Lotus 15

The Lotus 15 was a front-engined sports racing car that Colin Chapman designed for Lotus and that was built from 1958 until 1960. It was a two-seater with an aluminium body over a space frame, and it took a Coventry Climax FPF four-cylinder engine of 1.5 to 2.5 litres, an engine made for Formula Two and Grand Prix racing, in place of the six-cylinder Bristol unit of the Lotus Mark X. The first cars used Lotus's own five-speed sequential transaxle, nicknamed the Queerbox, whose reliability problems were carried over from the Lotus 12. Series 2 and Series 3 cars changed to BMC or ZF gearboxes with a conventional differential and a stiffer frame. Graham Hill drove it at its Goodwood debut in 1958 and set the lap record, but it never won a major endurance title and did not finish the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1958 or 1959. About 28 chassis are believed to have been made.