The Lotus 12 was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

racing car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including ...

used in

Formula Two Formula Two (F2) is a type of Open-wheel car, open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship season, 2009 to 2012 FIA Formula Two C ...

and

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

. It debuted at the

1958 Monaco Grand Prix The 1958 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 18 May 1958 at Circuit de Monaco, Monaco. It was race 2 of 11 in the 1958 World Championship of Drivers and race 2 of 10 in the 1958 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers ...

and was

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 the sports car company Lotus Cars. Chapman founded Lotus in 1952 and initia ...

's first single-seat racer.

Design

's first foray into

single-seater An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or inside fend ...

racing, the 12 appeared in 1958. It featured a number of important innovations Chapman would use on later models. To better use the power of the

Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British manufacturer of forklift trucks, fire pumps, racing engines, and other speciality engines. History Pre WWI The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, a joint venture by Jens Stroyer and Pelham Lee. In 1 ...

engine, it was designed, as usual, for low weight and low drag, relying on a

space frame In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure (Three-dimensional space, 3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometry, geometric pattern. Space frames can ...

. It placed the driver as low as possible, reducing the height of

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

tunnel by way of a "conceptually brilliant" five-speed sequential-shift

transaxle A transaxle is single mechanical device which combines the functions of an automobile's transmission (mechanics), transmission, axle, and differential (mechanics), differential into one integrated assembly. It can be produced in both manual tra ...

located in the back. This transaxle was designed by

Richard Ansdale Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and ...

and Harry Mundy. The gearbox had a (long-undiagnosed) oil starvation problem, thus earned the nickname " Queerbox" for its unreliability. Although the first two examples of Lotus 12 had De Dion rear suspension, it also introduced a new suspension configuration with what came to be called "

Chapman strut The Chapman strut is a design of independent rear suspension used for light cars, particularly sports and racing cars. It takes its name from, and is best known for its use by, Colin Chapman of Lotus. The characteristic feature of the Chapman ...

s" in the rear, essentially a

MacPherson strut The MacPherson strut is a type of automotive suspension system that uses the top of a telescopic damper as the upper steering pivot. It is widely used in the front suspension of modern vehicles. The name comes from American automotive engineer ...

with a fixed length halfshaft with

universal joint A universal joint (also called a universal coupling or U-joint) is a joint or coupling connecting rigid shafts whose axes are inclined to each other. It is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion. It consists of a pair of hinges ...

s on the ends utilised as a suspension arm.Setright, pp. 1225–6 Lotus 12 was the first Lotus to be fitted with the iconic

wobbly-web wheel The wobbly-web wheel is a form of metal disc wheel where the disc is 'wobbled' into spokes. This provides a stiffer, lightweight wheel. Wobbly-web wheels are best known through their iconic use on Lotus cars, Lotus racing cars of the late 1950s ...

s. Reflecting Chapman's emphasis on engineering for lightness, these were cast in

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...

alloy, a kind of crimped cylinder, resulting in minimum material and maximum strength, without the weaknesses induced by slots in conventional designs.Setright, p. 1225 Despite its engineering advances, the 12 was not a success in F1. In F2, the car won the class in the mixed F1/F2

1958 BRDC International Trophy The 10th BRDC International Trophy was a auto racing, motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 3 May 1958 at the Silverstone Circuit, England. The race was run over 50 laps of the Grand Prix circuit, and was won by British driver Peter Collin ...

, driven by Cliff Allison, but in spite of a small number of podiums, was usually drowned in a sea of Coopers.

Gallery

Lotus 12 Donington.jpg, Lotus 12 in the

Donington Grand Prix Exhibition The Donington Grand Prix Collection, sometime known as the ''Donington Grand Prix Exhibition'', was a museum of motor racing cars, based at the Donington Park motor racing circuit in Leicestershire, England. The collection, which started in t ...

in 2007 Lotus 12.jpg, Lotus 12, Chassis No. 353 in 2010 Lotus 12 Chassis No 353 of 1958.JPG, Lotus 12, Chassis No. 353 in 2013

Complete Formula One World Championship results

( key) (Results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap.) All points scored using the

Lotus 16 The Lotus 16 was the second single-seat racing car designed by Colin Chapman, and was built by his Lotus Cars manufacturing company for the Team Lotus racing squad. The Lotus 16 was constructed to compete in both the Formula One and Formula Two ...

. * F2 driver

Notes

Sources

*Setright, L. J. K. ''Lotus: The golden mean'', in Northey, Tom (ed.) ''World of Automobiles'' (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 11, pp. 1221–34. {{F1 cars 1959 Formula Two cars 12