The remaining 3 cars withIn 1971 the Lotus 56 was raced in Formula 1 on occasion by Team Lotus but the large fuel tanks required to allow it to run an entire race without refueling left it overweight and uncompetitive.The Lotus 56, while never winning a race, demonstrated the importance of aerodynamics in racing cars, along with Jim Hall's Chaparrals, and effectively set the mold for open wheeled racing cars for the next ten years. The one that makes jet engines.The Type 56's record on the track was brilliant but also frustratingly mediocre. June 24 - 27, 2020
USAC, the governing body of the Ind… October 15 - 17, 2020
Lotus ran turbines in the F1 circuit for several years with Rindt and Fittipaldi driving, but the 'age of airplanes' was over once and for all at Indy. Lotus' racing heritage may be less well known, but it's equally impressive. October 22 - 24, 2020 Two broke down, and the other crashed.This Type 56 was owned by Richard Petty and has been restored to original working order, hopefully for vintage racing. Made for that year's Indianapolis 500, it was one of the most technologically advanced race cars ever made.
The engine drove a Ferguson four-wheel drive system, which transmitted the power to the wheel… USAC had limited the engine intake area to 23.999 square inches to limit the turbine's power output, but the engine still produced 550 hp. Take, for example, the 1968 Lotus Type 56. Wallis, a distant relative of famed British engineer Chapman's Lotus 72 employed the same wedge nose shape and went on to win three world championships in Formula 1.Colin Chapman developed the 56 as a potential F1 contender, part of his plan to have a single design to compete at both the Indy 500 and in Formula 1, but it was too heavy and never competitive. Soon after the 1968 Indy 500, the organization banned the engine altogether. You know, the aerospace company. Two broke down, and the other crashed.This Type 56 was owned by Richard Petty and has been restored to original working order, hopefully for vintage racing.The Type 56 was built by Lotus for STP, an oil additive manufacturer, for entry in the 1968 Indianapolis 500.The car ran on a turbine engine built by Pratt & Whitney, an aerospace manufacturer.The Type 56 also had a state-of-the-art four-wheel drive system that kept it grippy though corners.The chimney behind the driver's seat was for exhaust from the engine.The car hit a 1968 speed record of 171 mph on the Indy 500 track.None of the three 1968 Type 56es finished the race. Despite rule changes that limited the competitiveness of turbine engines for 1968, the team returned to Indy with a squad of four turbine-powered cars, this time using a Lotus-built chassis.
But the car itself was an entirely new and more advanced design which introduced a distinctive aerodynamic wedge-shaped body rather than a cigar-shape, in the year of the introduction of front and rear wings to F1.
September 10 - 12, 2020 The car was not competitive given it was overweight from the additional fuel required the run the turbine engine. Follow Barrett-Jackson