A superb and rare photo of the magnificent John Surtees, seen in action with his terrific works Lotus - Coventry Climax 18 Formula One factory racing car (nr. 18), photographed during the Grand Prix of Portugal which was ridden on the famous circuit of Porto on the 14TH of August 1960.

John Surtees would qualify the 3RD quickest during practice and he would score the fastest lap during the race with an average speed of 112.29 mph (180.71 km/h). Unfortunately he would retire during the race. Jack Brabham with his Cooper-Climax would win the race.

The Lotus 18 is a race car designed by Colin Chapman for use by Lotus in Formula Junior, Formula Two, and Formula One. It was the first mid-engined car built by Lotus, and a marked improvement over Chapman's early and only moderately successful front-engined formula cars, the Lotus 12 and Lotus 16. It was introduced for the 1960 F1, F2 and FJ seasons. As a stop-gap before the introduction of the 18's successor models, the Lotus 20 and 21, some 18 chassis were rebodied with 21 skins to create the interim Lotus 18/21 hybrid derivative. The car was a classic Chapman design, being extremely light and simple; the body was made up of lightweight panels bolted to heavily-triangulated tube frame (almost spaceframe) chassis. Thus the car was rigid and strong. It was powered initially by a 2.5 litre Coventry Climax four cylinder engine, inherited from the 16, which produced 239 hp (178 kW) from a weight of only 290 pd (132 kg), and had a wide torque range. Chapman, to capitalize on this, designed a light, sleek machine, only 28 inches (71cm) high (except for windscreen, and weighing just 980pd (440 kg). To help facilitate this, the driver was placed in a semi-reclining position, pioneered about a decade before by Gustav Baumm of NSU.

Chapman gave the 18 remarkably good handling with a unique suspension system which drastically reduced weight transfer and body roll in cornering. Shortly, the Lotus 18 was proving to be faster than any car Grand Prix racing had ever seen, eclipsing even the legendary Auto Unions, and being widely copied (as well as built as a two-seat sports-racer, the 19 or Monte Carlo). The car took Lotus' first F1 victory, albeit by privateer Rob Walker, who leased the car from Chapman. Driven by Stirling Moss, the car took a dominant win at the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix. It was an early taste of things to come. Moss also won the American Grand Prix at the end of the season, helping Lotus finish third in the constructors' championship. Moss repeated his win in a legendary race at Monaco the following year, beating off the more powerful and faster 'sharknose' Ferraris, and then won at the fearsome Nürburgring in changeable weather, while Innes Ireland took a third win in the USA to help Lotus finish second in the constructors' championship that year. The car was notable for giving Jim Clark his first Grand Prix start in 1960. The 2.5 liter was replaced by a 1.5 litre Climax with new Formula One engine rules in 1961, and a Formula Junior variant used a 998 cc Ford MAE. The Formula Junior version also used smaller gauge chassis tubing and also used Alfin drum brakes on all four corners, as it did not have to cope with so much power. The 18 was replaced by the Lotus 21 in Formula One, and the Lotus 20 in Formula Junior in 1961.

Born in Tatsfield, Surrey, John Surtees was the son of a south London motorcycle dealer. He had his first professional outing in the sidecar of his father's Vincent, which they won. However, when race officials discovered Surtees' age, they were disqualified. He entered his first race at 15 in a grass track competition. In 1950, when he was 16, he joined Vincent as an apprentice; whilst with them he bought his first car, a Jowett Jupiter. He made his first headlines in 1951 when he gave Norton star Geoff Duke a strong challenge in an ACU race at the Thruxton Circuit. In 1955, Norton race chief Joe Craig gave Surtees his first factory sponsored ride aboard the Nortons. He finished the year by beating reigning world champion Duke at Silverstone and then at Brands Hatch. With Norton in financial trouble and uncertain about their racing plans, Surtees accepted an offer to race MV Agustas. In 1956 Surtees would win the 500cc world championship. In this he was assisted by the FIM's decision to ban Geoff Duke for 6 months because of his support for a rider's strike over more start money. In the 1957 season, the MV Agustas were no match for the Gileras and Surtees battled to a third place finish. When Gilera and Moto Guzzi pulled out of Grand Prix racing at the end of 1957, Surtees and MV Agusta went on to dominate the competition in the two big classes. In 1958, 1959 and 1960, he would win 32 out of 39 races and became the first man to win the Senior Isle of Man TT three years in succession. At age 26, Surtees switched from motorcycles to cars, full time in 1960 making his Formula 1 debut racing for Lotus in the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo. He made an immediate impact with a second place finish in only his second Formula One race at the 1960 British Grand Prix and a pole position at his third race in the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix. After spending the 1961 season with the Cooper racing team and the 1962 season with the Lola team, he moved to Ferrari in 1963 and won the world championship for the Italian team in 1964. Surtees parted company with Ferrari during the 1966 season after winning the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix, citing excessive pressure as a factor, leaving Jack Brabham to take the Drivers' Championship. In 1967, he joined Honda's Formula 1 team. He stayed with the Japanese team for 1968 before switching to BRM. In 1970, he formed his own race team, Surtees Racing Organisation and spent nine seasons competing in Formula 5000, Formula 2 and Formula 1 as a constructor. He retired from competition in 1972, the same year the team had their greatest success when Mike Hailwood won the European Formula 2 championship. The team was finally disbanded at the end of 1978.

The Lotus car firm was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by engineer Colin Chapman, a graduate of University College, London, in 1952. The first factory was in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey. Team Lotus, which was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. This was made up of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited which focussed on road car and customer competition car production respectively. Lotus Components Limited became Lotus Racing Limited in 1971 but the newly renamed entity ceased operation in the same year. The company moved to a purpose built factory at Cheshunt in 1959 and since 1966 the company has occupied a modern factory and road test facility at Hethel, near Wymondham. This site is the former RAF Hethel base and the test track uses sections of the old runway. Lotus built tens of thousands of successful racing and road cars and won the Formula One World Championship seven times. The company also acts as an engineering consultancy, providing engineering development—particularly of suspension—for other car manufacturers.

The company encouraged its customers to race its cars, and itself entered Formula One as a team in 1958. A Lotus Formula One car driven by Stirling Moss won the marque's first Grand Prix in 1960 at Monaco in a Lotus 18 entered by privateer Rob Walker. Major success came in 1963 with the Lotus 25, which—with Jim Clark driving—won Lotus its first F1 World Constructors Championship. Clark's untimely death — he crashed a Formula Two Lotus 48 in April 1968 after his rear tyre failed in a turn in Hockenheim — was a severe blow to the team and to Formula One. He was the dominant driver in the dominant car and remains an inseparable part of Lotus' early years. That year's championship was won by Clark's teammate, Graham Hill. Lotus is credited with making the mid-engined layout popular for Indycars, developing the first monocoque Formula 1 chassis, and the integration of the engine and transaxle as chassis components. Lotus was also among the pioneers in Formula 1 in adding wings and shaping the undersurface of the car to create downforce, as well as the first to move radiators to the sides in the car to aid in aerodynamic performance, and inventing active suspension. Even after Chapman's death, until the late 1980s, Lotus continued to be a major player in Formula 1. Ayrton Senna drove for the team from 1985 to 1987, winning twice in each year and achieving 17 pole positions. However, by the company's last Formula 1 race in 1994, the cars were no longer competitive. Lotus won a total of 79 Grand Prix races. During his lifetime Chapman saw Lotus beat Ferrari as the first team to achieve 50 Grand Prix victories, despite Ferrari having won their first nine years sooner. Lotus won the Formula One world championship title for drivers and manufacturers no less then 6 times. In 1963 (Jim Clark); 1965 (Jim Clark); 1968 (Graham Hill); 1970 (Jochen Rindt); 1972 (Emerson Fittipaldi); 1973 (manufacturers title alone) and in 1978 (Mario Andretti).

This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful era of Lotus ‘ automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 12” (ca. 20 x 30 cm).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.