Unlike the arrangement for Lotus 20 suspension, the halfshafts had Metalastic rubber 'doughnuts' on the inside, carrying no cornering (side) forces.

Both the Mk.IV and Mk.V transaxles had GKN (Ford Zephyr) differential gears and a forward-facing selector rod on the right side in a bespoke (Hewland made) tail casing.

Including the 23B and 23C, about 130 examples were made in period, but the popularity of the model led to many additional cars assembled from replacement and reproduction parts.

Even though some cars had almost four times the power of the Lotus, Clark was 27 seconds ahead of Dan Gurney's Porsche 718GTR after the first lap in the wet.

So the Lotus factory had a 4 stud rear hubs drafted and machined over-night, and had a person carry them and flown to Le Mans the next day.

The scrutineers and the ACO did not change this position even after Mike Costin, the Lotus engineer on site, offered to go over structural analysis calculations showing the difference falls within the safety margin built in the design to accommodate more powerful 1,098 cc (67.0 cu in) Cosworth Mk.IV and 1,475 cc (90.0 cu in) Cosworth Mk.VII engines.

The French driver/buyer, Bernard Consten [fr], not only obliged but won Clermont-Ferrand 6 Hours and 1000 km of Montlhery that year with this 23 without breaking the studs, the hub, or the wheel.

ACO officials then made the situation worse in admitting a mistake, offering a financial compensation for the 23 entries after the race.

With pro-Lotus motoring journalist Gérard Crombac (who reported the entire fiasco in a French publication, suggesting the Ferrari 246SP and 268SP had the same ground clearance issue, but were allowed to race unrectified after the Ferrari team threatened to withdraw the entire team) present as the interpreter in the meeting, Chapman suggested a figure which was too large for the officials to swallow.

[8] Chapman believed the fiasco was caused by the French contender for Index of Thermal Efficiency award, René Bonnet.

[9] In 1964 Le Mans, Alpine won the Index of Thermal Efficiency with the M64 while setting a new distance record for the 1150cc Prototype class, with a M63B in the second place.

Beginning in the early 1980s a small group of enthusiasts began to make it possible to restore original Lotus 23 by remanufacturing parts.

Powered by Lotus-Ford Twin Cam or its Cosworth derivatives mostly mated to Hewland Mk.8 or Mk.9, it was built by Xanthos Sports Cars in Liverpool, a UK company owned by Lotus specialist Kelvin Jones.

With a lower level of adherence to the original design than the Xanthos, it proved successful in racing, with over 60 cars produced using either Lotus TwinCam or Renault V6 engines.

The Portuguese LusoMotors kit-car company with João Matoso dynamics engineering support built a reinterpretation of the Lotus 23 (called LM23) which was shown at NEC 2009.