Car · Team Lotus · 1977–1978
Lotus 78
Wings make downforce and pay for it in drag. Peter Wright's insight was that the whole underbody could be a wing instead, and that the ground itself would double the effect if the sides were sealed. The 78 was quick everywhere and unbeatable in slow corners. It should have won the 1977 championship and did not, because the DFV kept failing.
- Seasons
- 1977–1978
- Entries
- 50
- Wins
- 5
- Poles
- 7
- Fastest laps
- 5
Why it mattered
The idea. Shape the underside of the sidepods as inverted wings and seal the edges: the car makes downforce without making drag
New on this car. Ground effect, and sliding skirts to seal the low-pressure area at the car's edges
What it did. 7 wins and 9 poles across 1977 and early 1978, before the 79 replaced it.
Specification
- Chassis
- Aluminium monocoque
- Front suspension
- Double wishbone, inboard spring/damper
- Rear suspension
- Parallel top links, lower wishbones, twin radius arms, outboard spring/damper
- Brakes
- disc
- Gearbox
- Hewland FG400
- Gears
- 5-speed
- Tyres
- Goodyear
- Fuel
- Valvoline
- Engine
- Ford-Cosworth DFV
- Configuration
- V8
- Capacity
- 2,993 cc
- Aspiration
- naturally aspirated
- Power
- 465 bhp
- Power note
- —
- Weight
- 588 kg
- Wheelbase
- 2,741 mm
- Track, front
- 1,702 mm
- Track, rear
- 1,600 mm
A blank is a figure nobody published for this car. Where several teams quote the same number in a season it is usually the rule they were all built to rather than a measurement, so it is kept with the regulation limits instead of here.
Every entry 50 entries
Show all 50 entriesShow the first 10, Every entry
Photographs
From Wikimedia Commons, each shown with the photographer and licence its terms require.
A photograph marked unchecked has a file name that does not name the car it is shown for. Most are still the right car, filed under the driver rather than the machine — but nobody has confirmed these one by one.
Where this comes from
- Constructor
- Team Lotus
- Predecessor
- Lotus 77
- Successor
- Lotus 79
- Races (published)
- 33
- Wins (published)
- 7
- Poles (published)
- 9
- Confidence
- reference
- Specification source
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_78
- Register source
- https://github.com/f1db/f1db