In the voiceover for Lotus in the Forzavista feature, the statement is made that “Wobbly-Web Wheels” were banned from competition at LeMans. This is simply not true. The truth of the matter is more complicated and a much more interesting story. In fact, Lotus’ cars were first disqualified in 1963 for failing to conform with “Sports Car” rules, which state that a spare wheel must be carried in the car. While the Lotus cars did carry a spare wheel, it was not considered as a legitimate spare wheel under the rules, as the cars used a different wheel lug pattern for the front (4 lugs) and rear (6 lugs), as well as using differing widths. Lotus attempted to bring their cars into conformation by shipping rear hubs with a 4 bolt pattern, but the cars were still prevented from competing, this time on safety grounds, as the officials pointed out that if Lotus’ engineers originally considered 6 lugs appropriate for the rear, weakening them by using only 4, with no time to test their reliability introduced an unknown and unacceptable level of risk. Lotus founder Colin Chapman responded to this by stating “We shall never again race at LeMans.” A vow he and his company abided by until 15 years after his death, only returning to LeMans in 1997. The wobbly-web wheels themselves were never the issue.
That’s your opinion, but…wrong is wrong. I can’t even qualify the statement as a gross oversimplification, its just wrong. The statement is of itself a nitpicky kind of detail…and its wrong. If your’re going to include a feature with lots of nifty facts and figures, the facts should be…facts.
You may think so, but there’s a reason shows like Mythbusters and QI are so popular! Rasputin is right, facts are facts. A fact that is incorrect is, in fact, not a fact. FACT (lol).
Plus, as I said, the REAL STORY is far more interesting. I only stumbled onto this because I listened to it and was curious as to what in the world a “Wobbly-Web Wheel” might be, sounded so ridiculous I knew only a Brit could have named them. Upon doing the most cursory research, I came across the real story, and also learned a plausible reason why the spare tire is so prominently visible in my Shelby Daytona. I mean I guess if you don’t care about an interesting bit of racing history involving one of the most legendary figures in motorsport…move along then, nothing to see here…
Plus I have something of a fetish for not allowing disinformation to pass without comment, seems to me you let someone get away with repeating a lie (and ultimately that is what we’re talking about, intentional or not) and other people will accept it as fact, then they repeat it, and pretty soon people start thinking Axl Rose wrote “Knockin’ On Heavens Door”. Sadly, a frightening large percentage of those who read that last sentence are now thinking to themselves “Wot, he didn’t?”