29 June 2012
The central sculpture for this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed (28 June - 1
July) has been unveiled.
Sponsored by Lotus, the sculpture features six historic Lotus
Formula 1 cars driving on a winding 150m road tied into the shape
of a warped trefoil knot. Capita Symonds’ structures team once
again worked with renowned sculptor Gerry Judah and Littlehampton
Welding to deliver the iconic centrepiece.
Weighing over 60 tonnes, the installation is a
triangular section, with each of the three sides providing a
‘continuously variable curve developable surface’ which is produced
by taking flat sheet metal shapes that are then rolled up and
joined into three dimensional luxurious objects. The result is a
lightweight and extremely strong and rigid thin-shell structure,
with no internal framework or core - the sculpture is in fact 98%
empty space and would float in a swimming pool.
The cars - which are held in place by their
wheels which are strapped into specially designed cups - are
genuine, actually-been-raced examples from Lotus’s longstanding
motorsport campaign.
- the green-and-yellow Type 32B, the car
in which Jim Clark won the 1965 Tasman Series in Australia and New
Zealand;
- the red-and-white Type 49, in which
Graham Hill raced to the F1 crown in 1968;
- the JPS-liveried Type 72, in which
Emerson Fittipaldi became Formula One’s youngest champion in
1972;
- the black-and-gold Type 79, the
ultimate ground-effect car responsible for Mario Andretti’s world
title in 1978;
- the yellow Lotus 99T, the last Lotus
driven by Ayrton Senna;
- the current Lotus grand prix car as
driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.
Bruno Postle, Capita Symonds, said: “This is
the eighth year in a row that our team at Capita Symonds has
engineered the Goodwood sculpture - and this year it is bigger,
more daring and beautiful, and more spectacular than ever
before.”
Gerry Judah, artist and designer, said “This
year's sculpture is a lightweight steel monocoque construction. I
think its form shows the Lotus psychology and culture. I've always
admired Lotus since I was a boy. They're such British cars, with
that ideology of clever, forward thinking science and engineering.
That was something I knew I needed to embrace. It's almost
unconscious how I approach sculpture. I don't do brands. None of
the sculptures I've done for Goodwood have spoken about the brand,
you can get an advertising agency to do that. I do something more
intuitive. It is, dare I say it, a spiritual journey in
design.”