Lotus 72C Walker Team

Finalizado meu primeiro kit da Ebbro, Lotus 72C da equipe Walker pilotado por Graham Hill em Monza 1970. Kit muito bom na escala 1/20, mas a Ebbro deveria usar plástico branco e não azul para as peças da carenagem. Heir to the family that founded the world-famous scotch whisky of the same name, Rob Walker used his immense personal wealth to finance his passion for motor Racing. Rob Walker Racing was established in 1953, entering Grand Prix Racing the very same year. With the arrival of Stirling Moss in the late 1950’s, Rob Walker began collecting a number of wins, continuing with the very first Grand Prix win for the Lotus at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1960 with a Lotus type 18. The 1968 British Grand Prix saw another Rob Walker Racing victory for Lotus with Jo Siffert at the Wheel of a type 49B. In 1970, Graham Hill, who had been driving for Team Lotus until then, replaced Jo Siffert as the latter moved to the March team. Hill’s arrival in the team was supposed to coincede with that of the new Lotus type 72. But as Team Lotus was busy solving handling issues with type 72 , Rob Walker Racing was left to race type 49 until the middle of the season. As Team Lotus finally solved type 72’s handling issues, it refurbished the very first chassis - chassis number 72/1 - to the newest specifications and renumbered it 72/4. This chassis 72/4 was then sent to Rob Walker Racing, debuting in the Grand Prix of Italy wearing the team’s traditional Scotland dark blue body and white ribbonned nose livery. To maximize straight speed on this high speed track, chassis 72/4 was tried without front wing and only the bottom element of the usually three-element rear wing. But all the Lotuses were withdrawn on Saturday following the fatal accident of Team Lotus driver Jochen Rindt during pratice. The following races were a bit of an anti-climax with not enough laps to be classified in the Grand Prix of Canada and two retirements in the U.S. Grand Prix and the Grand Prix of Mexico. However, this was not for lack of ideas like the adoption of elevated side view mirrors to overcome the lack of rearward visibility inherent to the three-element rear wing design. This was to be the last season for Rob Walker Racing, making the Lotus type 72C the last racecar in the history of the team. Very good kit from Ebbro, 1/20th scale (but Ebbro should use white plastic for the body parts, not blue).