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The Lotus 16 was the second single-seat racing car designed by Colin Chapman, and was built by his Lotus Cars manufacturing company for the Team Lotus racing squad. The Lotus 16 was constructed to compete in both the Formula One and Formula Two categories, and was the first Lotus car to be constructed for Formula One competition. Its design carried over many technological features of the first Lotus single-seater, the Lotus 12, as well as incorporating ideas which Chapman had been developing while working on the Vanwall racing cars. Indeed, such was the visual similarity between the Vanwall and Lotus 16 designs that the Lotus was often dubbed the "''mini Vanwall''"〔Lawrence (1999) p.187〕 by the contemporary motor sport press. Although the Lotus 16 only scored five Formula One World Championship points in the three seasons during which it was used, its raw pace pointed the way for its more successful successors, the Lotus 18 and 21. ==Design== Colin Chapman had started building Ford-engined, Austin 7-based specials shortly after the end of World War II, and had quickly graduated to his own sports car designs with the Lotus 6 of 1952. These lithe, lightweight sports cars immediately took a stranglehold on domestic British club racing, and through a rapid succession of upgraded models soon moved up to the international stage, culminating in class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in both and . Also in 1956 Chapman's reputation as an engineering innovator saw him drafted in by the ambitious Vanwall team to help develop their Formula One cars, and in 1957 the first single-seat Lotus, the Formula Two Lotus 12, appeared. His experiences with Vanwall showed Chapman that his own Lotus 12 design could itself provide the basis for a Formula One competitor. The 12's spaceframe chassis design was adapted to accept its engine in a distinctly offset position and allowed the drive shaft (driven at the engine speed) to pass to the left side of the driver, rather than beneath him, to reach the transaxle located in the rear, lowering the driving position and reducing the frontal area. The steel chassis tubes themselves were of a thinner gauge than the 12's, sacrificing strength in Chapman's quest for weight-saving. However, the handling of the car was badly compromised by the unequal weight distribution which resulted from the engine positioning, and the 16 had to be reworked to accept its engine in a more conventional, albeit obliquely aligned, central location. The engine itself was Coventry Climax's ''FPF'' straight-4, in a variety of sizes. Initially the cars were fitted with the 2 litre powerplant, but as Climax gradually stretched the FPF's capacity the Lotus 16 appeared with a 2.2, then finally a 2.5 litre, full Formula One engine specification. As in the 12, the engine's power was transmitted to the road through the rear wheels, via Lotus's own 5-speed sequential manual transaxle. In its earliest incarnations this transaxle — designed by Richard Ansdale and Harry Mundy incorporating a ZF limited slip differential — proved troublesome and gained itself the derogatorily punning nickname "''queerbox''".〔Lawrence (1999) p.185〕 However, in 1957 Chapman had hired Keith Duckworth (later to find fame as one half of the founders of Cosworth, and father of the Cosworth DFV) as a gearbox engineer who made significant improvements to its design. By the time that the Lotus unit found its way into the 16 it was a more reliable and less troublesome system.〔 The Lotus 16's front suspension was also borrowed from the 12, with Chapman's own double wishbone design incorporating the anti-roll bar within the upper wishbones; an example of Chapman's innovative attention to detail in trying to shave every excess ounce from his cars. Unlike the 12, however, the 16 was designed from the outset to incorporate the Chapman strut rear suspension design. This was one of the first rear independent suspension designs to be incorporated into a Formula One car, and offered much better traction, handling and adjustability than the previously-common de Dion tube systems. The 16 also sported the, by now iconic, Lotus "''wobbly-web wheels''"; an innovative cast alloy design borrowed from the aviation industry. Brakes were disc brakes all round, mounted inboard at the rear. That the bodywork enclosing all of Chapman's innovative technology was similar in appearance to the Vanwall Grand Prix cars was no accident, as both cars had been sculpted by pioneer automotive aerodynamacist Frank Costin. As with many of Lotus's competition cars, the aluminium used to construct the bodywork was extremely thin and offered little in the way of support for the underlying chassis members. The car was extremely low and compact, with the bonnet barely reaching the same height as the tops of the front wheels, despite the smaller diameters used from the 1959 season onward. The driver sat in a slightly reclined position — nowhere near as extremely inclined as Chapman would later inflict upon his pilots but still unusual for its day — and behind the driver rose a stubby rear fin, incorporating the fuel tank. Eight Lotus 16s were built in total. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lotus 16」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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