Type 79 Black

Type 79 Black and the black era of Lotus

The Type 79 Black shade refers to one of the best-known color combinations in the history of motorsport: a deep black completed with gold lines. Black is the load-bearing surface here, on which the decoration only then works, so the evenness of the tone across the whole body decides the result. On the real subject the black covered the hull and the side channels, and the gold lines ran along the edges, so the dark surface takes up the great majority of the car.

The real subject: Lotus 79

The Lotus 79 was the formula car of the 1978 season and the first design to take the principle of downforce created by a shaped floor into a practically usable form. In corners it could thereby do what its rivals had no answer to. Mario Andretti took the world title with it, and his teammate Ronnie Peterson finished second in the final standings. The black and gold livery became so bound to the British brand that it outlived the type itself in public memory.

Where you will use the black

• bodies of formula cars of the 1970s and 1980s
• a ground under gold and silver lines, where smoothness counts
• frames, exhausts and cooling channels of unpolished parts of machinery
• tires, seals and rubber items in the larger scales

Who the color is for

It will be reached for by builders of formula cars and by modelers who do not get on with a black that has a blue or brown cast and are looking for a neutral dark tone. It is useful for collections too, where black appears on several cars side by side and is meant to look the same among them. It will serve just as well with dioramas, where a dark surface separates machinery from a lighter ground.