Archive
Lunch With… John Miles
Once a retired racing driver has decided to hang up his helmet, he has to find a way of dealing with the rest of his life. For most, it very…
Lotus 72: F1's greatest car
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
Lotus 72: the most successful GP car ever?
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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Pocher Lotus 72 model: off the scale detail
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
Special brew: The Lotus 72
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 model
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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.
F1
The end of the Lotus 72
“The era of radical innovations has passed. From now on we will proceed by detail improvements.” That was Colin Chapman’s view of Formula 1 at the end of 1973. Blimey.…
Great Read
Archive
Adrian Newey: ‘I wish I’d designed… the Lotus 72’
For me it’s the Lotus 72 – an emotional choice as much as a design one. It came out in 1970 when I was 11 and getting interested in motorsport,…
Archive
Lunch With… Emerson Fittipaldi
The Hamilton phenomenon has rewritten the Formula 1 record books. But Lewis’s meteoric progress doesn’t diminish the achievements, 37 years ago, of a Brazilian tyro called Emerson Fittipaldi. Emerson was…
Great Read
Archive
‘Mad Ronald’ AKA Ronnie Peterson
“Mad Ronald,” Mike Hailwood used to call him. Twenty and 30 years ago, Grand Prix racing may have been infinitely more perilous than now, but it lacked the hard edge…
Archive
Successor story
Replacing the innovative and iconic Lotus 72 was never going to be easy — even though it was in its fifth season. Andrew Frankel drives the car that tried Bad…
Archive
Lotus 72: the most successful GP car ever?
On 19 April, 1970, a pair of Lotus 72s made their F1 debuts in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama. Striking and purposeful in the distinctive red, white and gold…
Archive
Lotus 56
He’s designed some of the greatest and most successful Formula One cars of the last two decades, but Mr Barnard admires the simplicity and potential of Chapman’s late -sixties Indy…