This was where Colin Chapman was a genius. Like John Cooper before him, he challenged those who said ‘it can’t be done’ or ‘because we always do it this way’.

It was (to use a pompous over-worked phrase) a ‘paragon shift’ in race car design. That is to say it
did something unique and special which changed things forever.

This was where Colin Chapman was a genius. Like John Cooper before him, he challenged those who said ‘it can’t be done’ or ‘because we always do it this way’. He asked ‘why is it like this?’, and ‘why can’t we do it like that?’. John put the engine behind the driver, and Colin used it a a ‘stressed member’.

I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced a ‘stressed member’, but its nothing to be alarmed by, I can assure you. Also, he made the car ‘beautiful’. It is still the most beautiful racing car ever made, in my humble view. But best of all, it thrashed everyone else, and my father won his second World Championship and fifth Monaco GP driving it. Can’t be bad that, eh?

Jim Clark won on the Lotus 49’s 1967 debut and the car was still winning races in 1970 – 12 Formula One wins in all. It used the ubiquitous Cosworth DFV engine.

Click on the links to see the cars:

Maserati 250F
Auto Union Type C
Porsche 917
AC Cobra
Mercedes-Benz W196
Toyota TS010 Group C

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