I remember reading back in the day a comment from, I think, Mike Hailwood. He mentioned that his Lotus did not handle well. Apparently Chapman commented that he was not surprised as the car was never designed for that engine (1.5 litre BRM V8).
I have always been puzzled by Chapman's comment. Surely the BRM V8 had almost the same size, weight and C of G as the Climax V8. The only noticeable differences I would have thought would have been slight differences to the power and torque band, and that would not influence the chassis design. Even an inch or two extra in length would not be significant, would it?
Other F1 cars of the time have appeared in different guises with totally different engines, even with 5+ litres in the back, and seem to have been tamed OK. So what was it that Chapman was getting at, or was he just winding up another team (I can't remember if it was Rob Walker or Reg/Tim Parnell in the other camp).
As I remember, Siffert in a 1.5 litre Lotus-BRM was able to beat Clark at some of the Sicilian high speed F1 races around 1964 or 65 - was that a case of the superior BRM power overcoming any Clark/Lotus Climax handling superiority?
Been curious for 50 years, I guess this forum is the place to ask.