RETRO: Significant Lotus F1 cars

Lotus 91

SIGNIFICANCE: The first raced Lotus to use a carbon fiber chassis, the final Lotus to win in front of Chapman

DESIGNERS: Colin Chapman, Martin Ogilvie, Tony Rudd
ENGINE: 3-liter, V8-cyl, 500hp Cosworth

Like most teams without a turbo unit in 1982, Lotus was simultaneously trying to shave weight from its cars and land a deal with a turbo engine supplier. The result was a conventional but light '82 season contender and a deal with Renault for '83. Meanwhile, the 91 was fairly unremarkable other than its use of a carbon fiber chassis and the fact that it was the first Lotus to test Lotus's active suspension system. Maybe the 91's elegant bodywork is worth celebrating, too, considering the bulkiness of the 92 (the final Cosworth car) and 93T (the first Renault turbo-powered car) used by Mansell and de Angelis, respectively, for the first half of 1983.

But no, the 91's most significant aspect is the fact that after four barren years, Colin Chapman was able to throw his cap in the air (RIGHT) when in the Austrian Grand Prix (pictured), de Angelis edged Keke Rosberg's Williams to the checkered flag by 0.05sec. True, it had been a fortunate win because the far faster turbo cars had all lunched themselves, but it was very appropriate that one of Chapman's cars should score the Cosworth DFV's 150^th F1 victory.

Lotus 97T

SIGNIFICANCE: Scored the first turbocharged wins for a Lotus F1 car.

DESIGNERS: Gerard Ducarouge, Martin Ogilvie

ENGINE: 1.5-liter turbo V6, 900hp Renault

Under the guidance of Peter Warr, Lotus continued in a manner of which Colin Chapman would have been proud, signing the excellent Gerard Ducarouge to pen the cars, and, for 1985, replacing Nigel Mansell with Ayrton Senna. Mansell had lost his talisman when Chapman died, and he and Warr never got along, and thus there was a desperate quality to Nigel's driving through '83 and '84 as he sought to match the highly talented but sometimes flaky Elio de Angelis and thus prove Warr wrong. De Angelis had earned third position in the '84 championship behind the dominant McLarens, but had never looked like winning a race. Mansell, by contrast, had been inconsistent yet clearly had the pace to win a couple of races before throwing them away with errors. The team needed someone with all their qualities and more…

That man was Senna. The Brazilian sophomore used Ducarouge's Lotus 97 to take seven pole positions (de Angelis took one) and his first two F1 wins (de Angelis scored one, but only after Alain Prost's McLaren was disqualified from the results of the San Marino GP).

Lotus 99T

SIGNIFICANCE: Scored the first ever wins for an active suspension F1 car, scored the final wins for Team Lotus.

DESIGNERS: Gerard Ducarouge, Martin Ogilvie

ENGINE: 1.5-liter turbo V6, 800hp Honda

In previous years, Gerard Ducarouge's designs had comfortably eclipsed other F1 cars using the same Renault power units, but in '87, with a Honda V6 under the “hood,” he was competing against Williams, which already had three years of experience with variants of the Japanese engine. By comparison, the Lotus came up short.

The active suspension system was a double-edged sword. Yes, it kept the car at a constant ride height and was far less susceptible to pitch and roll than conventionally sprung cars; little surprise that it smothered the bumps of Monaco and Detroit (pictured) well enough for Ayrton Senna to score wins at both. But on the flip side, the system weighed 50lbs and sapped 30-50hp from the engine, depending on who you believe. While Ducarouge worked hard to compensate for this with improved aerodynamics, the 99T looked bulkier than the super-quick Williams FW11Bs…and one of those, it must be noted, won the first time it raced with Williams' active suspension system at Monza.

Aside from his two wins, sheer consistency made Senna a frequent podium visitor and he finished third in the championship…but when the world's fastest driver only scores one pole position in a season, it tends to suggest he didn't have the fastest equipment.

Lotus 100T

SIGNIFICANCE: Scored Team Lotus' final podium finishes

DESIGNERS: Gerard Ducarouge, Martin Ogilvie

ENGINE: 1.5-liter turbo V6, 650hp Honda

The FIA's new regs putting the driver's feet further behind the front axle line helped stretch this car out and make it look far more elegant than its predecessor, but in terms of achievement the 100T was no match for the 99T. With reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet (pictured) arriving from Williams as Ayrton Senna headed to McLaren, some expected Lotus to at least retain some of the magic of the past three years but the car was way off the pace of the McLaren MP4/4, despite using identical Honda V6 turbos, reduced to 2.5-bar boost in this final year of the turbo era.

There were races where Piquet was lapped by the McLarens, and he more usually found himself battling with the top normally aspirated cars from Benetton, Williams and March. The reversion to conventional suspension had helped in terms of weight, of course, but Gerard Ducarouge admitted while working on the active suspension the previous year, the team had lost some ground. Through the season Piquet talked of the car lacking rigidity and/or the mechanical balance not being what it should be, and there were frequent suspension geometry revisions. Piquet took just three top-three finishes that year, but it's good that one of them came at the season finale in Adelaide, the last race of Turbo Era I.

Lotus 109

SIGNIFICANCE: The final Team Lotus F1 car

DESIGNER: Chris Murphy

ENGINE:  3.5 liter V10, 750hp Mugen-Honda

From 1989 onward, Lotus fans watched their favorite team enter a six-year decline. The ultra-slim Frank Dernie-designed 101 and 102, powered by Judd and then Lamborghini engines were the final ones to display Camel yellow. At the end of 1990, former Benetton and Williams team manager Peter Collins, along with Peter Wright, assembled a consortium that helped keep the wolf from Team Lotus's door, but he was never far away thereafter. The Frank Coppuck-designed 102B-D, reverting to Judd power, was a compromised stopgap. In fact it was a miracle how good it was. But the Chris Murphy-designed 107, using the Ford Cosworth HB V8, really gave us hope for Lotus, as Mika Hakkinen and Johnny Herbert put in several strong performances in 1992, Herbert continuing this fine work in '93.

However, by 1994, the similarly attractive 109's shape was ruined by a nightmare color-scheme which reflected the fact that the team had many small sponsors, but none providing substantial funding. Herbert, Alex Zanardi (pictured in Lotus' final race at Adelaide in '94), Mika Salo, Pedro Lamy and Eric Bernard did their best (and Philippe Adams tried not to look out of his depth in his two outings with the team), but the cast of thousands was symptomatic of a team struggling for every dollar and cent and Lotus didn't even score a point in what was to prove its final F1 season.

It was a sad end for a legendary team which, over its 37 seasons, had scored six drivers' championships, seven constructors' titles and racked up 79 victories. And don't let anyone tell you it was not the “real” Lotus once Chapman had died: his hires did a commendable job keeping Lotus winning in the mid-'80s; the core remained. And here's a thought: although Colin's enthusiasm for F1 was dampened during the Lotus 88 debacle, you can be certain that signing someone of Ayrton Senna's genius would have re-lit Chapman's fire. Heck, maybe Ayrton would have never left…