Why unloved Lotus 76 may be Colin Chapman's most significant car
A wide variety of Lotus cars are often proffered as the ultimate F1 game-changer – but was the Lotus 76 an unusual candidate which trumps them all?
Fed up with Formula 1 and its boringly repetitive ability to show itself totally insensitive to, and out of touch with, global opinion?
Depressed by the sport’s leaders turning a blind eye to the use of a Grand Prix as a means of blatant political propaganda – and then hiding behind the pock-marked shield of claiming ‘we’re just a sport’? Tired of tuning in to far-flung races that pull in a crowd that would only just match the expectations a British Touring Car Championship round? Well, I might have the perfect thing for you.
From the letters we’ve received and the comments posted on our website, we know many of you are disenchanted. So instead, why not delve into the June issue of Motor Sport and transport yourself to a simpler, happier time when two friends went head to head for the world title, becoming first-time Grand Prix winners in the process and spearheading the second wave of the British rear-engined revolution?
Yes, it’s the standout stars of the 1960s: Graham Hill vs Jim Clark, one in BRM’s green corner and the other in, er, the slightly lighter green corner of Team Lotus. We’re talking 1962, 50 years ago, as Doug Nye takes us back to a classic season when F1 really was a sport more than a business.
Not everything was better back then, of course. Nigel Roebuck reminds us what might have been had Stirling Moss’s Lotus not folded back on itself when it hit a grass bank at Goodwood. Moss was the vital missing ingredient from the 1962 mix and Nigel laments what that Easter Monday robbed us of: a dark blue Ferrari with a white noseband, hustled by that familiar figure in his trademark Herbert Johnson helmet…
To drag you back to the present for a moment (sorry), I should mention that we closed for press after the Chinese GP and ahead of Bahrain. Still, the deadline headache allowed Nigel to write about a proper sporting story in Reflections, with some insight into our latest first-time GP winner, Nico Rosberg. The story takes us back to the very day he was born… Oh, and to read the definitive verdict on Bahrain, our editor-in-chief tells it straight right here.
Elsewhere, Rob Widdows meets underrated Belgian Thierry Boutsen for a rare interview, Simon Taylor lunches with that designer of so many wonderful racing cars, Tony Southgate, and the man who gave Stirling a run for his money, Tony Brooks, brings us an extract from his long-awaited autobiography.
As you’ll notice, we’ve tried something a little different on the cover of the June issue, using a specially-commissioned illustration of Hill and Clark in 1962. Artist Guy Allen has kindly presented us with a special print to give away to a reader, and if you’d like a chance to win it, click here.
And there’s more. We’re offering a great competition, in association with Speed Chills, to win tickets to Le Mans Classic (I’m going for the first time myself this summer, and I can’t wait), plus we have a discount offer for admission to the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power. To take this up, go to www.cpop.co.uk and use the following codes when purchasing your tickets: MOTPT for single-day tickets (£6 discount) and MOT3DT for three-day passes including the fireworks concert (£13 discount).
There’s a packed schedule of historic racing this year, and one meeting you must not miss is the Donington Historic Festival. You can even win tickets to it by clicking here!
I do hope you enjoy the issue.
A wide variety of Lotus cars are often proffered as the ultimate F1 game-changer – but was the Lotus 76 an unusual candidate which trumps them all?
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