Lotus 49
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The Lotus 49 was designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Phillipe for the 1967 F1 season. After a difficult first year for Lotus in the 3 litre formula, Chapman went back to the drawing board and came up with a design that was both back to basics, and a leap ahead. Taking inspiration from earlier designs, particularly the Lotus 43 and Lotus 38 Indycar, the 49 was the first F1 car to be powered by the now-famous Ford Cosworth DFV engine after Chapman convinced Ford to build an F1 powerplant. In testing, Graham Hill found the 49 easy to drive and responsive, but the power of the Ford difficult to handle at first. The V8 would give sudden bursts of power that Hill had reservations about. However, Jim Clark won its debut race at Zandvoort with ease and took another 3 wins during the season, but early unreliability with the DFV ended his championship hopes. However it was felt that 1968 would be a better year after Ford perfected the design, but it was obvious the DFV and the design of the Lotus 49 was the way forwards.
Clark won the first race of the season, but was tragically killed in an F2 race at Hockenheim. Graham Hill took over as team leader and won his second World Championship title. The 49 also took Jochen Rindt to his first victory in 1969, before he drove the type to its last win in the 1970 Monaco Grand Prix.
The 49 was a revolution in Formula 1 because of its then-unique configuration where the specially-designed engine became a structural part of the chassis, bolted to the monocoque at one end and the suspension and gearbox at the other. Since then virtually all Formula 1 cars have been built this way, right up to the present day. The 49 was a testbed for several new pieces of racecar technology and presentation. Lotus was the first team to use aerofoil wings, which appeared partway through 1968. Originally these wings were bolted directly to the suspension and were supported by slender struts. The wings were mounted several feet above the chassis of the car for effective use in clean air, however after several breakages which led to near fatal accidents, the high wings were banned and Lotus was forced to mount the wings directly to the bodywork.
Typically, Lotus was painted in British racing green but from the Monaco race, the 49 was painted red, white and gold, the colours of Gold Leaf cigarettes after Chapman signed a lucrative sponsorship deal. It was the first sign of big money entering the sport.
The 49 was intended to be replaced by the Lotus 63 midway through 1969, but when that car proved to be a faliure, the 49 was pressed into service until a suitable car could be built. The 49 took 12 wins, contributed to 2 driver and constructors' world championships, before it was replaced by the Lotus 72 in 1970.
In 1998, a detailed virtual recreation of this famous Lotus type appeared as one of the leading cars in the Grand Prix Legends pc-based F1 simulation of 1967.
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