[Video] Sliding a Lotus 22 round Oulton Park looks intense | GRR
There’s no greater experience than sitting in the cockpit of a single seater racing car, and here we have the opportunity to live that experience vicariously through the eyes of Horatio Fitz-Simon at the wheel of a historic Lotus 22 Formula Junior car.
It’s a tiny car, with a 1.0-litre engine producing around 100PS (74kW), coupled in this case to a manual four-speed Renault gearbox. It raced for two seasons in Formula Junior, winning the championship in 1962 with Peter Arundell, and here it’s back running as it did then, still as competitive as ever, as we’ve seen for ourselves during numerous editions of the Chichester Cup at the Goodwood Revival.
Here we see exactly what these cars are like to drive. They’re small and lightweight, with very little power, so it’s all about maintaining momentum and carrying as much speed as possible through the corners. The challenge is that with such little grip from some very skinny tyres, that often means fighting to keep the balance between moving forwards and sliding sideways.
Horatio seems to have nailed that science, as he fights first to get the car turned in, and then feeds in the throttle to send the rear end round the turn and through the exit. It looks like quite an intensive workout, but an enjoyable one all the same, especially on a circuit as undulating and flowing as Oulton Park.
Welcome to Goodwood Elevenses, a helping of motoring-related amusement to help break up your day. Watch the last video: New Ferrari 499P Modificata in action at Mugello