Lotus 79/1 at Barber Motorsport Park in 2011. Photos by Bob Chapman, courtesy of Regogo Racing.
In the late 1970s, the science of race car aerodynamics was in its infancy, even at the Formula 1 level. For the 1978 season, Lotus introduced a revolutionary new chassis to the sport, the Type 79, which proved to be as competitive as it was aesthetically pleasing. Considered by many to be the most beautiful F1 car of the era, Lotus Type 79 chassis number 1 will be joining a new exhibit at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, dubbed Lotus: The Art of Lightness .
Lotus’ Type 78 chassis, which first appeared during the 1977 season, was the constructor’s first attempt at building a Formula 1 race car that benefited from the “ground effect,” which factors in airflow beneath the car (and along the ground itself, hence the name) as part of the total aerodynamic picture. Wings, which had been employed in F1 since the Lotus 49b of 1968, added the downforce necessary to raise cornering speed, but at the expense of added drag, which reduced straight-line speed. The Type 78 chassis sought to address this problem by reshaping the underside of the car to reduce air pressure, which would improve downforce without adding more wing area.
The Type 78 proved to be competitive on tight, technical tracks, but unreliable. Its skirted sides produced ample low pressure beneath the car, but with a front bias, meaning that an oversize rear wing was required to deliver balanced handing. To compensate for this, Cosworth and Ford worked to extract even more power from the car’s 3.0-liter DFV V-8, but at the expense of durability. Over the course of the 1977 season, the Lotus Type 78 produced five victories and two podiums for teammates Mario Andretti and Gunnar Nilsson, but it also failed to finish a staggering 15 events (seven for Andretti and eight for Nilsson).
For the 1978 season, Colin Chapman and his designers went back to the drawing board, building from the lessons learned with the Type 78. By modifying the shape of the undertray’s tunnels and extending the rear bodywork, the team was able to produce a more even low pressure area beneath the car, resulting in higher downforce even with a significantly smaller rear wing. The Type 79 proved fast in corners, but also delivered the straight-line speed necessary to compete with rival teams like Ferrari and Brabham.
Andretti would go on to deliver six victories and a podium finish for Lotus (including an early season win in a Type 78), while teammate Ronnie Peterson would add another two wins and five podiums before his tragic death following a crash at Monza (where Peterson was forced to drive the Type 78 after crashing his Type 79 in practice). By 1979, however, other teams had closed the gap on the Type 79 chassis, and the Type 80 chassis (which didn’t appear until the fifth race of the season) proved so unpredictable in its handling that the team reverted to using the Type 79 for much of the season.
Lotus built a total of five Type 79s, of which four survive today. Chassis number 1 was originally intended to be a prototype, and was roughly two inches shorter than the other Type 79s; this made it incapable of carrying a full-size fuel bladder, reducing its effectiveness as a race car. Despite this handicap, the car was pressed into service following the death of Peterson, driven by Jean-Pierre Jarier and wearing the number 55. Jarier would make two starts in the car, finishing 15th at Watkins Glen and delivering a DNF at the season-ending Canadian Grand Prix. At the conclusion of the 1978 season, chassis number 1 was sold to privateer racer Hector Rebaque, who campaigned the Lotus in 11 events before taking delivery of a Penske-built chassis he dubbed the HR100.
In 2010, Paul Rego, owner of Regogo Racing, purchased Lotus 79/1 from collector Joel Finn. As Regogo Racing’s Peter Hoag explained, the car was delivered to the team at Road America, ahead of the 2010 Kohler International Challenge, but was far from race-ready. The Lotus hadn’t been run in roughly a decade, and was nowhere near compliant with SVRA safety regulations. The task of bringing the chassis up to snuff was given to Classic Team Lotus, while the car’s Ford Cosworth DFV V-8 was sent to Phil Reilly & Company for rebuilding.
The car’s first outing was at the 2011 Legends of Motorsports event at Barber Motorsport Park, where Regogo Racing driver Doc Bundy drove the Lotus 79 to a podium finish. Most often raced in the number 5 John Player Special livery of Mario Andretti, the car has also competed carrying the number 55 of Jean-Pierre Jarier. At the opening of the Circuit of the Americas in 2012, Mario Andretti turned the track’s first exhibition laps behind the wheel of Lotus 79/1, the chassis (though not the car) that carried him to an F1 championship in the 1978 season.
Paul Rego’s Lotus 79/1 joins a host of other Lotus racing and road cars in the Lotus: The Art of Lightness, which runs from January 24 through April 26 at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania. For additional information, visit AACAMuseum.org.
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