Lotus founder Colin Chapman aspired to compete against the dominant McLaren cars in Can-Am but never progressed further than the design stage. However, the Lotus Type 66 will finally see the track 53 years later as a limited-edition track-day special.
For a generation of motorsports fans, the Can-Am Challenge Cup was the greatest racing series on the planet. The championship operated on the premise that everything goes. Can-Am had next to no technical regulations and only required that cars be fitted with a windscreen, a roll bar, fenders and two seats.
Chapman tasked Team Lotus draughtsman Geoff Ferris with designing a racing machine that applied the racing manufacturer’s principle of “simplify and then add lightness” to Can-Am’s lax ruleset. The Type 66 was what was created in technical drawings and scale models, but Lotus never built a fully working prototype.
Lotus revealed a completed Type 66 during Monterey Car Week. The lost Can-Am machine is fitted with a pushrod V8 engine, similar to the Ford-Cosworth DFV that Lotus would have been using in Formula 1 in the early 1970s. Harkening to the category’s unrestricted engine rules, the V8 engine produces over 830 horsepower, nearly double the DFV’s in-period output. However, the block uses modern forged components.
The Type 66 is based off an early 1970s plan but designed to modern safety and technical standards. Over a 1,000 hours of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) work went into maximizing the downforce produced by the Type 66. The 21st-century Can-Am racer also features an inboard fuel cell, a sequential gearbox, an anti-stall system and a modern driver compartment to ensure the car is safe to drive.
True to period, the Lotus Type 66 will come painted in the iconic Gold Leaf Cigarettes red, white and gold livery used by the Lotus 72. Simon Lane, Executive Director of Lotus Advanced Performance, said in a release:
“While the visual expression is strikingly similar to what could have been – including the period-correct white, red and gold graphics – the technology and mechanical underpinnings of the Lotus Type 66 represent the very best in today’s advanced racing performance.”
Lotus projects that the Type 66 will be on pace with modern GT3 racing machinery. However, it will be extremely difficult to get your hands on the Can-Am racer. The British sports car producer is only building a run of ten Type 66s that will be sold for £1 million ($1.27 million) each.