The troubled story of F1's greatest racing car

By:

Gary Watkins

Oct 11, 2020, 3:48 PM

Autosport recently voted the Lotus 72 the greatest grand prix car of all time. Here's the remarkable story of a legend, as told by those involved in its development from problem child to a multiple championship winner

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At the back end of 1969, Lotus boss Colin Chapman removed himself from the day-to-day running of his growing organisation, locked himself away and set to roughing out the design of the following year's grand prix challenger. What he emerged with after two weeks were the first sketches of an innovative racing machine that became the type 72.

Some have claimed that the Lotus 72, powered by Cosworth's increasingly ubiquitous DFV, was a game-changer. Yet it didn't send the opposition racing back to the drawing board in the same way as the type 78 and 79 ground-effect chassis did later in the 1970s.

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Gary Watkins

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Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.