The Lotus 34 was a British racing car built by Team Lotus

Team Lotus

Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport series including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar and sports car racing...

 for the 1964 Indianapolis 500

1964 Indianapolis 500

The 1964 Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 30, 1964. It was won by A.J. Foyt, but is best known for a fiery seven-car, second-lap accident that resulted in the deaths of Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald...

.

The Type 34 was Lotus' second Champ Car

American Championship Car Racing

Since 1916 there has been a recognized United States national automobile racing National Championship for drivers of professional-level, single-seat open wheel race cars. The championship has been under the auspices of several different sanctioning bodies since 1909. Since 1911, the Indianapolis...

. Based on the earlier Lotus 29, it was a very similar car which differed principally in featuring a four-cam 4195 cc (255ci) DOHC Ford V8 with Hilborn

Stuart Hilborn

Stuart Hilborn was an automotive engineer. He became interested in amateur racing on dry lake beds before World War II. After the war, he began experimenting with ideas for mechanical fuel injection, and tested them on his own race cars...

 fuel injection

Fuel injection

Fuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s....

, producing 425 bhp (317 kW), through a ZF

ZF Friedrichshafen

ZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, and commonly abbreviated to ZF, is a German public company headquartered in Friedrichshafen, in the south-west German region of Baden-Württemberg....

 2DS20 gearbox.

At Indianapolis, Jim Clark

Jim Clark

James "Jim" Clark, Jr OBE was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965....

 qualified on the pole

Pole position

The term "pole position", as used in motorsports, comes from the horse racing term where the number one starter starts on the inside next to the inside pole. The term made its way, along with several other customs, to auto racing. In circuit motorsports, a driver has pole position when he or she...

, joined by five other similar cars. The Dunlop

Dunlop Rubber

Dunlop Rubber was a company based in the United Kingdom which manufactured tyres and other rubber products for most of the 20th century. It was acquired by BTR plc in 1985. Since then, ownership of the Dunlop trade-names has been fragmented.-Early history:...

tyres failed during the race, leading to Clark crashing and the second 34 being parked.

Further reading

• Andrew Ferguson, Lotus: The Indianapolis Years (Patrick Stephens, 1996) ISBN 1-85260-491-3