proved by Andretti and Gunnar Nilsson winning the race in Belgium: When the car worked well, it was almost uncatchable. Other teams started scrambling to somehow replicate whatever it was in their own car designs for 1978. The problem they had was that they didn't really know what was so special about the car, as Chapman and other members of the Lotus team came up with any number of explanations of the car‘s performance to obfuscate the real reason, and the side skirts on the car hid the underside of the car from view. 1978 The 78 was good enough to still be a winner in early 1978, with Andretti and Ronnie Peterson scoring a win each and another three pole positions before it was replaced by the Lotus 79, which was as far ahead of the 78 as the 78 had been ahead of the rest of the field in 1977. The 78 was to see one further works team start, however. Owing to damage sustained to his 79 in practice, Ronnie Peterson was forced to use the reserve car, 78/3 (JPS-17), to qualify for the 1978 Italian Grand Prix. The car had not been maintained or developed by the team as they concentrated on the 79, and the car was hurriedly prepared for the race. Although his team mate Andretti predictably took pole position, the slower 78 was only good enough for fifth place on the grid for Peterson. The Swede was caught up in a massive start line accident, which resulted in his car ramming the barriers nose-first, completely destroying the front end of the vehicle. Peterson later died owing to complications arising from the treatment he received following the crash. The original development prototype, 78/1 (JPS-15), was sold to Héctor Rebaque. He ran this car through his Rebaque privateer team in World Championship events during 1978 and 1979, and in non-Championship races into the early 1980s. In all, the Lotus 78 took seven wins, nine pole positions and scored 106 points in its career. Formula One results (key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) This total includes points scored by the Lotus 79 used by Team Lotus for the remainder of the season. Bibliography Lotus 78 and 79: The Ground Effects Cars by Johnny Tipler Mario Andretti: World Champion by Mario Andretti and Nigel Roebuck Autosport 60th Anniversary issue, 2010