Lotus 30

The Lotus 30 was a racing sports car that Colin Chapman and Martin Wade designed and Lotus built in 1964, Chapman's first attempt at a large-displacement sports racer. It had a curvilinear fibreglass body and a pickle-fork backbone chassis like that of the front-engined Lotus Elan, but with the layout reversed so that the engine sat behind the driver. Power came from a 4.7 litre (289 cubic inch) Ford V8, the type used in the Ford GT40, driving through a five-speed ZF transaxle. It raced in British events such as the Guards Trophy, at Nassau Speed Week and in the Can-Am series, and it carried headlights, tail lights and a wiper because it was built before the FIA created Groups 5, 6 and 7. Fast when it worked, it was widely regarded as unsuccessful or dangerous, because the backbone chassis lacked torsional rigidity. Jim Clark drove it before it was replaced by the Lotus 40.