Power Behind The Lotus

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31579, 17 January 1968, Page 10

Power Behind The Lotus

At Wigram on Saturday, Jim Clark, the present Tasman champion, will drive one champion, will drive one of the latest type 49 formula one Lotus cars fitted with a special 2.5litre version of the Ford V 8 formula one engine. The unit is said to produce about 330 b.h.p. Jim Clark won the 1967 Tasman title driving a 2-litre Lotus-Climax V 8 that developed around 230 b.h.p., but this season the Lotus-Ford drivers iivt rr.APir rv actthm

will have an extra 100 horsepower. The 3-litre formula one Ford engine raced for the first time in the 1967 Grand Prix and Zaandvoort, when Graham Hill set the fastest practice lap with a LotusFord and Clark won the race. Not since the pre-war hey-day of Mercedes-Benz had a new car won a Grand Prix the first time out. Dennis Jenkinson, a leading British motor-racing reporter, said: “The Lotus 49 must surely be the fastest Grand Prix car ever built, as regards power-to-weight ratio and circuit performances, and that includes the supercharged Mercedes-Benz of pre-war times.” During the rest of the 1967 world championship season, the Lotus-Fords set fastest practice time at every circuit and Jim Clark scored four wins to bring his total of Grand Prix victories level with the great Fangio’s record of 24. Clark won the Dutch Grand Prix, the British, the American and the Mexican. Lotus-Fords took fastest race laps in the Dutch, French, Canadian, Italian, American and Mexican Grand Prix.

At Warwick Farm, Sydney, last year, Graham Hill appeared with a Lotus-Ford formula two car fitted with the new 1600 cc twin-cam engine based on the Cortina, but race-built with four valves a cylinder and a power output of 210 b.h.p. This was one of the first competition appearances of the new formula two engine, and Hill surprised everyone with the pace of the little Lotus until its experimental gearbox broke.

Developed versions of this engine, which has continued to surprise competitors by its reliability and high power output, will be used at Wigram by world champion Denis Hulme in his special Brabham, by Jim Palmer in his McLaren, and by Piers Courage in his McLaren. It was in November, 1965, that Ford talked about building special engines for the

1600c.c. formula two and 3litre formula one that were soon to replace the thencurrent IOOOc.c. and 1500c.c. formulae. Coventry Climax had just announced that they were building no more racing engines, and British racing prospects looked bleak. Ford engineers talked with Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, the Cosworth engine experts, and with the Lotus chief, Colin Chapman, and a programme was decided on. The problem was lack of time. No engine is ever put into a production car for sale to the public until it has completed two years of prototype testing, but the racing programme couldn’t wait two years. Cosworth were contracted to design the engines with the full support of Ford

engineering, manufacturing and research departments. The first project was to be a formula two engine based on the Cortina. The target was an ambitious 200 b.h.p. For that first season a production of 40 engines was scheduled to be offered to all the top racing teams. The price was to be £2500. Within a week of the announcement, and before work had started on the new engine, 10 deposits of £5OO had been received from team managers. The decision on the formula one 3-litre engine was a little more difficult. B.R.M. had their 16-cylinder engine under development, and the V-12s being built by Honda, Ferrari, Weslake and Maserati were all aiming at a minimum of 400 b.h.p. At that discussion in 1965, it was decided to go for simplicity and lightness with a V-8 which would be, in effect, two of the Cortina-based formula two engines in a V configuration. They talked about 400 b.h.p. The decision to go for simplicity and lightness carried the important riders of reliability and a good power to weight ratio. The engine could have been a more complicated and powerful unit, but the underlying reason for Ford taking this big step into racing was to learn lessons that could be applied for future customers. Colin Chapman went back to Lotus and started building a special new car—the Type 49 that Clark is using on the Tasman series—which was to be specifically constructed for the new engine. The engine was to be a stressed part of the car. The monocoque chassis stopped abruptly behind the cockpit, the engine was bolted on, and the rear suspension was virtually attached to the back of the engine. The simplicity of the design was brilliant—and successful.

The four-cylinder, twin-cam formula two engine was completed a year after those first discussions. With that programme finished, work immediately started on the formula one V-8.

The engine was first started on April 23—just five months later. Lotus then began developing the car and engine together, and the first competition appearance was at the Dutch Grand Prix on June 4. The results went down in motor racing history. During the season the new Lotus-Fords had their teething troubles, but that is part of motor racing. They instantly became the cars to beat. Other drivers talked of how close they would get to the practice times of the Team Lotus cars. The overwhelming success of how close they could get d 1 not come easily or cheaply. The entire programme for both engines cost £lOO,OOO, but as the competition director of Ford (Mr W. Hayes) said, “This is either a lot of money or a little, depending on your point of view. To me it seems modest. I recall when our engineers decided that we ought to put synchromesh on the Cortina bottom gear because it was a vital contribution towards driving comfort, efficiency and safety.

“It cost us $1 million and a lot of customers have blessed it ever since. When the seventies are with us I suspect not a few Ford owners will be equally glad that in 1966 we spent £lOO,OOO to go racing. . . .”