READ MORE: The Lotus 79, F1's ground effect marvel 3. The 78 duly ushered in the era of ground effect in F1 which lasted until the end of 1982 (and is coming back in 2021, by the way) and birthed other works of art like the updated Lotus 79, the Gordon Murray-designed Brabham BT46 ‘Fan Car’ and another revolutionary Lotus, the 88 ‘Twin Chassis’ car. So excited was Chapman by the eureka moment of getting ground effect to work on the Lotus 78, he kept the car under wraps for half a season, preferring to debut it at the start in 1977 rather than midway through ’76 to stop other teams copying it. You know, just some casual Bernoulli's Principle (look it up) in action… But Lotus’ breakthrough was in treating the entire car – rather than just the wings attached to it – like an upturned aeroplane wing, with air sped up underneath the chassis by moulded ‘venturi tunnels’, creating low pressure and ‘sucking’ the car to the ground. Ground effect wasn’t a new idea when the Lotus 78 made its debut in 1977, with other teams having tried to make the concept of ‘inverted lift’ work for a number of years. “And it broke all the time.”ĭespite that, the P34’s figures of one pole, one win and 13 podiums from its 30-race career were decent, leading March, Ferrari and Williams to attempt their own six-wheelers later on, before the concept was outlawed by the regulations. “I just didn’t believe in it, I didn’t believe in the theory, and the tests we did with it were wrong,” Scheckter revealed in 2008. READ MORE: 6 fascinating facts about Tyrrell’s six-wheelerīut those in the anti-P34 camp – and Jody Scheckter, who won the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix in one, was the most vocal of those – pointed to the car only working properly on very smooth surfaces, which weren’t really in large supply back in 1976. Those fighting the P34’s corner point to the improved grip and braking from having four separate tyres at the front of the car, as well as the reduced drag of the lower front end with its tiny wheels. The Tyrrell six-wheeler remains one of F1’s most iconic – and most divisive – cars.
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