The pioneering spirit

Much of the ingredients of what makes today's modern sports and competition cars owe their formulation to a team which dominated the high-profile sport of Formula One during the 1960s and '70s.The story started in 1952 with the formation of Lotus Engineering Ltd by a civil engineer, Colin Chapman.Chapman possessed a passion for racing, and built his first car in 1948.

Christened the Lotus Mark 1, it was essentially a modified Austin Seven, which Colin entered in private racing events.Chapman eventually went on to build several racing cars for customers and himself.In 1954, Team Lotus was formed. It wasn't until 1958 when Lotus entered F1 with the Lotus Type 12. Originally designed to compete in Formula 2, two of them debuted at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix with Graham Hill and Cliff Allison at the wheel.Victory would only come three years later in America with Innes Ireland at the wheel of a Lotus Type 21.In 1962, Chapman designed the car that would cement his reputation as an engineering genius - the Lotus Type 25. It was the first monocoque chassis to appear in F1.Before this, car bodies were built from a skeleton of steel tubes, wrapped in body panels.Using his knowledge in structural engineering, Chapman designed a single structure which formed the body and chassis, improving structural rigidity while lowering its weight.Its low and narrow design allowed for better aerodynamics and essentially changed the construction of F1 cars to come. Chapman's 25 closed the chapter of powerful front engine monsters, and shifted the focus to featherweight, agile cars.In its debut season, Jim Clark drove the Lotus 25 to victory in Belgium, Britain and America, but missed the world championship at the final race in South Africa.However, Team Lotus won their first championship title the following year with Clark in the Lotus 25 winning seven out of 10 races that season.Five years after the 25, Chapman penned the Lotus 49, which featured another innovative idea of integrating the engine into the monocoque structure, making the engine a stress-bearing structural member.Every F1e car has been built this way since.The Type 49 won its very first race at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix. The Type 49 eventually won every championship from 1968 till 1970.It was with the 49 that Chapman applied his love of aeronautics and began experimenting with aerofoil wings.However, the huge wings mounted on high up on fragile, slender mounts caused its own trouble when the mounts broke.Chapman also introduced the world of corporate sponsorship to motorsport in 1968 when his 49s appeared in red, gold and white livery of the Imperial Tobacco's Gold Leaf brand, instead of British Racing green, its national racing colour.In a great twist of irony, it was Chapman who turned the sport from national pride, to a globalised sport.It wasn't until 1977 when aerodynamics took a quantum leap forward with the Lotus Type 78 featuring 'ground effect' aerodynamics.Engineers discovered, by compressing and passing the airflow underneath the car quickly, they could create a vacuum that would pull the car closer to the ground.Chapman was doubtlessly impressed, and gave free rein over his engineers to create the Lotus 78.The technology was so far ahead of its time that other teams couldn't figure out what made the 78 so quick around the corners.Eventually, its successor - the Lotus 79 - brought home the team's last constructor's championship victory in 1978.It was said that tightening regulations and protest from other teams caused Chapman to slowly lose interest in F1, as the sport that he gifted with so many innovations appeared to stifle his remarkable talent.He passed away from a fatal heart attack in 1982, on the very day his team was testing the first F1 car with active suspension, perhaps a fitting testament to a man who did much to shape the sport.Financial difficulties eventually forced Team Lotus to withdraw from F1 in 1994.In its 36 years, the team won seven constructor's championships, six driver's championship titles, an Indianapolis 500 title and became the team for such famous names like Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen and Aryton Senna.Even with an absence of 15 years, Lotus is still the fourth most successful constructor in F1 history as well as the first to achieve 50 grand prix victories.