Lotus (once translated as Lotus) seems strange in China, and only a few car enthusiasts know its existence, but it is famous for its strong racing atmosphere in Europe. Why is this happening? Because of being too pure and obsessed with racing and sports, Lotus has only built sports cars since its birth and has never set foot in the field of family cars. Lotus brand officially entered China on 20 1 1. In fact, in 20 17, Lotus was acquired by China Geely Automobile Group with a share of 5 1% and became the automobile brand controlled by China. Today, we will borrow a classic Lotus 19 racing car and feel the achievements and influence of Lotus in the field of racing.

Lotus's concept of speed

Lotus brand by the outstanding British engineer Colin Chapman (Colin? Chapman) was founded in 1952, and he designed many racing cars and sports cars. Chapman applied his aviation technology to the automobile field, and attached great importance to vehicle lightweight, handling accuracy and aerodynamics. Therefore, all his cars are focused on track driving, and Lotus has won the championship in Europe since the 1950 s.

"Increasing strength makes you faster in a straight line, and reducing weight makes you faster anywhere." Chapman left a famous saying to the racing industry, and his lightweight design concept of racing cars has been used to this day. Through the Lotus 19 racing car manufactured in the early 1960s, we can easily see Chapman's unique design concept.

F 1 Champion Lotus 19

Lotus 19 racing car was born in 1960. Its size is small, in line with the mainstream level of that era. Its length, width and height are 358 1x 1537x787mm respectively, and its wheelbase is only 2413 mm. Under the light green racing paint, the whole body is made of glass fiber. In the era when carbon fiber was not widely used, glass fiber was the lightest body material at that time, which also made the weight of Lotus 19 only about 500 kg. The graceful curve shape of the car body not only covers the complicated suspension part, but also has quite good aerodynamic design, only for the light flag wheel that pursues the extreme speed of the stadium.

Lotus 19 racing car adopts the layout of rear-wheel drive with mid-engine and the power comes from 2.5L? Coventry? Orgasm FPF four-cylinder engine, however, in F 1, this four-cylinder car often confronts V8 racing car head-on. In the complicated and tortuous track, the lightweight control of Lotus 19 is often better, which has been confirmed in the European arena more than 50 years ago.

The reason why Lotus 19 can be invincible on the field is because the racer sterling moss (Stirling? Moss) played an important role. Moss participated in the development and testing of the car all the time, and drove Lotus 19 to finish the first F 1 champion of this car at Monaco Grand Prix 1960. In the following years, after field testing and continuous adjustment of Lotus team, this Lotus 19 finally reached its peak. Graham Hill (Graham Hill? Hill), jim clark (Jim? Clark) and other drivers won the championship of F 1 in this car.

A Lotus 19 will be auctioned soon.

It is reported that on February 22, 2020, the Lotus 19 racing car with chassis code 953 will be auctioned at Silverstone auction house in England, and its final fate is likely to be pocketed by a boss and parked in a private garage for exhibition, which may be the best destination for the former champion. We also hope that after Lotus is acquired by China Geely, more people-friendly sports cars or sports cars will be built in the future on the basis of continuing the classics, so that more people can enjoy the pure driving experience and racing culture from Lotus.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.