Lotus 49

After a difficult first year for Lotus in the three-litre formula using the heavy and unreliable BRM H16 engine, Chapman and Philippe returned to basics while remaining forward-thinking. Taking inspiration from earlier designs — particularly the BRM P83, Lotus 43, and Lotus 38 Indycar — the 49 was the first F1 car powered by the Ford Cosworth DFV engine, after Chapman convinced Ford to finance Keith Duckworth's DFV design.

The engine became a stress-bearing structural member, bolted to the monocoque at one end and to the suspension and gearbox at the other. This concept had been seen earlier in the Lancia D50 of 1954, the Lotus 43, and the BRM P83, but the 49's success made it standard for virtually all subsequent Formula One cars.

The 49B, introduced for the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix, was the first Formula One car to use aerofoil wings mounted directly to the wheel hubs via slender struts. This followed the success of the wings on Jim Hall's Chaparral 2E. The wings were mounted several feet above the chassis to operate in clean air. After several breakages that led to dangerous accidents, the high wings were banned and Lotus was forced to mount the wings directly to the bodywork.

In testing, Graham Hill found the Lotus 49 easy to drive and responsive, but found the power of the Ford engine difficult to handle at first. After his first run in the car he described it: "It's got some poke! Not a bad old tool." Jim Clark won with ease on the car's debut at Zandvoort and took another three wins during the 1967 season, although early unreliability with the DFV ended his championship hopes. The 49 had spark plug trouble at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, and both Clark and Hill retired from the French Grand Prix at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit, where they lost to Jack Brabham. Clark also ran out of fuel at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix.

Clark won the first race of the 1968 season, the South African Grand Prix, and the Tasman Series in Australia, but was killed in an F2 race at Hockenheim. Hill took over as team leader and won his second World Championship title, clinching three Grand Prix wins including the fourth of his five Monaco Grands Prix. Jo Siffert, driving a 49B owned by Rob Walker, won the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch that year — the last time a car entered by a genuine privateer won a championship Formula 1 race. Jochen Rindt took his first victory in the 49B in 1969 at Watkins Glen, before taking the type to its last win at the 1970 Monaco Grand Prix.

The 49B was intended to be replaced by the Lotus 63 midway through 1969, but when that car proved a failure, an improved 49C was pressed into service. The final appearances of the 49C were in 1971, with Wilson Fittipaldi finishing ninth in the 1971 Argentine Grand Prix and Tony Trimmer finishing sixth in the Spring Cup at Oulton Park. In total, the 49 took twelve wins and contributed to two drivers' and constructors' world championships before being replaced by the Lotus 72 during 1970.

The 49 also competed in the Australia and New Zealand based Tasman Series as the 49T, fitted with a 2.5L version of the DFV dubbed the Cosworth DFW. Clark drove the 49T to victory in the 1968 Tasman Series, winning 4 of the 8 series races including the 1968 Australian Grand Prix. Clark noted that the lower power of the 2.5L Tasman DFW — approximately 360 bhp (268 kW; 365 PS) compared to the DFV's 420 bhp (313 kW; 426 PS) at the time — was not suited to the full-size 49T. At Surfers Paradise and the Australian Grand Prix at the Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, Clark won but was pushed hard by Chris Amon in the Ferrari with its Formula 2 chassis and lighter V6 engine producing around 285 bhp (213 kW; 289 PS); Clark and Amon produced the closest finishing margin in Australian Grand Prix history, with Clark winning by just 0.1 seconds.

Graham Hill drove only the four Australian events in the 1968 Tasman Series, finishing fourth. For the 1969 Tasman Series, Jochen Rindt had replaced Clark at Lotus. Rindt won the Lady Wigram Trophy race in New Zealand and the wet Warwick Farm International in Australia, but finished second in the series behind the Ferrari Dino 246 Tasmania driven by Chris Amon. Hill endured misfortune in his final Tasman Series, including the high rear wing collapsing during the Australian Grand Prix and soaked electrics at Warwick Farm, though the team dried them sufficiently for Hill to set the race's fastest lap before the end.

From its introduction in 1967, works Lotus 49s were painted in Lotus's traditional British racing green with a yellow centre stripe. For the 1967–1968 Tasman Series races, Team Lotus's 2.5-litre engined 49s were painted red, cream and gold — the colours of Gold Leaf cigarettes — after Chapman signed a sponsorship deal. This colour scheme was introduced for the 1968 World Championship at the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix, making Lotus the first works team to paint their cars in full sponsor livery (second only to Team Gunston entering a private Brabham car at the 1968 South African Grand Prix). Lotus 49s were also run by Scottish privateer Rob Walker Racing Team, who painted their car in Scottish national racing colours (dark blue with white nose band), and the American privateer Pete Lovely team, whose car (chassis R11) was painted in American national racing colours of white with a blue centre stripe.

Of the twelve 49s built, seven remain. Chassis R3 — driven by Hill, then sold to privateer John Love — is the only example of the original 1967 cars still in existence and is on display at the National Motor Museum in Hampshire.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.