Lotus 72's On The Horizon

[Chris Wright]

The latest photos of Lotus 72 pre-production prototypes from the Nurnburg Toy Fair 2014


First, Andy Rowland's Policar - Lotus 72 Goldleaf Prototype, bear in mind the rough appearance is because
this is an initial pull out of the 3-D printer, and is not the cleaned up production prototype for mold generation.


Next, Scalextric - Lotus F1 72 Gold Leaf, this looks like a production prototype. To my eyes it has some proportion
problems the wing is too high, the wheels are just not right, it looks too squared-off at the front and a little too wide,
I feel too many compromises have been made, it looks a little more "toy" like, and why is the back-end hiked up like a dragster?


And now the real thing.

A couple of observations, the Policar 72 needs a little work on the wheels, but notice how much more realistic the Policar
72 appears, the wheels are a little rough at the moment but at least the tyres and wheels themselves look to be the
correct scale diameter.The innovative gear arrangement that Andy designed has allowed the wing to be in the correct position.
Overall the car looks a little more svelte, and my suspicion is that it's smaller than the scalex version to boot,
and the driver is fairly realistic. WHAT DO YOU THINK?


Photos Copyright: Pendle Slot Racing

[Andrew Rowland]

Its an interesting question and I certainly wouldn't want to question the competition given I KNOW how hard it is.

On the Policar model, since you quite rightly question the wheels I am happy to explain:
The Lotus 72 in 1970-72?(i believe) had Firestone tyres on 15" rims rear and 13" fronts. Later the wheels went to 13" at the rear and Lotus and everyone else went to Goodyear. This is one at least reason why the '72 stopped being competitive..

Anyway the 13" wheels, with ever wider slicks had smaller diameter tyres. So at scale we need 21mm for 1970-71/2 and 19mm thereafter!!

So this is a slotcar and we needed to consider both production costs and inter-car competitiveness so we decided all tyres needed the same diameter rear tyres. So the early treaded tyres are 20mm, 1mm too small and later type will be 1mm too big!

There it is scale v's production laid bare.

As a scratch builder of course I am sad but everything is a compromise right?

Cheers
Andi

[Mark Huber]

I don't have the artist's eye that Chris and Andy possess, so I'd love to know how both cars measure up--literally.. However, as I view both preproduction cars versus the photo of the prototype, the Policar Lotus appears to be a superior representation of Rindt's Lotus 72. I'm going to buy one .. in my opinion it not only looks better than the Scalex Lotus, but it has a far more interesting running gear design.

[Andrew Rowland]

Thought i'd share some other photos with you.....



This is Emerson Fittipaldi's 1972 Championship wining car. From early in the year it has the 1971 wing still and the wing is still quite far forward.
Most chnages have been incorporated into the model the only thing still lacking is the lower radius arm at the rear. This has been designed but the corrisponding exhausts have not so we couldn't add it yet.
Other changes include; no naca ducts at front modified underside to nose for brake venting, anvil air scoop, oil radiators and tank at rear.

This model will also be produced in the Lucky Strike colours.



Other detail shots show how low the engine and gearbox sit down. The idea will be to sell these items with the motor pod for scratchbuilders to fit to any shell they buy or make....





Finally the Rob Walker car. This is essentially the same as the Rindt car but had different wing mirrors which we want to incorporate and are still working out how best to produce....



And a bit of detail during construction for all you builders out there: