How Lotus awoke a lost Can-Am beast: ‘Like finding a new Beatles single’

Lane moved over from Aston Martin at the end of 2021, charged with forming a new creative department at the famous Norfolk marque.

That was LAP, which is essentially Lotus’s own James Bond Q-style experimental department for those customers who want something a bit different. Lane was looking for its first big project which could also commemorate the marque’s 75th anniversary.

“I’d been heavily involved in the continuation car programmes at Aston, Jaguar had done its C and D-type, and there were the Bentley Blowers, but I didn’t want to just do a ‘blueprint recreation’,” he says. “I wanted something with modern tech in it, and be deliverable fairly quickly.

“I went to Russell, and he got his big book of half-baked ideas out, but behind him in his office was the Type 66 Can-Am model.

“He explained what it was, and it really is like finding an unreleased Beatles single – a car designed by Colin Chapman in his peak era. It was amazing, I said we really should bring this car to life.”

Turning Type 66 sketches into reality

Once Clive gave the project his blessing – followed by Lotus Cars’ execs – then the real hard work started.

The Type 66 drawings comprised of three sketches – none quite matching up with the other. How does a design team take three slightly impressionistic schemes and combine them into one coherent machine – which might be liable to bite its driver’s head off à la the Can-Am machines of old?

“It’s a bit like remastering an old band’s track,” says Carr, the music analogies flowing. “You don’t want to lose what made it special originally.

“We had to pick the best bits from the three drawings which all best matched each other. All the basic shapes are there: the classic wedge profile, offset driver’s position, integrated rear wing.”

“Although the car was clearly a very purposeful machine, it looks like a work of art,” adds Lane. “So I really wanted the surfacing to be as beautiful as possible.

“We did a full-size clay model and got the surfacing absolutely spot on. The team did over 1000 hours of CFD work proving out all the aerodynamics [with help from race manufacturer Multimatic], so although the car looks like the original one, a huge amount of work has gone in to make sure the aero works and is safe.

“My late departed boss Peter Horbury, who unfortunately died earlier this year, he referred to it as ‘professionally flat’. So it should look as though the panels are flat but actually everything’s got subtle curve to it – so it never looks hollow.”

…then add downforce

What resulted from the outer – and under – design work was a car which produces 800kg of downforce at 150mph.

This downwards push came from what both men say was the trickiest part of the car, and to some extent informed the rest of its redesign: the front-end.

“We resisted some of the more obvious bigger changes, but as very often on ‘race’ cars, there was a real need to get more downforce on the front of the car from the nose,” says Carr.

“It would have been easy to do a multi-element front wing, but that wouldn’t have been appropriate for the period.

“So we were able to do it by the positioning of the front wing, the attitude, and some little venturi tunnels underneath the front corners of the car that contribute [to creating downforce].

“What was also critical was to retain was the side-mounted radiators – an innovation you also see on the Lotus 72 – which was crucial to the airflow.”

Modern safety standards

While the car retains features which makes it Can-Am appropriate, including an unbranded V8 big block engine complete with jaunty trumpets, several aspects have been introduced to make it both modern-day safety compliant and more user friendly.

“You want to take everything you know today to enhance and make it stronger basically,” says Carr. “So that obviously affects the way you approach it visually, it affects the way you approach it technically as well.

“The foam model has this floating front wing, supported by pontoons on either side. We really wanted to keep that, but the reality was if we wanted make this safety compliant with a crash box on the front, you need body work at the front of the car before the driver’s ankles.

“The original wheelbase was 94in and we took it up to 97in, and that’s partly because we moved the occupants slightly rearward because of safety, bringing their heels behind the axle line. We also had to have safer roll hoops than were provided at the time.

“It’s really important we made it accessible to people; the type of gearbox [a sequential shifter, with the option of adding a paddle-shift steering wheel at the track] and engine we use are crucial in terms of making the thing driveable.”

The car also has an anti-stall clutch, race-ready ABS, power steering and traction control – all you need for a pleasant blast round Road Atlanta.

Track time beckons for Type 66 buyers

Lane says the car in simulation is about “1sec per lap faster than your average GT3 car, and would wipe the floor with an historic Can-Am field,” but still has hopes of a mini race series where the ten cars will be brought together.

Lotus plans to hold track days at the five remaining circuits left from the 1969 Can-Am series, including Mosport, Watkins Glen, and Laguna Seca, but what does the man who originally drew the car think of it?

Hethel had lost touch with its former draughtsman Ferris – now 87 – but Lotus managed to track him down at his home in Somerset, and presented him via video with the images of the Type 66 he sketched out some 50 years ago.

“Geoff was incredibly supportive,” says Lane. “He was close to tears, really emotional about it.”

The Type 66 was unveiled at Pebble Beach during Monterey Car week, appropriately by Emerson Fittipaldi and Jenson Button too, predictably causing quite the stir.

With the car set to go into production towards the end of next year, Lotus is now firmly set on making its past part of the future going forward – “We just hope Mr Chapman looks down and thinks it’s a faithful interpretation,” says Carr.

“It’s wonderful to celebrate 75 years of history by realising an original design from the past,” emphasises Clive.

“The car company as it is now has so much more interest in the heritage, which is really exciting for us.”

With such support from Classic Team Lotus, does Clive have any other projects in mind which LAP could set its mind to?

“I’m looking at the Lotus 96T right now as we speak on the phone,” he says of Gérard Ducarouge’s unraced early ‘80s IndyCar effort. “It was never actually fired up…”

Perhaps LAP already has its next revival project on its hands.