The Lotus 79 is the first F1 car to incorporate ground effect in its design, and was used by the Lotus F1 team in the 1978 and 1979 season, to much success.

It won the 1978 constructor’s championship in dominant fashion, due to its superior downforce levels compared to other cars at the time.

The famed vehicle is touted for starting the era of aerodynamics in Formula One!

Design

A key feature of the Lotus 79 was the use of venturi tunnels in the sidepods to generate large amounts of downforce. Learn more about ground effect here! Compared to the Lotus 78, it produce as much as 30% more downforce!

By mounting a fuel cell behind the driver, the centre of gravity is very close to the middle of the car, improving the handling performance of the car.

Initially, a large part of the bodywork is actually highly raked (angled down) and had sidepods that look like ‘Coke bottles’ to further increase the downforce, but was scrapped because they were not needed. That said, these features were included in the design of the succeeding Lotus 80 car.

Fun Facts

1. The Lotus 79 appeared on the famous car series Top Gear in Series 27
2. The “Black Beauty” was allegedly the first car to be designed with computer aids!
3. The car won Lotus its last drivers’ and constructors’ championship in the sport
4. From the words of driver Mario Andretti, the predecessor car, the Lotus 78, was “like driving a london bus”
5. During testing, the chassis experienced greater-than-expected fatigue because of the sheer downforce it produced!

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_79