Quote:
Originally Posted by Séamas M.
>>RF80 was, of course, a direct descendant of the original proper FF, the Lotus 69<<
Surely you meant to say Crosslé 25F, so good it is specifically excluded from the Pre-74 class?
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Yes and no! The 25F was very closely modelled on the 69, and many other cars took the 25F DNA as a starting point, including the RP21 Royale. Hence, the really good outboard-suspension cars mostly trace their origins back to the 69. That is why, in the original Pre-74 FF era, the car to have (if you could lay your hands on one) was the Lotus 69. Bob Berridge had one, and was pretty dominant. I tracked one down specifically for that series but never used it. The car is now in the hands of Dave Lowe (Mr Pre-74 FF).
You can argue the finer points of this theory (please do), but it's a reasonable approximation to the truth. In many ways, the RF77 rescued the outboard suspension concept, after Hawke and Royale got overly complicated with the DL15 and RP24 respectively. The 77 evolved into the RF80, even bringing back the front radiator in the process, and remains the "perfect" FF1600 to this day. Everything since, in the philosophical sense at least, has been a retrograde step, leading to the inevitable decline of the world's best junior single-seater category, as cost and complication took over and ruined the whole thing. Rant over!
