The LeMans-Lotus 23 Debacle

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#339933" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>The LeMans-Lotus 23 Debacle</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=175 BGCOLOR="#336600" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>LeMans</B></div> <div> <B>24 Hours</B></div> <div> <B>June, 1962</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id101.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus 23 1962 1966"><U><B>23 Main Page</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id104.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus 23 History"><U><B>Lotus 23 History</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id106.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus 23C"><U><B>Images:23C</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id115.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus 23B Rotorvic"><U><B>Images:23B</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id124.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Xanthos Type 23"><U><B>Images:Xanthos</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id131.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lotus 23 Historic Images"><U><B>Historic Images</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFF66" TEXT="#080000"> <div> The Clash of Technology and Politics</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Commemorating</div> <div> the 40th Anniversary of</div> <div> the Famous Non-Race of the Lotus 23s</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <U>Lotus 23 vs A.C.O. 24</U></div> <bR> <div> With the tumult created by Clark's unbelievably fast Lotus 23 still reverberating from a month earlier at the Nurburgring, Lotus presented two 23s at the 24 Hour endurance race at LeMans. To comply with regulations both cars had high windshields fitted. One of the Lotus 23 entries is shown below with Mike Costin at the wheel (from the book "Lotus Twin-Cam Engine" by Miles Wilkins). </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="793" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 267 WIDTH="401"><div> One car had a 1000cc version of the Ford-Lotus Twincam and the other had a 750cc FWMC Coventry Climax engine. The stewards declared both cars <U>non-compliant</U> with the regulations on the basis of :</div> <div> 1. The fuel tanks being oversize, </div> <div> 2. The turning circle was too large, </div> <div> 3. There was insufficient ground clearance, </div> <div> 4. and the 'Killer' - the rear wheels had 6 studs while the front had 4 studs. All wheel hubs must have the same number of studs.</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="2927d050.jpg" border=0 width="381" height="261" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> Mike Costin was at LeMans for Lotus as the technical manager. Chapman was still back in England at the Lotus factory. The first three problems, Costin believed, could be fixed in one day on site, the fourth would take an additional day to receive the 4-stud rear hubs from England. He relayed this information to the race stewards. There seems to have been considerable pressure from above brought to bear on the stewards, since they suddenly gave Lotus only one day to fix all four deficiencies, somebody obviously thinking that this would be impossible:  "Get it right by tomorrow midday, at the close of scrutineering, or you won't race!"</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="781" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 26 ><NOBR><div> One of the Lotus 23s having its hubs replaced. (from the book by G.Crombac)</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 547 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="26a041d0.jpg" border=0 width="772" height="541" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Colin Chapman had always found the "impossible" a stimulating and welcome challenge. Chapman Family Motto: In Adversity We Thrive. A quick phone call from Mike Costin and Chapman hurriedly desiged the new four-stud rear hubs. The new rear hubs for both cars were machined at the factory during the night. In the morning the hubs were flown direct to LeMans, arriving in the nick of time and fitted to the 23s just before scrutineering ended. This, however, did not end the trouble. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <U>Science and Logic</U></div> <div> <U>in the Service of predetermined conclusions</U></div> <bR> <div> The head scrutineer then pronounced the <U>rear</U> 4-stud hubs, that were installed to solve the regulations problem, to be unsafe! First Mike Costin pointed out that the original 6-stud hubs were designed for an engine that was twice as large as the larger engine being used for the 24 Hours, so the 4-stud rear hubs would be perfectly adequate. Secondly, Costin said that the race stewards, not being structural engineers, were not competent to determine if the 4-stud hubs were or were not strong enough. He even offered to go over the calculations with the chief steward to prove his point. Being a straight-forward type of guy, Mike took the complaints at their face value - when in reality they were irrelevant to the situation. It has been reported that after much post-scrutineering wrangling this fact was finally agreed to by the stewards. In the end, however, the stewards' final decision was to definitively reject the Lotus 23s on the indiscutible grounds that the cars were not in the "spirit of the race!"  As Chapman had shown himself to be very resourceful, somebody really had to reach deep down into the PC bag for that one!</div> <bR> <div> With all this smoke in the air, the real reason for the rejection deserves some elucidating. Since no witnesses from the race organizers have come forward to testify, the following is speculative. The 24 Hours of LeMans is the only race put on by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, so the whole event was a chance, perhaps the only chance, to demonstrate French racing mettle.  In general, French sports cars had no chance of winning the race overall. The French cars that were entered competed in, and traditionally won, the small displacement classes at LeMans. In order to financially reward the small engined entries, there were two special categories, carrying prize money on the same order of magnitude as that of the overall winner: the Index of Performance and the Index of Thermal Efficiency - usually this was French territory. However, the French cars had been trounced in 1957 by the Lotus 11s which won the 1100cc and 750cc classes as well as the Index of Performance. This year, it was once more evident that those small engined, but extremely fast, Lotus 23s would easily garner these awards, possibly even threaten the overall leaders. The only way to stop the Lotuses was to ban 'em. </div> <bR> <div> In being unfair to a perceived inconsequential upstart, Lotus, the LeMans organizers revealed their glaring double standard. One of the Ferraris which had been entered, a rear-engined V-6 prototype, flunked the ground clearance test. When told to correct this, Ferrari team manager Dragoni threatened to withdraw the entire Ferrari entry. The matter was, of course, dropped. </div> <bR> <div> <U>The Art of Negotiation in the Heat of Battle</U></div> <bR> <div> Colin Chapman in England was incensed upon hearing of this ridiculous turn of events and flew in to LeMans the next day, bringing with him the Secretary of the Royal Automobile Club Motor Sport Division,Dean Delamont. Chapman and Delamont failed to move the stewards off their position and the Lotus 23s did not compete.</div> <bR> <div> Of course, there were two Team Elite cars entered which proved to be spectacular in the race. They won not only their class (1300cc) but also were 1st and 2nd in the Index of Thermal Efficiency. The Elites were timed at 141 mph down the straight and averaged just under 20 mpg. But even this performance and the fact that the French press sided with Lotus could not placate Chapman and dispel his bad mood. And things could get worse!</div> <bR> <div> After the race the 24 Hours organizers, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, asked Chapman to meet with them at their office. With Gerard Crombac present as translator, the Chairman, Jean-Marie Lelievre, admitted to Colin that the organizers had made a mistake and would like to compensate Lotus for their expenses. Colin did some calculations on the back of an envelope and handed it to Lelievre who rejected the figure as too high. Chapman stood up and delivered his famous reply:  "We will never race again at LeMans!" True to his word, since that date no Team Lotus car has ever competed at LeMans.</div> <bR> <div> <U>Epilogue</U></div> <bR> <div> After all this controversy had been settled, and not for the best, French driver Bernard Consten approached Colin Chapman's friend, journalist Gerard Crombac, with a proposal to buy the Twincam-engined car from the UDT-Laystall team who were the owners. Crombac brokered the deal. Chapman agreed to the sale and also to lend the 1000cc engine along with a mechanic, Bob Dance, to maintain the engine during competition. Chapman insisted that the 4-stud rear hubs and wheels be kept on the car in order to prove his contention that they were safe. The 23 handily won its class at the Clermont-Ferrand 6 Hours and the 1000-km of Montlhery - both circuits being much tougher on the cars than LeMans. Chapman was proved right about the safety of the rear hubs, but of course he <I>was</I> a structural engineer! </div> <bR> <div> References:</div> <div> "Colin Chapman - The Man and his Cars," Gerard Crombac</div> <div> "Automobile Year No. 10, 1962/63," Edita Suisse</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>