The five best cars at the Monaco Historic

Lotus 72 

Because Lotus 72. For real, though, there had to be a JPS Lotus somewhere in the mix and the 72 is so typical of the era –  the huge wing, high air box and road-hugging snout seem to wear black and gold the best. The way Katsu Kubota was hustling it round made the early model in the Série E 66-72 classification the star example, too.

Ferrari 312B2

This thing was by few measures a remarkable performer in period – even the likes of Ickx, Regazzoni and Andretti could only summon two wins between them for its season-and-a-half – but here at the Historic where most of the appeal is the spectacle, this, for us, was the quintessential historic F1 car. If you weren’t being rattled to your core by the volcanic flat-12 engine, trumpets akimbo, you were fully under the spell of the prancing horse – its broad rear rubber juxtaposed against its slender elegant-in-red wedge. Forza Ferrari!

Lotus 49

It’s got to be up there as one of the greatest F1 cars of all time. While Adrian Newey was taking a busman’s holiday racing in his Gold Leaf-liveried and be-winged 49B, this “standard” 49 in the typical green and yellow caught the eye of our photographer. Seeing the immortal debutant of the DFV being raced up close was a sight to be treasured.

Aston Martin DB3

Though this event focuses heavily on Grand Prix cars, we had to highlight a sportscar favourite. As it happens this DB3 earns a place on this list almost exclusively for its oddity. Looking like an Aston crossed with a Morgan, it seemed somewhat out of place in a grid comprised primarily of dedicated sports prototypes and certainly by comparison to its svelte open-cockpit DB3S. What can we say – we love a vote for variety!

Arrows A3

The Arrows A3 couldn’t be more “fridge with wheels” ground-effect style (unless it had the skirts on) but in the company of its grid-mates, a DFV amidships and enormous side-pods aren’t stand-out features. What was stand-out is the way these things were being driven. During our Facebook live broadcast from Rascasse corner, the way they were absolutely thrown around the bend into a sliding, limiter-bashing exit had us grinning like idiots. Plus, Penthouse, Rizla and Warsteiner on Gold just feels so “Monaco”, doesn’t it?

So there's our list of our favourite cars from the Monaco Historic, unashamedly heavy on late F1. Let us know your thoughts on what the stars of the show were.

Photography by Tom Shaxson