1968 Lotus Type 49B

Beautiful car from the start of the Ford DFV 'downforce' era of Formula 1 period.

Lotus's next car would be the Lotus 72 for 1969 which for all intensive purposes is the format on which all modern F1 cars are built.

In 1968 wings were added to F1 cars to supply downward lift, or downforce, to hold the cars to the road. If you look at the photos you can see that the wings are actually mounted to the suspension to transmit the downforce generated to the wheels and tyres of the car. They would be banned early in 69 following two near identical failures at the Spanish Grand Prix held at the Montjuich Park track in Barcelona. Both Lotus's would crash out when the rear wings failed. Driving for Lotus in 69 were Graham Hill and Jochan Rindt following the death of Jim Clark the previous year in an F2 race at Hockenheim.

From 1968 through 1971 Lotus raced in the red and gold livery before switching to the famous gold and black of the JPS cars in 1972.