At some point during the 1972 British Grand Prix weekend, the Team Lotus mechanics modified the oil cooler at the rear of Emerson Fittipaldi’s Type 72.
It can’t have done any harm because Fittipaldi went on to win at Brands Hatch, and then claim that year’s championship. But for almost 50 years, this insignificant minor change went unnoticed.
Colin Chapman’s groundbreaking Lotus 72, which changed the shape of racing cars for ever, involved some ingenious design – and so did this miniature representation of it
That is, until modelmakers at Pocher began attempting to recreate, in meticulous 1:8-scale detail, the car which Fittipaldi raced on July 15, 1972. The oil cooler change was noted in the mechanics’ job lists, but no further details were given, so Pocher product design engineer George Lane pored over historic photographs until he
