The car helped Lotus to take the most wins in a single season since the famous Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows of 1955, with Andretti and Ronnie Peterson delivering four 1-2 finishes.What can’t be argued, though, is what the win meant for Andretti’s legacy and for the profile of the race itself - the winner and the event, with time, raised the credibility of one another. Lotus had invented ‘ground effect’ and if the Type 78 is where they first showed it, the Type 79 is where they perfected it.Īlso known as the John Player Special MkIV to please the sponsor, the car did much to cement Chapman’s reputation as one of motorsport’s greatest designers. It formed a simple seal between car and track, creating a vacuum and further sucking the chassis to the road. The idea was straightforward the principle of flight is based on low pressure under a wing creating lift, so by inverting the wing you get the opposite – the car is forced into the ground.,įurther innovation came in the form of long narrow skirts which dropped from the car’s body to touch the road. The concept had started with the earlier Type 78, the first ‘wing’ car where Lotus founder Colin Chapman started to explore the potential of reducing drag and maximising downforce to achieve race-winning performance. Race cars today are as they are because of this innovative Lotus. However, that simple fact ignores its significance as one of the most pioneering race cars of all time, one which fundamentally changed the core principles of motorsport engineering.
The black and gold Type 79 is the car in which Mario Andretti and Lotus won the 1978 Formula 1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships respectively. Lotus Global Sports Car Production Facility (Hethel).Lotus Global EV Production Facility (Wuhan).
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