Start with what the Lotus 23 is: a Open two seater with 742cc Coventry Climax FWMC, built from 1962 to 1963, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Colin Chapman.
How it came about
The Lotus 23 was designed by Colin Chapman as a small-displacement sports racing car. Nominally a two-seater, it was purpose-built for FIA Group 4 racing in 1962–1963. Unlike its predecessors Lotus 15 and 17, the engine was mounted amidship behind the driver in the similar configuration developed on Lotus 19.
The hardware
The engine is 742cc Coventry Climax FWMC; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1000 lb. Drive goes through a 23: Hewland Mk.III 5sp (Renault 4 sp on some prototypes) / 23B & 23C: Hewland Mk.IV 23B & 23C with Cosworth Mk.XII or XIII: Hewland Mk.V. The wheelbase is 90 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Lotus line-up the Lotus 23 has a clear place: it replaced the Lotus 17; it handed the line to the Lotus 53 (not built). The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Ferrari 250 GTO, the Alfa Romeo Giulia, the Aston Martin DB5. Its Lotus stablemates include the Lotus 100T and the Lotus 101.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Lotus 23 — 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.