I decided to take this off the "official" Monterey thread and post it separately. On Sunday morning in the Laguna Seca paddock, I had the pleasure of hearing Todd Morici's 312/67 #007 being run up. This car was in early '68 trim, with 4-valve engine (introduced at Monza '67) and sponsor decals but no wings. While the engine was running, who should walk up, but Derek Bell, who had driven that very car "in anger" very early in his storied career. The sound of the classic V-12, especially when the throttle was "blipped", was simply incredible!
I had a brief chat with him after they cut the engine but he was in a bit of a hurry. I don't really remember what we talked about!
Didn't they call it the "spaghetti exhaust" when it came out? I didn't hear it run, but it looked awesome.
Here are a couple of shots of the "Medusa" piped cars in action. I just wish F1 would go to something like this again
why does it have a wings on the second one and not on the first one? was the first one the real way it raced?
The first car is as they raced in early 1968. At Monaco, Lotus introduced small front wings and an upswept engine cover. At the next race, both Ferrari and Brabham introduced small wings on the aft body; then Lotus upped the ante with a larger, suspension-mounted wing. Soon F1 looked like a Flying Circus! In Spain in 1969, both Lotuses suffered catastrophic failure of the rear wings, fortunately without driver injury. During practice at Monaco (the next race), the FIA abruptly banned large wings. Over the course of the season, teams developed smaller, body-mounted rear wings to replace them. The second car is as raced in late 1969, with small wing mounted, and the 1968 engine fitted to replace the unreliable 1969 unit.
No, unfortunately the 1970-72 cars were the only ones where the engine was exposed, and there are (to my knowledge) none of those running in North America. Afterwards the engines were basically fully enclosed.
I'm not sure if these are the exact same photos, but they are of the same cars: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login