Lotus engineer Len Terry was asked by Chapman to comment on the draft concept and considered it to be so flawed he refused to have anything to do with it.

The inherent flaws of the engineering became evident as horse power requirements and tire technology of the period evolved and pushed the original design past its intended limits.

Jim Clark laboured long with the car, and managed to prise some promising results with it before it was replaced with the Lotus 40.

The most telling comment about these Lotus race cars was made by the American driver Richie Ginther.

The effort was not a total loss as this chassis type proved to be perfectly acceptable for the lower powered Lotus Europa, and was used on the Esprit series cars with further development.