Lotus 23:
We all know Colin Chapman’s famous mantra, ‘simplify, then add lightness’. It was in this spirit that the Lotus 23 was born, purpose-built for FIA Group 4 competition in the early 1960s. The first iteration of the 23 made its debut at the 1962 Nürburgring 1000km, tipping the scales at a featherweight 455kg dry. The lack of mass was important given that Lotus’s newly developed 1.5-litre twin-cam engines produced no more than 100bhp.