The Lotus 38 was the first rear-engined car to win the
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...
, in 1965, driven by
Jim Clark. It was run by
Lotus at Indianapolis from 1965 to 1967; a total of 8 were built, most for use by Lotus, but several were sold for use by other drivers, including
A. J. Foyt
Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. (born January 16, 1935) is an American retired auto racing driver who has raced in numerous genres of motorsports. His open wheel racing includes United States Automobile Club Champ cars, sprint cars, and midget cars. H ...
and
Mario Andretti
Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian-born American former racing driver. One of the most successful drivers in the history of motorsports, Andretti is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, t ...
.
Design
The Lotus 38 was designed by
Colin Chapman
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman (19 May 1928 – 16 December 1982) was an English design engineer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars.
In 1952 he founded the sports car company Lotus Cars. Chapman ...
and
Len Terry
Leonard E. Terry (11 February 1924 – 25 August 2014) was an English racing car designer and engineer, known for his work with Lotus, BRM and Eagle. He also designed chassis for many other teams, including ERA and Aston Martin and produced ...
as Lotus' 1965 entry for the Indianapolis 500. It was an evolution of the previous
Lotus 29
The Lotus 29 was a British racing car built by Team Lotus for the 1963 Indianapolis 500. It was their first attempt at the event and the two cars which were entered finished second and seventh in the hands of Jim Clark and Dan Gurney. Although t ...
and
Lotus 34
The Lotus 34 is an open-wheel race car built by Team Lotus for the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Driven by Jim Clark, who qualified on pole, and Dan Gurney, tyre failure led to Clark retiring and Gurney being withdrawn.
Development history
The Lotus ...
Indy designs, but this time with a full monocoque tub chassis; it was powered by the same four-cam
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
V8 fuel injected engine as used in the 34, giving out around 500 bhp. In all of them, the engine was mid-mounted, improving the weight distribution and giving it good handling. The 38 was significantly larger than
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
cars of the time, but was dwarfed by the massive American roadsters.
The 38 was specially designed with an "offset" suspension, with the car body situated asymmetrically between the wheels, offset to the left using suspension arms of unequal length. Although in theory this was better suited for the ovals (which have only left turns), for example by evening out tyre wear between the two sides, in practice the handling was sufficiently idiosyncratic that the concept never caught on widely.
Race results
At the
1965 Indianapolis 500
The 49th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Monday, May 31, 1965.
The five-year-old "British Invasion" finally broke through as Jim Clark and Colin Chapman triumphed in dominatin ...
, Clark qualified second with a 4 lap average speed of with a new one lap record of . Although Clark and A.J. Foyt had both broken the 160 mph barrier in practice earlier in the month, Clark was the first to do so in official qualifying. Ironically, Foyt grabbed the pole with an average of in a slightly modified Lotus 34 while also turning in a new one lap record of .
Clark led from the start and although Foyt passed him on the second lap, the Lotus 38 roared past on lap 3 and from then on the only time Clark lost the lead was on lap 65 when he had his first pit stop. Foyt led until his stop on lap 74 and from then on Clark was never headed. The Scotsman led all but 10 laps and won with only four other cars on the lead lap, with the rest of the finishers all at least 2 laps behind. With
Parnelli Jones
Rufus Parnell Jones (born August 12, 1933) is an American former professional racing driver and racing team owner. He is notable for his accomplishments while competing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Baja 1000 desert race. In 1962, he became the ...
finishing second (also in a modified 34), it was payback for Clark and Lotus losing the race in
1963
Events January
* January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...
when many, including team owner/founder Colin Chapman and journalist/author
Brock Yates
Brock Wendel Yates (October 21, 1933 – October 5, 2016) was an American print and TV journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was longtime executive editor of ''Car and Driver'', an American automotive magazine. In 1971 Yates, his son, and a f ...
, felt that Jones' oil spewing front engined roadster should have been black flagged.
Lotus returned with the 38 in
1966, though they conceded victory to
Graham Hill in a
Lola
Lola may refer to:
Places
* Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama
* Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States
* Lola Prefecture, Guinea
* Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture
* Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands
People
* Lola ...
, after some confusion with the scoring due to an erroneous lap chart, and again in
1967
Events
January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 5
** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
when Clark retired early with a blown engine.
After a fair amount of resistance from American teams who generally believed that rear-engine cars were for "drivers who like to be pushed around", the Lotus 38 had proved that mid-engined cars could make the grade at
The Brickyard, and the days of the front-engined roadsters were effectively over (in fact, only 4 of the 33 starters in 1965 were front engine cars). Clark won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 with a then race record average speed of , the first time the
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...
had been run at a speed of over 150 mph. The previous record had been set by Foyt in
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
at an average of . Foyt's win in 1964 in a front engine
Watson-
Offy
The Offenhauser Racing Engine, or Offy, is a racing engine design that dominated American open wheel racing for more than 50 years and is still popular among vintage sprint and midget car racers.
History
The Offenhauser engine, familiarly ...
roadster was the last time a front engined car would win the Indy 500.
Design elements in the 38 were eventually worked into the design of the legendary
Lotus 49
The Lotus 49 was a Formula One racing car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1967 F1 season. It was designed around the Cosworth DFV engine that would power most of the Formula One grid through the 1970s. It was one of the fi ...
, and Foyt's early Coyotes (as well as a number of other contemporary Indy cars) were Lotus 38 clones.
Further reading
* Andrew Ferguson, ''Lotus: The Indianapolis Years'' (Patrick Stephens, 1996)
* Len Terry, Alan Baker, ''Racing Car Design and Development'' (Robert Bentley, 1973)
References
External links
Old Racing Cars - Lotus 38- Individual chassis histories, etc
{{Commons category-inline
38
American Championship racing cars
Indianapolis 500