{"id":492657,"date":"2012-10-01T14:00:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T14:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=24447"},"modified":"2024-12-27T12:47:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T12:47:35","slug":"lotus-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/lotus-79\/","title":{"rendered":"Favorite Racecar? Lotus 79"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For me, my greatest racecar is my current car\u2014the Lotus 79. I love that car. When I first started out I thought I\u2019m gonna drive Formula One, Indycars, and do endurance racing just for fun. Well, it didn\u2019t quite work out that way, financials and whatever got in the way. If I\u2019d made it to Formula One, the Lotus 79 would have been the current car for me to drive. It\u2019s the time when I would have surfaced in Grand Prix racing. The reality is that I ended up in \u201ctin-tops\u201d for most of my racing life. However, I\u2019ve been lucky enough to have driven some amazing cars, each one has its own personal niche in my mind. It wasn\u2019t until I found Lotus and the Esprit program that I really knew I\u2019d found home. I\u2019d worked with many factory-based entrants prior to that, and some wonderful race names, but I\u2019d never worked with a group that understood just what a racer needs to win with. I learned more from Lotus than I had with any of the teams I had before, including prototypes. Lotus really helped me to become a better driver. Now I get to drive the Lotus 79, the car of my dreams, at historic events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed.<\/p>\n

Many remember me for the accident with Lyn St. James and Chip Robinson during the 1986 IMSA Camel GT race at Riverside. Boy, that was a big one! The car I was driving was just phenomenal. I\u2019d say that Chevy Corvette GTP was the fastest thing I ever drove. I never knew how much power it really had because the engine builder wouldn\u2019t tell me, it wasn\u2019t until much later that I found out the true power of that car. I was at Laguna Seca sometime in the \u201990s, sitting on the pit wall waiting for my next practice session, when the guy who built that engine sat next to me. I asked if he would tell me the true power of that car.\u00a0 He said, \u201cFor the most part it was tuned to just over 900 hp, but occasionally I\u2019d turn up the wick to give in excess of 1250 hp.\u201d I was amazed and thanked him for not telling me at the time. It was the only car I\u2019d driven that would never quit gaining down a straightaway. I sometimes felt if I\u2019d pulled back on the steering wheel it would simply take off!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n