The Lotus 79 is one of the Lotus entries the open record knows by name, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable. Its designer of record is Colin Chapman (Executive Engineer) / Tony Rudd (Head of Engineering) / Tony Southgate (Chief Engineer) / Peter Wright (Aerodynamics) / Martin Ogilvie (Vehicle Engineer) / Geoff Ald.
The background
The Lotus 79 is a Formula One car designed in late 1977 by Colin Chapman, Geoff Aldridge, Martin Ogilvie, Tony Rudd, Tony Southgate and Peter Wright of Lotus. The Lotus 79 was the first F1 car to take full advantage of ground effect aerodynamics.
Over the span of its lifetime, the Lotus 79 took 7 wins, 10 pole positions, 121 points and won the last drivers' and constructors' world championships for Lotus. The 79 is credited with pushing Formula One into the modern aerodynamics era. After Rubens Barrichello drove the 79 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2000, he spoke of its "phenomenal grip and traction", and stated that "it felt like a modern Grand Prix car".
The engineering
it is rated at 475 hp min, up to 495 hp @ 11,000 rpm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Where it sits in Lotus's history is not in doubt: the Lotus 78 came before it; the Lotus 80 followed it. Its Lotus stablemates include the Lotus 100T and the Lotus 101.