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I found this uncredited photo on Facebook today saying it was taken at Kyalami. I presume it was either a pre-race test or practice for the 1979 South African GP. Does anyone know anything about Team Lotus running the Lotus 79 without the front wing at Kyalami? Any other photos? I’m thinking of building my Tamiya kit in this configuration and it would be fun to have a bit of a story or some facts to go along with it.

Paul Erlendson

another one from SA


I guess we need some big Essex decals for it.

Thanks Bjorn! Found another one on Facebook.

Paul Erlendson

I forgot to say that on the other pictures I've seen from S.Afr the front wings are present.

That is interesting to me for another reason. I did not know that Lotus raced in 1979 in other than the green Essex livery.

The car was attractive with out wing. Of course for me, any car that Mario drove.....

joe.

jaydar wrote:That is interesting to me for another reason. I did not know that Lotus raced in 1979 in other than the green Essex livery.

The car was attractive with out wing. Of course for me, any car that Mario drove.....

joe.

Your right it didn't use any other livery but the BRG with Martini stripes though the design of the stripes did change over the course of the season.

jaydar wrote:That is interesting to me for another reason. I did not know that Lotus raced in 1979 in other than the green Essex livery.

The car was attractive with out wing. Of course for me, any car that Mario drove.....

joe.

Joe, are you confused by the poor quality of the photos and the car doesn't look green to you? All three of the above photos are of the car in the early season Martini scheme. As Derek has stated later on in the reason the stripes were changed and the Martini a Racing was changed to Martini and Rossi.

Paul Erlendson

Thank you for the responses. On my monitor, the paint looks black. I appreciate the clarification.

Regards,

Joe.

jaydar wrote:Thank you for the responses. On my monitor, the paint looks black. I appreciate the clarification.
Regards,
Joe.

Yes, these things do happen... it happens to me with some known photo editing software...
On the car, yes it's really interesting. gives it a quite sharp look, if it can get any sharper...

I found another photo in Volume 23 of F1 modeling magazine, page 18. I’m sure that it is not proper to show the scan of the photo here, but I thought (hoped) that it would be alright if I showed a scan of the caption. If anyone can translate it I would be most appreciative.
In reading Rob Walker’s article about the race in Road & Track he said that there was a test session on Wednesday before the race. I think it’s a pretty good guess that this is when they tried the car without the front wing. Probably trying to get more speed on the long straight at Kyalami.

Paul Erlendson