Lotus 18 was the first mid-engined car built by Lotus and was a marked improvement over Chapman's early and only moderately successful front-engined formula cars, the 12 and 16.
It was introduced for the 1960 F1, F2 and FJ seasons, with about 27 examples of the F1 and F2 versions and 110 of the FJ versions .
As a stop-gap before the introduction of the 18's successor models, the Lotus 20 for F2/FJ and 21 for F1, some 18 chassis were rebodied with 21 skins to create the interim Lotus 18/21 hybrid derivative.

The 18 was replaced by the Lotus 21 in Formula One and the Lotus 20 in Formula Junior in 1961.
Lotus 18 was the first mid-engined car built by Lotus and was a marked improvement over Chapman's early and only moderately successful front-engined formula cars, the 12 and 16. It was introduced for the 1960 F1, F2 and FJ seasons, with about 27 examples of the F1 and F2 versions and 110 of the FJ versions . As a stop-gap before the introduction of the 18's successor models, the Lotus 20 for F2/FJ and 21 for F1, some 18 chassis were rebodied with 21 skins to create the interim Lotus 18/21 hybrid derivative.
The 18 was replaced by the Lotus 21 in Formula One and the Lotus 20 in Formula Junior in 1961.
Lotus 18