Lotus' lost Type 66

Truly exotic in its design execution, the Type 66 is a new, ultra-exclusive, low-volume car from Lotus. It brings to life a ‘lost Lotus’ drawing board programme from the brand’s world-renowned motorsport heritage, combining it with today’s state-of-the-art racing technology and components.

With his eyes on the high-profile and commercially lucrative Can-Am Series, Lotus founder Colin Chapman tasked Team Lotus draughtsman Geoff Ferris to launch the Type 66 project to evaluate how Lotus design principles could be applied to this exciting category. Chapman’s primary focus on Formula 1 meant the innovative project never went beyond technical drawings and scale models. In a fitting tribute to the brand’s illustrious racing pedigree and heritage, Lotus has proudly fulfilled the original vision 53 years after the designer first put pen to paper.

Only 10 examples of this ‘rediscovered and reimagined’ Lotus V8 will be built. It’s a total selected to commemorate the number of races the Type 66 would have competed in during the 1970 season. Each example will cost in excess of £1million.

The car made its public debut in a heritage-inspired livery – reflecting the red, white and gold colours Lotus raced in during the early Seventies – and which could have adorned the Type 66, alongside the all-conquering Lotus Type 72 F1 car.

At the heart of the Type 66 is a period-representative V8 push-rod engine. It’s mid-mounted for optimised handling, tuned by Lotus to produce more than 830bhp. The iconic Can-Am-inspired air intake ‘trumpets’ take centre stage at the top of the engine. These not only smooth out the air intake to create laminar flow for smooth power delivery and better driveability.

Photos © Lotus