Lotus 43

Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Refimprove Template:Short description Template:Template other The Lotus 43 was a Formula One racing car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1966 season. Hampered by its heavy and unreliable BRM engine, it won only one race, the 1966 United States Grand Prix.

Concept

The Lotus 43 was partially based on the Lotus 38 Indycar, designed by Len Terry, due to Lotus's experience at Indy with larger engine capacity and tyre/suspension setup. The car was designed in this way in response to new F1 regulations which came into force in 1966, which increased the engine capacity to 3 litres. Along with newer, wider tyres better able to handle the power of the larger engines, the need for a more robust design was obvious.

Cosworth were developing a new engine for Lotus, the DFV, to be introduced for the 1967 Formula One season, and in the meantime Chapman made a deal for use of the BRM P75 H16 engine. The P75 on paper was technically advanced and powerful, and Chapman had hopes that it would power his cars to another successful season.

The first sign of trouble was when the H16 engine arrived at the Team Lotus factory in Hethel, Norfolk and it required four men to lift it from the truck. The engine proved to be overweight, unreliable and was unable to produce the promised power.

Engine problems aside, the 43 chassis was an excellent design and elements of it were used in its 1967 successor, the far more successful Lotus 49, including the use of the engine as a stressed structural member which bore weight and to which the rear suspension was attached.

Racing history

1966

The car was supposed to debut at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, driven by Peter Arundell, but it was unavailable. Its first outing at the following Belgian Grand Prix ended during practice, when the engine gave out.

The 43 reappeared at the Italian Grand Prix but retired with gearbox failure. Clark then won the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, the only race win for the P75 engine, using a spare engine loaned by the BRM team. However, gearbox failure again led to the 43's retirement from the final race of the season, the Mexican Grand Prix.

1967

In 1967 the 43 made its final appearance at the South African Grand Prix at the Kyalami circuit, where Clark and new team mate Graham Hill both retired their cars.

Only two cars were built and were later sold to Robert Lamplough and Jock Russell, who fitted them with 4.7 litre Ford V8 engines and competed in Formula 5000 events.

• Lotus 43 at the BTCC Knockhill 2014
  Lotus 43 at the BTCC Knockhill 2014
• Lotus 43 being demonstrated in 2014
  Lotus 43 being demonstrated in 2014

Complete results

Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Points	WCC
Template:Ifnumber	Team Lotus	BRM P75 3.0 H16	F		MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	NED	GER	ITA	USA	MEX			131	5th
				Peter Arundell		DNS	Ret
				Jim Clark							Ret	1	Ret
Template:Ifnumber	Team Lotus	BRM P75 3.0 H16	F		RSA	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	CAN	ITA	USA	MEX	62	8th
				Jim Clark	Ret
				Graham Hill	Ret

^1 Total points scored by all Lotus-BRM cars, including 4 points scored by drivers of Lotus 33 variants.
^2 Total points scored by all Lotus-BRM cars, including 6 points scored by drivers of Lotus 33 variants.

Non-championship Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4
1966	Team Lotus	BRM P75 3.0 H16	F		RSA	SYR	INT	OUL
				Jim Clark				DNS

PC simulation

A driveable, detailed reconstruction of the Lotus 43 (with matching car physics) appeared in 2007 in the freely-available '66 Mod' for the PC-based racing simulation Grand Prix Legends.

References

Type	1950s										1960s										1970s										1980s										1990s										2000s										2010s										2020s
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5
Owner	Colin Chapman																																	David Wickins			General Motors							Romano Artioli			Proton Holdings																					Geely/Etika
Sports racer					VIII	IX	Eleven		15	17	19		23		30	40		47		62
			Mark VI					Seven																																											340R							2‑Eleven									3‑Eleven								66
Roadster													Elan																											Elan M100							Elise
Coupé									Elite							Elan																																			Exige																						Emira
																		Europa									Esprit																														Europa S				Evora													Evija
Grand tourer																		Elan +2							Elite
																									Eclat									Excel
Saloon														Cortina				Cortina																							Carlton																																		Emeya
SUV																																																																										Eletre
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Related cars	Caterham Seven Ford Cortina Lotus Talbot Sunbeam Lotus DeLorean Hennessey Venom GT Westfield Sport Isuzu Piazza Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 Opel Lotus Omega/Vauxhall Lotus Carlton Kia Elan Opel Speedster/Vauxhall VX220 Tesla Roadster Proton EMAS Lotus-Radford Type 62-2
Concept cars	APX Elan Concept Elite Concept Elise Concept CityCar Eterne Emotion Esprit M70 Esprit Concept Ethos Etna M250 M90
Future cars	Type 134 Type 135
Key figures	Colin Chapman Tony Rudd Romano Artioli Dany Bahar Len Terry
Group Lotus	Official website Lotus Cars Lotus Engineering Team Lotus Lotus F1