Book review: Lotus Racing Cars 1968-2000 by John Tipler

Back in April this year, I posted a review of John Tipler’s “Lotus Racing Cars 1948-1968“. The follow on book is “Lotus Racing Cars – Dominance, Decline and Revival 1968-2000“. If you chart Lotus during this period, I wonder if the order should be Dominance, Revival and Decline. That said, this period includes the most famous and iconic Lotus F1 cars such as the Lotus 72, 78/79, 88, 97T and 99T. As a former Team Lotus PR team member during the JPS Lotus days, John Tipler has some direct insights (and photography) into the JPS Lotus team in the mid 70’s.

The book has 6 chapters dedicated to each of Lotus 49, Lotus 72, Ground effects 78/79, turbos and the decline from the Lotus 102 onwards.

Most of the Lotus F1 cars throughout the period of 1968-2000 had iconic or colourful liveries, so one let down of the book is that all photography is in B&W (like the first book in the series). The Essex liveried Lotus 81, Camel Honda 99T and Lotus 107B don’t quite look the same in monochrome. That said, this book does include many of the experimental F2, F3 and even Indycars.

The most irritating part of this book series is not the content itself but the page quality – the gloss pages tend to stick together over time and its very easy to destroy a well keep copy if you want to re-read years later.

On the plus side, Tipler runs pretty much documents each iteration of Lotus race cars and its technical trials and tribulations including with the various Lotus drivers of the time.

If you happen to find a cheap copy then great, otherwise there are better Lotus books (including later books by John Tipler himself) that document the colour and history of Lotus F1 cars.

Wow Factor/Money Shot: gas turbined Lotus 56B (pg 46), Lotus 73 (pg 73), Type 96 Indycar protype (pg 115)

Suitable for: Lotus and F1 history fans