If you couldn't run at the front in a Formula Ford race in 1975, your driving career wasn't going anywhere. Vintage Formula Fords still hold that appeal-and also add their own particular glamour, as FF was the principal steppingstone class for virtually all young F1 and Indy drivers from the late '60s into the early '80s. It was my visual introduction to the world of F1 racing at the age of 13, and I was knocked out by the clean simplicity and spidery beauty of those cars. This Formula Ford is somewhat short of wheelbase, but beautifully crafted.īeyond all this supposed logic, of course, I simply like Formula cars, having become fixated on photos of Moss, Ginther and Hill drifting through the streets of Monaco in 1961. Lola T200 of Martin Bagby is nearly identical to Egan's first FF, a Lola T204. They're a little slower than new racing slicks, but when everybody's on them, who cares? Your tire bill is approximately $1000 every couple of years instead of every weekend. A friend of mine won a race at Road America last year on a set of Dunlops that was three seasons old. These are marvelous tires they warm up to operating temperature almost immediately, seem unaffected by multiple heat cycles, are fun and predictable to drive on and yet wear like iron. Here in the Midwest, most clubs require the use of treaded Dunlop vintage Formula Ford tires-which look nearly identical in tread design to the classic Dunlops Jim Clark might have used on his Lotus 25 in 1962. Or blowing up when you least want them to. If you race only three or four vintage events per season (which is all I have time to do), these engines should easily last two or three seasons without needing a rebuild. Blueprinted, ported and balanced, it normally puts out something between 112 and 118 bhp. The engine is a reasonably durable and nearly stock 1600-cc English Ford unit with five main bearings and a crossflow head with a single Weber downdraft carburetor. The Lotus 79 is also available as driven by teammate and runner-up Ronnie Peterson.Lotus 51 was the earliest purpose-built Formula Ford, developed from the Lotus 31 F3 car, and still has that classic 1960s' cigar-shaped F1-car look. The Lotus 79 is limited to only 199 pieces.Įlevate your 1:8 scale collection with one of our elegant, harmonious and handcrafted display cabinets, stands or plinths. Furthermore, it has undergone detailed scrutiny by both Lotus's engineering and design teams to ensure complete accuracy of representation. The use of supremely accurate digital scanning of the original car has allowed us to perfectly recreate every detail at scale. This model has been handcrafted and finished in our workshops with the co-operation and assistance of Lotus regarding original finishes, materials, archive imagery and drawings. Andretti would go on to the win Drivers’ Championship after a dominant year in which the competition could not keep up. A relatively uneventful race belied stunning drives from the Lotus teammates and Andretti headed the podium by a tiny margin of 0.32 seconds. Andretti qualified on pole, just ahead of his teammate Peterson. This is a 1:8 scale recreation of the Lotus 79 as raced to victory by Mario Andretti at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. The Lotus 79 claimed six race wins, eight more podiums, ten pole positions and five fastest laps during its 26-race existence. Powered by a Ford Cosworth DFV engine that was housed at the rear of the car, the 79, also known as the John Player Special Mark IV or ‘Black Beauty’, was hailed for its stunning good looks.įive chassis were built during its two-season lifespan, though 1978 remains the 78’s critical year, as it, driven by Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson, powered to a Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship double. It is also credited with pushing Formula 1 into the aerodynamics era, an influence still clearly seen today. The 79 is thought to have been the first F1 car designed using computer aids and the first to be analysed by pit computers on race weekends. It was the first car to take full advantage of the ‘ground effects’ aerodynamics as pioneered in its immediate predecessor, the Lotus 78. Headed by founder Colin Chapman, the 79 was designed by the team at Lotus for the 1978 season.
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