Lotus 30

Lotus 30

Category	Group 4 Sports Car --see text
Constructor	Team Lotus
Designer(s)	Colin Chapman and Martin Wade
Technical specifications
Chassis	Steel Backbone
Suspension (front)	Double Wishbone, Outboard Coil Spring / Damper
Suspension (rear)	Double Wishbone, Outboard Coil Spring / Damper
Engine	Ford 4,727cc 289 cu in V8
Transmission	ZF 5 Speed Manual Synchromesh Limited Slip Differential
Competition history
Notable entrants	Team Lotus
Notable drivers	Jim Clark

The Lotus 30 was a racing automobile, Colin Chapman's first attempt at a large displacement sports car racing machine following the success of the smaller Lotus 19 and Lotus 23. In a way as a further development of the final Lotus 19 called Lotus 19B, which had a Ford V8 engine installed in place of Coventry Climax FPF, it was designed by Colin Chapman and Martin Wade, and built in 1964. Lotus 30 was raced in British races such as Guards Trophy, international races such as Nassau Speed Week that allowed FIA Group 4 "Sports Car" class of racing machines, and more importantly, in Can Am series. These were before the recognition and creation of Group 5, 6 and 7 categories by FIA in 1966. This explains why Lotus 30 and 40 (the latter was built in 1965) came originally equipped with headlights, tail lights and a windshield wiper.

Notable were its curvaceous fibreglass body work and "pickle fork" backbone chassis first seen in the front engine Lotus Elan, in sharp contrast to Lotus 19's space frame design. On the 30, the layout was reversed and placed the engine behind the driver. Lotus engineer Len Terry was asked by Chapman to comment on the draft concept and considered it to be so flawed he refused to have anything to do with it. The Lotus 30 was powered by a 4.7 litre (289 c.i.) Ford V8 engine, the same type as used in the Ford GT40, mated to a 5 speed ZF syncromesh transaxle which was far more reliable than Colotti transaxle in 19B handling the V8 torque. It used 13 inch wheels and solid disc brakes on each wheel. The Lotus 30 was regarded as unsuccessful and / or dangerous but when everything was working and nothing broke, the car was incredibly fast.

Lotus 30

The inherent flaws of the engineering became evident as horse power requirements and tire technology of the period evolved and pushed the original design past its intended limits. The problems were mainly related to the torsional rigidity of the backbone chassis and materials available at the time, all of which resulted in chassis and suspension failures.

Jim Clark laboured long with the car, and managed to prise some promising results with it before it was replaced with the Lotus 40. Equipped with 15in wheels and vented disc brakes as well as a larger engine, the 40 was just as recalcitrant as the 30. The most telling comment about these Lotus race cars was made by the American driver Richie Ginther. When asked what he thought of the new Lotus 40, Ginther, a lugubrious Californian, said, "Same as the 30 but with ten more mistakes".

The effort was not a total loss as this chassis type proved to be perfectly acceptable for the lower powered Lotus Europa, and was used on the Esprit series cars with further development.

External links

• lotus30.com

Team Lotus
Founder Colin Chapman Noted personnel Frank Dernie Gérard Ducarouge Maurice Philippe Peter Warr Peter Wright Len Terry World Champions Mario Andretti Jim Clark Emerson Fittipaldi Graham Hill Jochen Rindt Other notable drivers Elio de Angelis Martin Donnelly Mika Häkkinen Johnny Herbert Jacky Ickx Nigel Mansell Satoru Nakajima Gunnar Nilsson Ronnie Peterson Nelson Piquet Carlos Reutemann Ayrton Senna John Surtees Derek Warwick Alex Zanardi Drivers' titles 1963 1965 1968 1970 1972 1978 Constructors' titles 1963 1965 1968 1970 1972 1973 1978 Formula One cars 12 16 18 21 24 25 33 43 49 56B 63 72 76 77 78 79 80 81 86 87 88 91 92 93T 94T 95T 97T 98T 99T 100T 101 102 107 109 112 Formula Two cars 12 16 18 32 35 41 44 48 59 69 Formula Three cars 22 31 35 41 55 59 69 Formula Junior cars 18 20 22 27 Formula Ford cars 51 59 61 69 Formula 5000 cars 68 70 Tasman Series cars 32 39 67 Indianapolis 500 cars 29 34 38 42 56 64 96T Sports racing cars 15 17 19 23 30 40 47 53