 As with many of Lotus's competition cars, the aluminium used to construct the bodywork was extremely thin and offered little in the way of support for the underlying chassis members.The car was extremely low and compact, with the bonnet barely reaching the same height as the tops of the front wheels, despite the smaller diameters used from the 1959 season onward.The driver sat in a slightly reclined position — nowhere near as extremely inclined as Chapman would later inflict upon his pilots but still unusual for its day — and behind the driver rose a stubby rear fin, incorporating the fuel tank.