1974 Lotus 76

While Colin Chapman would certainly have to be regarded as an innovative genius, such a reputation would not be built entirely without some concepts having proven to be less than stellar. Unfortunately, the Lotus 76 would be one such example of Chapman coming up short.

Part way through the 1970 Formula One season Colin Chapman would debut his latest chassis. Adorned in innovative aerodynamics, the Lotus 72 was far ahead of its rivals when it made its debut in 1970. However, there were still some things the Lotus 72 had to have worked out before it would become the championship winning car history would record.

Always looking for that edge, Chapman would introduce a car meant to overcome the diving and squatting in the car during braking and acceleration. This would be achieved by re-engineering the geometry of the car's suspension. But, it did have its drawbacks.

Once the uncomfortable feeling was rectified, the results would prove to be absolutely spectacular and would cause an incredible stir in and around the motor racing world. The resulting Lotus 72 would become the benchmark, the standard in Formula One and would remain in service for a number of years.

Combined with a Ford-Cosworth DFV 3.0-liter engine that would put-out around 450bhp, the Lotus 72 would prove successful year after year. However, Chapman would not be happy with merely being successful. He wanted to dominate. And, by the end of the 1973 season, the Lotus 72 was coming to the end of its useful life, at least as far as Chapman was concerned.

The Lotus 72 was so far ahead of its time when it made its debut that there was great certainty that a large amount of the car's design would carry over to the new model. But in Chapman's mind, there was still a lot of work to be done.

When the 72 appeared it would attract a crowd as people pushed and clamored to catch a sight of the sleek, aerodynamic car. The Lotus 76 was to improve upon what had been considered an already beautifully aerodynamic car. To start out with, Chapman and former McLaren and Brabham designer Ralph Bellamy would consider a design based upon the Lotus 72 only with a longer wheelbase. The other goal in mind was to have a car with a narrower chassis design in order to help with stability.

Considering this is Colin Chapman, a longer wheelbase and a narrower chassis design doesn't exactly sport his hallmarks of innovation. But those were just the starting points. Chapman would prove to have some rather grand innovations in mind as well.

The development of the car would be paid for by the team's title sponsor, John Player. Therefore, what would become simply known as the Lotus 76 would actually be referred to within the factory as the 'John Player Special MK I'. And, in typical Chapman fashion, the innovations intended for this design had already been churning in the heads of the Lotus engineers for some time.

The obvious evolutions would be apparent right away with just a glance at the nose of the car. The same low-profile wedge shape would remain. However, the width of the nose, at its point, would be quite a bit more narrow than that which would grace the 72. This design would enable much larger front wings to be attached to either side in order to help generate more downforce and increase stability. The narrower nose would actually have a lower profile than its predecessor, but it would retain the contoured top line as had been utilized on the 72.

The contoured shape was mostly out of necessity. The front portion of the aluminum monocoque chassis would, as it did with the 72, the coil springs and even the disc brakes for the front wheels. The difference between the 72 and the 76 could also be seen when it came to the car's front brakes. While both would keep the in-board disc brakes, Chapman and his team would forego the small fairings covering the discs as they had been seen on the 72. Instead, the discs protruded right out of the top of the chassis for the air passing over the top of the car's nose to help cool the brakes.

The nose width would increase dramatically just aft of the front wing. This 'Y' design was purposeful as the outer edges served as the hinge point for the car's front double wishbone suspension. Just past the front suspension attachment points the bodywork would extend outward in a narrow 'V' shape. This would create a channel between the upper and lower portions of the body. This would allow for radiators to be positioned at an angle. This leant to the Lotus 76 having much less conspicuous sidepods than that had been on the 72.

Up to this point in the car's design the innovation remained minimal at best. However, for perhaps the first time in Formula One history, one of the more far-reaching innovations Chapman would introduce with the Lotus 76 would be find in the cockpit. Down inside the single wraparound windscreen the driver's office space would seem rather familiar. The few gauges, the round rear-view mirrors and the three-spoke steering wheel all seemed straightforward. However, there would be a curious little button on the top of the gear level running back to the Hewland FG400 5-speed gearbox. This is where one of the first innovations on the Lotus 76 would be found.

This simple little button would control an electronic clutch that was to speed up gear changes. In all reality this system would be the forerunner of the semi-automatic gearbox that remains ever-present in Formula One even up to this very day.

The electronic clutch wouldn't be the only innovative feature on the 76 though. Behind the large square airbox inlet, attached to the trailing-edge of vertical fairing would be a biplane-like double rear wing. One wing attached just above the height of the bodywork passing over the top of the radiator sidepods and another positioned higher up, the wings were meant to optimize the air flowing toward the rear of the car increasing downforce and increasing stability of the car at the rear.

Overall, the Lotus 76 was yet another aesthetically-pleasing car with great aerodynamic features to capture the attention and the imaginations. However, while the car may have been physically appearing, its electronic clutch would prove to be something less than desired by both Ronnie Peterson and Jacky Ickx. In early testing both drivers would complain about the car's electronic clutch's lack of 'feel'. And when at speeds, the two drivers agreed gear changes weren't any quicker than with a conventional clutch arrangement. There would be other problems with the car's stability. This would leave the drivers longing for the older 72.

Still, Lotus would soldier on with the car and it would make its debut at the South African Grand Prix. Jacky Ickx would prove the fastest of the Lotus team. He would qualify 10th for the race while Peterson would be down in 16th. Unfortunately, like the 72 before it, the 76 would not prove successful right out of the box. Both drivers would end up retiring from the race. Most frustrating would be Peterson's retirement. He would be just a couple of laps away from the checkered flag before he would suffer an accident that would take away a race finish for the new car.

The lack of a finish by either car in the South African Grand Prix would only cause the frustrations with the highly-innovative new car to grow worse and worse. Two more retirements for each driver in the next two races on the calendar would have Peterson adamantly demanding for the return of the older 72. This would happen for the next five rounds of the championship while Lotus' engineers made adjustments and tweaks to the 76 in order to get it up to the standards the drivers wanted.

After some reworking, the Lotus 76 would return in time for the German Grand Prix. Jacky Ickx would not drive the 76 but Peterson would. Peterson would end up taking the new car to a 4th place finish, its only race finish in its history. However, Jacky Ickx, driving the older 72, would be less than a second behind Peterson in 5th place. So it had become abundantly clear the 76 didn't really offer the kind of performance that would lead it to being far ahead of the competition, not when an older predecessor remains within a second of it over the course of a race distance.

A couple of more retirements in the hands of Jacky Ickx at the Austrian and Italian Grand Prix and the fate of the Lotus 76 was decided. It was certainly a car that boasted of some truly innovative ideas, some well ahead of their time, but in this case, the innovations took Lotus a step backward instead of one giant leap forward. And, after the car was disqualified at the United States Grand Prix at the end of the year, Lotus would turn its attentions back to the older and more acclaimed 72.

The Lotus 76 would entirely disappear at the end of the '74 season. Chapman and his team undoubtedly believed in the concept of the car. There were just some aspects of it that ended up being huge drawbacks. Therefore, moving forward, the Lotus team would identify the drawbacks, or the features that didn't offer the kind of kinds originally expected, and would focus on uniting what worked with what also worked on the 72. Therefore, the '75 season would see something of a hybrid of the 72 and 76 with a conventional single rear wing and the electronic clutch gone.

Most unfortunate would be the fact the 76 seemed to signal a time in which Lotus would stumble, perhaps having lost a bit of confidence. The Lotus 77 would be a total letdown giving the team something it had never experienced before, which was a failure to qualify.

However, Chapman and his team would right himself and would go on to produce another run of incredibly dominant cars with the Lotus 78 and 79. In the case of each of these designs, Chapman would return to his gut feelings and his eye for innovative answers for pending difficulties. Trusting once again, Team Lotus would again rise to the top step in both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship standings.

Sources:
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'Lotus 76 Cosworth', (http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/1458/Lotus-76-Cosworth.html). Ultimatecarpage.com: Powered by Knowledge, Driven by Passion. http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/1458/Lotus-76-Cosworth.html. Retrieved 26 December 2012.

'Lotus 72 Cosworth', (http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/276/Lotus-72-Cosworth.html). Ultimatecarpage.com: Powered by Knowledge, Driven by Passion. http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/276/Lotus-72-Cosworth.html. Retrieved 26 December 2012.

'Lotus 76 (John Player Special MK I)', (http://www.motorsportsalmanac.com/mastuff/articles/RN_030721.pdf). Motorsportsalmanac.com. http://www.motorsportsalmanac.com/mastuff/articles/RN_030721.pdf. Retrieved 26 December 2012.

'Seasons: 1974', (http://www.manipef1.com/seasons/1974/). ManipeF1. http://www.manipef1.com/seasons/1974/. Retrieved 26 December 2012.

Wikipedia contributors, 'Lotus 76', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 May 2012, 12:14 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lotus_76&oldid=490454960 accessed 27 December 2012

By Jeremy McMullen