The Lotus 22 is a Open wheel from Lotus, built from 1962 to 1965, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. Under the bonnet: 1098 cc Cosworth Mk.IV, Mk.XI.
The background
The Lotus 22 was a racing car built by Lotus cars in 1962, and a total of 77 cars were built. It was developed from the 1962 Lotus 20, with the major differences that it had disc brakes all round, a top link and the 'rubber doughnut' to the rear suspension and a dry sump engine that was canted over to lower the centre of gravity. Also notable is the smoother bodywork covering the engine, compared to the boxy design of the 20. The 22 is a single-seat race car primarily for the Formula Junior series and most had a 1,098 cc (67.0 cu in) Cosworth Mk.IV or Mk.XI engine with about 100 hp (70 kW). However, seven of the Lotus 22s were built with the then newly introduced 1,498 cc (91.4 cu in) Lotus TwinCam engine (designed for the Lotus Elan) for Formule Libre.
Unlike the 20, the 22 received outboard mounted disc brakes all around as standard equipment. It was available with four-speed transmissions from either Renault or Volkswagen. For cars with the Renault transmission, the shifter was mounted on the right, while it was on the left side for those with the German box. The 22 was very successful and the works car driven by Peter Arundell won nearly 75% of the races for the FIA Formula Junior European championship in 1962. The car was also successful in 1963, the final year of FJr, and up against the new Lotus 27, a full monocoque car, the 22 won several races early in the season before the stiffness problems that plagued the 27 were solved. The 22 chassis was later reintroduced several times, although modified, as other "new" Lotus models becoming first the Lotus 31 F3 car in 19
The engineering
Power comes from 1098 cc Cosworth Mk.IV, Mk.XI. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Lotus 20; its successor was the Lotus 27. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Alfa Romeo Giulia, the Ferrari 250 GTO, the Buick Riviera — show what else the money bought that year. Its Lotus stablemates include the Lotus 100T and the Lotus 101.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Lotus 22 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.