The scintillating Lotus 72 gallery from our exclusive shoot

F1

The Lotus 72 was a groundbreaking car with a long history of success – take a closer look with our new gallery

Lotus-72-lead-image

Lotus 72 in all its glory

Jayson Fong

No Formula 1 car has ever matched the Lotus 72 in sustained success, giving it a strong claim to be the greatest grand prix car of all time.

In this month’s issue, we pay tribute to a machine which left an indelible mark on the world championship with in-depth features and analysis. Swipe through the gallery below from our stunning studio shoot to see the car up close.

After initially being used by Jochen Rindt to take his tragic posthumous championship in 1970, the car was then driven to more world championships by the brilliant Emerson Fittipaldi and race wins by the effervescent Ronnie Peterson before becoming a trusted customer car in South Africa, retired from the world championship at the end of ’75 with a final podium scored by Jacky Ickx.

Designed by legendary team boss Colin Chapman, Tony Rudd and Maurice Phillipe, at the time the car represented the pinnacle of British engineering, and its rapid success indicated as much.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of his first drivers’ title, Fittipaldi tells Rob Widdows in our October edition that that 72 was “definitely the best car of my career – outstanding.”

We were also witness to ‘Emmo’ being reunited with the car at Brands Hatch recently. It was inevitable that the memories would come rushing back for the two-time world champion who won there in ’72.

From the archive

“It always felt very special,” he said of racing at the circuit. “Big crowds, elevation changes, fast corners, mid-speed corners, uphill corners, downhill corners… It’s very technical and you needed both driver and car to be working properly. Fortunately, the Lotus 72 was good at every kind of circuit.”

For the recent run at Brands, Fittipaldi drove chassis 72/D7, the car which he used frequently during his ’72 title campaign.

However, there were several chassis which helped create the car’s legend – we also trace the history of all the surviving 72s in the latest issue.

Key to Lotus and the stories it created were the people involved – mercurial leader Chapman, drivers such as Jim Clark, Fittipaldi, Graham Hill and Peterson as well as engineers, mechanics and all the other essential staff.

The JPS era was typical of ’70s F1 drama – Mike Doodson relived it to Motor Sport, remembering Rindt’s domination, the stress of working for Chapman and grand prix racing in a charismatic yet dangerous decade.

As well as those still around to share the stories, the legend of the Lotus 72 will live on through the beautiful examples still around today. Swipe through our gallery to see one of F1’s most iconic cars in fine form.