<< Prev Page 2 of 2 With its slippery body, 350 bhp and a kerb weight of less than 700 kg, the Lotus 30 looked to set to become a dazzling success. Unfortunately it was not quite that straightforward as the skeptics within Lotus were proven right. The large hike in power compared to the Elan was too much for the backbone chassis to handle with considerable flex as a result. Furthermore, the car suffered from overheating and proved difficult to maintain properly. For example to change the ratios in the gearbox the entire rear suspension had to be removed. The first car was sent to Ian Walker together with Team Lotus' Jim Clark to drive it. He struggled and somehow managed to finish second behind at its debut. Later that year Clark had a very big accident when a chassis stopped flexing and instead broke into two pieces.
Chapman was reluctant to give up and continued development of the Lotus 30. For the 1965 season he launched a second Series of the sports racer, which featured a stronger chassis, spoilers front and rear and bigger and wider wheels. Some cars were also fitted with Tecalemit-Jackson Fuel Injection, but the engineers struggled to get it right. The changes were an improvement, but the V8-engined Lolas and McLarens were difficult to match. A third evolution with an even stronger chassis and larger engine was used later that year. It was named the Lotus 40 and described famously by Richie Ginther as a Lotus 30 with ten more problems. Despite the Lotus 30's many problems, the hugely talented and brave Clark still managed to score three wins although all in minor events.
In less than two years Lotus produced around three dozen of these big banger sports racing cars, so at least commercially it was a success. The run was consisted of 23 and 9 examples for the Series 1 and 2 30s respectively and a further 3 examples of the later 40. << Prev Page 2 of 2
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With its slippery body, 350 bhp and a kerb weight of less than 700 kg, the Lotus 30 looked to set to become a dazzling success. Unfortunately it was not quite that straightforward as the skeptics within Lotus were proven right. The large hike in power compared to the Elan was too much for the backbone chassis to handle with considerable flex as a result. Furthermore, the car suffered from overheating and proved difficult to maintain properly. For example to change the ratios in the gearbox the entire rear suspension had to be removed. The first car was sent to Ian Walker together with Team Lotus' Jim Clark to drive it. He struggled and somehow managed to finish second behind at its debut. Later that year Clark had a very big accident when a chassis stopped flexing and instead broke into two pieces.