Mario Andretti was the last American to be the Formula One World Champion, back in 1978, a date which coincided nicely with the introduction of the Aurora G-Plus motor/chassis. For American F-1 fans of the era, not to mention (specifically) those who were HO slot racing fanatics as well as Formula One fans, the timing couldn't have been better. Our previous World Driving Champion, Phil Hill, had his year in 1961, just a few years too early to mesh with the emergence of slot car racing in the U.S. His shark-nose Ferrari would have made a stunning HO slot car, but as I said, his timing just wasnít right for that! Probably not a huge concern for Phil, even after all these years!

Regardless . . . we are here today to talk about Mario and the G-Plus Lotus. Looking at photos of the real car (1:1) and the real Aurora HO Lotus, I have to say that Aurora did a fine job of duplicating the “look” of “79,” keeping in mind that they did have to fit it around the G-Plus motor chassis of the day. It’s interesting to note that the G-Plus was far more compliant to the fit of a modern Formula One car than any of the Aurora offerings since the Slim-Line Thunderjet. Okay, maybe even more compliant than the Slim-Line! However you work it out, Aurora did manage to go through the whole of the AFX and AFX MagnaTraction era without a singe F-1 car to their name. Not that they didn’t like Formula One (or so I would hope), but rather the relative tall-ness and fat-ness of the AFX motor-chassis would not have been an acceptable base for the low and (somewhat)narrower look of the F-1 car. It’s arguable, of course, that the original G-Plus was the best ever motor-chassis for Formula One bodies. One look at the present Mattel offerings (or Tyco, or Super G-Plus for that matter) in comparison with the original G-Plus F-1 line leads you to that rather easy conclusion! The other obvious candidate for F-1 applications is the Cox-Amrac-Rokar-LifeLike motor-chassis. However, 1.) It was (originally) a fairly blatant copy of the G-Plus, and 2.) None of the these companies did much to promote the F-1 possibilities.

That most recent digression aside, Aurora really did right by the Lotus 79. As far as markings are concerned, this Andretti Lotus was done in fairly authentic JPS colours, even if they did leave the JPS markings off. I really can’t imagine why they did this, when they seemed happy to put the Marlboro markings on the McLaren of the same era. And its not as if JPS (John Player Special) was a minor sponsor! Indeed, they were the major sponsor, and the parent company (British American Tobacco) was one of the first in F-1. Beginning with the Gold Leaf (another of their brands) Lotus 49, and continuing to this day in the form of British American Racing (formed out of the figurative ashes of the Tyrrell team, in fact), they are the most significant, if not the most politically correct, of the Lotus sponsors. There is also a much-discussed “Olympia Camera” version of this Aurora Lotus. Apparently it only offered in Europe via the Faller-AFX line. It was certainly shown in their colour catalog. How many were actually produced (if any) by Aurora (or Faller-AFX), is questionable. Maybe one of our readers can shed some light!

Get the Colour Right!

The colour used on the AFX car looks almost yellow, whereas the JPS cigarette packages really were done in gold and black. The reason for this is that the 1:1 cars had their markings done in a cream color when they found that the gold on the cars wasn’t showing up well on TV, and in the photographs in magazines. When I first saw the JPS cars in person, at the Canadian GP in ’74, I was stunned to see that they weren’t really black and gold! For some reason, I had the audacity to ask one of the Lotus mechanics why they weren’t really gold coloured, and he was kind enough to give me the explanation you see above. I was also fortunate to have a long conversation with Mario at the same race. The unfortunate part was that it happened four years before he was to become

The other sponsor names are correct, with Valvoline for the lubricants that year (Duckhams in previous and later years), NKG for the sparking plugs and Goodyear for the tyres. The race number One is not really correct, since all the photos I have show number five for Mario and number six for Ronnie Peterson. The little “partial circle with vertical line” markings on the rear wing (6) represent Lotus Grand Prix wins for the year. The full sized stickers had gold leaves around the “circle” part, with the name of the Grand Prix (“British Grand Prix – Silverstone 1st, 3rd” for example), in the middle. Chapman took great pleasure in adding those to his cars to commemorate their wins.

Body details are quite good too, down to gearbox and rear marker light details; wing profiles are correct, a proper roll-over bar is provided and even the painted details of Mario’s trademark helmet! I guess I could give them trouble for leaving off the rear view mirrors, but would probably just have been broken off in the first five minutes of racing anyway!

Additional details:

Mario Andretti won the World Championship in 1978, his third year (of five) at Lotus with a total of 64 points. His teammate Ronnie Peterson finished 2nd, with 51. Carlos Reutemann was third (for Ferrari) with 48 points. Lotus also won the constructors Championship that year. Lotus won eight races in ’78, to clinch the Championships. Aurora Lotus body sculpted by Ron Klein.

The Long Look Back

This is also as good as place as any to point out that “back in the day” both Aurora and Tyco took some time, trouble, and effort (and yes, money) to make each of the Formula One cars look like the 1:1 race car it was trying to replicate. That said, I should also point out that this same mold (Lotus 79) was later designated and decaled (stickered, really) as a Tyrrell (and the later Essex Lotus, and the non-F1 Madom Lotus). This “innovation” started us on the road we still drive today, i.e. having one standard body onto which all the F-1 liveries are applied.

The other side to this argument is that “back in the day” real (1:1) Formula One cars looked distinctively different from one another, whereas today they look (apart from very minor details) as if they could have been stamped from the same mold. I’m not sure if we are to blame the advent of the computer and the wind-tunnel applications to F-1 design, or perhaps the ubiquitous use of carbon fiber. For whatever reason, a lot of the external “personality” of F-1 race car design seems to have been diminished, if not lost completely in recent years.

The Long Look Back

This is also as good as place as any to point out that “back in the day” both Aurora and Tyco took some time, trouble, and effort (and yes, money) to make each of the Formula One cars look like the 1:1 race car it was trying to replicate. That said, I should also point out that this same mold (Lotus 79) was later designated and decaled (stickered, really) as a Tyrrell (and the later Essex Lotus, and the non-F1 Madom Lotus). This “innovation” started us on the road we still drive today, i.e. having one standard body onto which all the F-1 liveries are applied.

The other side to this argument is that “back in the day” real (1:1) Formula One cars looked distinctively different from one another, whereas today they look (apart from very minor details) as if they could have been stamped from the same mold. I’m not sure if we are to blame the advent of the computer and the wind-tunnel applications to F-1 design, or perhaps the ubiquitous use of carbon fiber. For whatever reason, a lot of the external “personality” of F-1 race car design seems to have been diminished, if not lost completely in recent years.