Lee Brimble
Fifty years after Emerson Fittipaldi drove the Lotus 72 to a double world championship for team and driver, we assembled every surviving example of Formula 1’s greatest car, and spoke to Fittipaldi, as he was reunited with his 1972 title-winning machine at Brands Hatch.
Scroll down for all of the features from our October issue, as well as more detail on the Lotus 72 and its drivers from our Archive, plus news of a new model from Pocher that recreates the car in unprecedented detail
The Lotus 72 served for six years in the top flight, winning 20 Grands Prix and three constructors’ titles for the team. Alan Henry remembers a truly remarkable F1 car
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Colin Chapman’s groundbreaking Lotus 72, which changed the shape of racing cars for ever, involved some ingenious design – and so did Pocher’s miniature representation of it
Raced at the top level from 1970-75 and making Formula 1 world champions of Emerson Fittipaldi and Jochen Rindt, the Lotus 72 represents the very best of British engineering. To celebrate 50 years since it achieved the double world championship for team and driver, our October issue profiles all surviving examples of the car and tell the stories that helped to make the legend. Subscribe to read
Pocher Lotus 72D 1:8 scale modelADVERTISEMENT
Make and own a replica of Emerson Fittipaldi’s 1972 British GP-winning Lotus 72D in unprecedented detail.
Years in development, and based on 3D scans of original cars, this 58.3cm-long model has removable bodywork, detailed monocoque, suspension, engine and cockpit, as well as faithfully recreated logos and rubber tyres.
Although I had no more than a small role as the team’s press officer during the black-and-gold glory days of the Lotus 72, I had a ringside seat at someof…
It’s one of motor racing’s most familiar photographic clichés: black livery with gold flourishes, distinctive dark helmet with elegant red swirls, driver’s head cocked to one side as he coaxes…
The Lotus 72 was such an important car for me –definitely the best car of my career. I have driven it recently at the Goodwood events and it still feels…
Chassis 72/5 Fittipaldi’s old faithful Emerson Fittipaldi crashed what would turn out to be his ‘old faithful’ on his first appearance in the car, in Friday practice at Monza 1970…
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Sponsored content At some point during the 1972 British Grand Prix weekend, the Team Lotus mechanics modified the oil cooler at the rear of Emerson Fittipaldi’s Type 72. It can’t…
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From the outset Colin Chapman had no option but to be obsessive about the weight of his cars. He had no access to the exotic twincam engines used by such…
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Half a century after his untimely death at the Italian Grand Prix meant he became Formula 1’s only posthumous world champion, Jochen Rindt’s influence smoulders still in a certain quarter…
Given the extent of its innovation, the Lotus 72 should have had a bigger advantage in 1970. Although Jochen Rindt won four races in a row, it was only dominant…
