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September 10, 2008 - Lotus 79 Announced!
Vintage racers, Grand Prix Legends veterans, F1 fans and anyone who ever wanted to know what it would be like to be Mario Andretti: rejoice! We are very pleased to announce the first vintage racing machinery to be added to the iRacing stable will be the black and gold John Player Special Lotus 79 that carried Mario to the 1978 Formula One World Drivers Championship.
This famous and significant vehicle ushered in the ground-effects era, and through Clive Chapman, managing director of Classic Team Lotus and son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman, we've arranged a license to produce an exacting virtual version of the car. With the generous assistance of vintage racer and Lotus 79 owner Joel Finn, our team has already scanned the car, and the production process has begun.
Our connection with Mr. Finn comes courtesy of iRacing director of partnerships Divina Galica, who drove his 79 at Watkins Glen recently - and that was not Divi's first encounter with this landmark machine. To read more about the 79 (and Divi's history with this groundbreaking racecar), please visit the news section.