The Lotus 16 was the second single-seat racing car designed by Colin Chapman, and was built by his Lotus Cars manufacturing company for the Team Lotus racing squad. The Lotus 16 was constructed to compete in both the Formula One and Formula Two categories, and was the first Lotus car to be constructed for Formula One competition. Its design carried over many technological features of the first Lotus single-seater, the Lotus 12, as well as incorporating ideas which Chapman had been developing while working on the Vanwall racing cars. Indeed, such was the visual similarity between the Vanwall and Lotus 16 designs that the Lotus was often dubbed the "mini Vanwall" by the contemporary motor sport press. Although the Lotus 16 only scored five Formula One World Championship points in the three seasons during which it was used, its raw pace pointed the way for its more successful successors, the Lotus 18 and 21.

Colin Chapman had started building Ford-engined, Austin 7-based specials shortly after the end of World War II, and had quickly graduated to his own sports car designs with the Lotus 6 of 1952. These lithe, lightweight sports cars immediately took a stranglehold on domestic British club racing, and through a rapid succession of upgraded models soon moved up to the international stage, culminating in class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in both 1956 and 1957. Also in 1956 Chapman's reputation as an engineering innovator saw him drafted in by the ambitious Vanwall team to help develop their Formula One cars, and in 1957 the first single-seat Lotus, the Formula Two Lotus 12, appeared.

...
Wikipedia