The Bookworm Critique

I wasn't a Formula One fan when I was really young, but if I ever had to sketch a racing car then the first thing that came to my seven-year-old mind was big and black with wide wings, massive rear tyres and some gold writing on it.

I had no idea at the time that I was thinking of a Lotus 79, and if I had know it, then I should have drawn the skirts along each side of the car as well. I was probably busier making it look like fire was coming out of the exhaust. That's why you never let seven-year-olds design race cars. If author John Tipler was asked to think of a racing car back in the late-1970s, the first thing to come to his mind would probably have been a Lotus 79 as well. The difference is that he would have known what it was.

It's probably safe to assume that Tipler is a bit of a Lotus fan, having already accounted for the 25 and 33 models in one of his many previous books. If you're one of those who divides Lotus into the pre-Jim Clark and post-Jim Clark eras, then the 79 was arguably the company's most significant post-Clark car. It was the logical and successful development of the 78 the first F1 machine to really exploit the airflow underneath the car, producing the phenomena known as 'ground-effect'.