racing version of the Elan, and in 1963 with the Lotus Cortina, which Jack Sears drove to the British Touring Car Championship title, a feat repeated by Jim Clark in 1964.


1962 Cape Grand Prix

The race was run over 60 laps of the circuit, and was won by British driver Trevor Taylor, in his Lotus 21.

1963 Tony Bettenhausen 200

Jim Clark and Team Lotus had finished second at the 1963 Indianapolis 500 after a controversy surrounding the lack of a black flag for winner Parnelli Jones, whose car was leaking oil.

1964 Mediterranean Grand Prix

British driver Mike Hailwood was involved in an accident during the race, in which his Lotus 25 ended up in Pergusa Lake.

1970 Monaco Grand Prix

The Lotus team decided to bring the old 49 chassis instead of the new 72, despite testing it in a non-championship race at Silverstone a couple of weeks earlier.

1979 United States Grand Prix West

Canadian Gilles Villeneuve captured pole, fastest lap and the win for Ferrari, followed by teammate Jody Scheckter, as the Prancing Horses took a big step toward reclaiming the Constructor's and Driver's Championships from Lotus.

BRM P48

At the Dutch Grand Prix, Hill would finish a respectable third behind the Coventry Climax engined Cooper and Lotus of Jack Brabham and Innes Ireland.

Detroit street circuit

It was the last ever of 155 grand prix wins for the 3.0L Cosworth DFV V8 engine which had made its debut back in 1967 when legendary Team Lotus boss Colin Chapman matched his Lotus 49 with the engine.

John Tipler

He has been writing books since 1990, with over 30 published on a variety of motor vehicles, including Morgan, TVR, Lotus, Caterham and Alfa Romeo sports cars, Land Rovers, Triumph and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, plus several on Lotus formula 1 cars, as well as biographies of racing drivers Graham Hill, Ronnie Peterson and Ayrton Senna.

Lotus 21

Used by the works Lotus team and the privateer Rob Walker Racing Team in 1961, the 21 was the first works Lotus to win a Formula One Grand Prix, in the hands of Innes Ireland at the 1961 United States Grand Prix.

Philippe Adams

Adams and his backers agreed with Team Lotus to find $500,000 to earn a pay-drive with them for two rounds of the 1994 Formula One season.

Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout

Cooper did not return, but from 1963 on British built mid-engined cars from constructors like Brabham, Lotus and Lola competed regularly and in 1965 Lotus won Indy with their Type 38.

Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior

That year he raced a Jim Russell Driving School entered Lotus 59 in British Formula Three, beating Carlos Pace and works Lotus driver Dave Walker, among others, to a victory at a BARC Championship round at Silverstone.


see also

Lotus Esprit GT1

For example The Lotus Esprit GT team were based at the former headquarters of Team Lotus (Ketteringham Hall) and included Alex Zanardi in the driver line-up.