JPS LOTUS 72
The most successful example of the legendary Lotus 72 Formula 1 car was chassis no.7, driven in 1972 and 1973 by Emerson Fittipaldi – and at last the real 72/7 has been found, as Johnny Tipler explains
Long-lost Fittipaldi F1 racer under the spotlight
n its day, Lotus’s Type 72 was probably the most advanced car on the grid, and it remains one of the most remarkable cars in F1 history. Its ground-breaking design – carried out by Lotus founder Colin Chapman with Maurice Philippe – features inboard brakes, side-mounted radiators and an overhead air intake. Its distinctive outline resembles a wedge on wheels and had been inspired by the earlier Lotus 56 gas turbine car, while its layout was taken from the experimental four-wheel-drive Lotus 63 and featured the stressed-engine structure type of the Lotus 49. It was years ahead of its rivals, and fully 12mph faster than the Type 49 when powered by the same Cosworth DFV engine.
Of course, such an innovative package took more looking after than any other contemporary F1 car, though it was regularly the quickest on the grid, given the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi, Jochen Rindt, Ronnie Peterson and Jacky Ickx behind the wheel. Team Lotus chief mechanic Eddie Dennis played a crucial role in making the Type 72 reliable, while designer Martin Waide – Philippe’s successor – made significant improvements for 1972 and 1973. Dennis and the team’s half-dozen dedicated race mechanics ran the cars, and were usually last to leave the pit garage at night.
Fittipaldi took part in 39 races in chassis 72/5 – from 1970 to 1973 – and 24 races in 72/7 during the 1972 and 1973 seasons, during which no.5 served as his spare car at three races, though Dave Walker also drove it once. The car in these pictures is 72/7 in JPS livery in its 1972 specification, without the deformable side-pods that arrived in 1973 – which makes it the only surviving 72 that reveals its monocoque skins to the outside world. That’s important, as we’ll soon find out. But what makes Lotus 72/7 particularly special is that its true identity has only recently been resolved. And that’s going to take some explaining.
The Type 72 lineage metamorphosed through two major livery changes, both reflecting lavish and unprecedented sponsorship from cigarette manufacturer John Player and Son. The radical switch from Team Lotus’s version of British Racing Green to the gaudy red, white and gold of the Gold Leaf cigarette brand began with Type 49s in the Tasman Series on the cusp of 1967 and 1968, and those colours adorned the Type 72s in 1970. When the company launched its John Player Special brand in 1972, the Type
72s received the iconic black-and-gold makeover. And when it was discovered that gold paint showed up better on camera, the original gold leaf was dropped for 1973.
‘Like all the 72s, these cars had a life after Team Lotus and after their competition years in any case, and they were developed during their competition life as well,’ says Clive Chapman of Classic Team Lotus, and son of Colin. ‘For 1973, all the cars that were running then were fitted with deformable structures, in the form of glassfibre side-pods lined with foam sheet, to comply with the new season’s regulations. At the end of that year, Team Lotus sold 72/7 and 72/6 to Team Gunston in South Africa, and they raced in the national championship, in an orange-and-brown colour scheme. Previously, during the 1971 season, 72/3 had been sold to the United Tobacco Company for South African Dave Charlton to campaign in Lucky Strike livery, mainly in South Africa, but also for a brief return to Europe, in 1972, for three Grands Prix. Chassis 3 then was loaned for Eddie Keizan to race, in the blue-and-gold Embassy livery.’
Towards the end of 1975, 72/7 had suffered a massive shunt, and in order to complete the season Team Gunston bought 72/3 from Dave Charlton’s associated team and carried out a hurried rebuild as, by then, it hadn’t been running for some time. It was prepared in Gunston colours, and that’s the incarnation in which 72/3 ended its race career. Meanwhile, 72/7 was sent back to Team Lotus to be repaired at Hethel, after which it was returned to Rembrandt Tobacco in South Africa and displayed in its museum. And then things become more mysterious.
As Clive explains: ‘Only recently we discovered that the chassis plates on no.3 and no.7 had been swapped. In 2015 the English owner of what had been thought to be no.7 sent the car to us to get it ready for the Racing Car Show, to be displayed on the Octane stand – the first time the car had been seen in public since its return from South Africa in 1976. Gradually it became apparent that many of the key characteristics of the car – rivet patterns and hatch fastener patterns, paint remnants, and also, importantly, the horizontal dash bulkhead beam – were not consistent with the car being no.7. There were around 20 significant pieces of evidence that pointed to the car actually being no.3, the Dave Charlton Lucky Strike/Embassy car. This led to discussions with the owner; happily he is someone who is motivated by the provenance of his cars above all else.’
Engine 2993cc Ford-Cosworth 90º V8, DOHC per bank, 32-valve, Lucas fuel injection
Power 440 bhp @ 10,000 rpm Transmission Hewland FG five-speed manual transaxle, rear-wheel drive Steering Rack and pinion Suspension Front and rear: double wishbones, compound torsion bars/dampers Brakes Inboard discs Weight 580kg Top speed c200mph, depending on gearing
So, with that element uncovered, what next for no.7? ‘We needed to establish 72/7’s whereabouts, and our investigations narrowed it down to a car that was in Japan,’ says Chapman. ‘It had been returned to the UK a decade previously, when it had a fairly peremptory re-spray and relivery into Gold Leaf colours, and that seems to have misled people into accepting that it was 72/3. It was never really questioned at the time, which was surprising in view of the amount of work that was done to the car subsequently, and in any case those characteristics are quite striking.’
That’s not all, as parts of the tub were painted black – the JPS body colour – whereas 72/3 had never run in that livery. ‘It ended up going to Japan to a Gold Leaf Team Lotus enthusiast. He had seen the Type 62 and the 49s racing at Brands Hatch in Gold Leaf livery, and when 72/7 came up for auction in its Gold Leaf colours – identified as chassis 3 – he was thrilled to buy it. He cared for it like a family treasure, and occasionally drove it at Historic meetings. I needed to approach the subject quite respectfully.’
And so Clive Chapman travelled to Japan to broach the matter. ‘He was a generous host, sharing his collection of cars and memorabilia with me. Eventually he suggested that he might be prepared for the car to leave his ownership. I think he liked the idea of it coming back to Hethel to be part of the collection, and, as much as he loved his Gold Leaf cars, this would provide a solution to the change in identity, and it would not involve him. So we came to an agreement and the car came back to Hethel at the end of 2019.’
Classic Team Lotus aims to have all cars in correct period specification, so further investigations followed. ‘We went down to the hangar and found the original side-pods for 72/7 – actually more radiator ducts than side-pods. We also found the original-spec rear wing and, really importantly, an original cockpit screen that still had the markings of the lower paint line. The early-1972 screen is quite distinctive, where the depth of the see-through section is much greater, before a re-styling and re-liverying saw the clear element become quite narrow. Plus we had one of the original and distinctive rear oil-cooler ducts. So it all added up: “Let’s put 72/7 in early 1972 spec”, and that meant not fitting it with a deformable structure. That makes it unique among the eight surviving cars.’
Classic Team Lotus mechanic Tim Gardiner led the restoration of the car. And what you see along the sides
is the skin of the monocoque, as opposed to the glassfibre of the deformable structure, which came in for 1973. ‘We re-created the tapering front wings, which are quite distinctive as, later on, the nosecone went to parallel front wings. It needed a new dash panel, though the tub really didn’t require any work other than at the front, as we had to reprofile the leading edge where the nosecone’s trailing edge mates with the monocoque,’ says Gardiner.
‘Composite specialist Nicky Yallop did the wings and the right-hand rear oil-cooler duct, the painting is in cellulose, as per period, and the signwriting features gold leaf for the pinstripes, paint for the roundels and vinyl for the JPS livery, as they were at that time. So she really is back to how she should be.’
If more proof were needed, there’s one more important piece of evidence that this is 72/7, which is a period photo that shows the rivet pattern on the inside of the monocoque on the right-hand side, just behind the gearshift – exactly the detail that was there in period, and which is another stamp of provenance and originality to demonstrate that the tub
‘SUCH AN INNOVATIVE PACKAGE TOOK MORE LOOKING AFTER THAN ANY OTHER CONTEMPORARY FORMULA 1 CAR’
‘CHAPMAN WAS A GENIUS. HE JUST TOOK A LOOK AND KNEW WHAT HAD TO CHANGE’ EMERSON FITTIPALDI