This is the story of the only turbine powered car to ever race Formula One. Originally a machine designed to win the Indy 500, which it nearly did, the transition from ovals to road courses three years after it was built was not a great one. One of the greatest drivers in F1 history tried to make it work and couldn’t.
Sometimes in racing ideas that seem logical and nearly succeed in one form of competition fall woefully short in another. The Lotus 56B is one of those stories. Driven to a near win at the 1968 Indy 500 by Joe Leonard, racers like Emerson Fittipaldi were charged with making it work in Formula One.
The man who would become one of the greatest names in racing history tried valiantly as did others like Reine Wisell and perhaps most famously Dave Walker. This car was an amazingly interesting technological experiment. One that just didn’t quite work.
