Lotus 100T F1 car
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Designer: | Gérard Ducarouge |
Chassis: | Monocoque made of fibre-reinforced plastic |
Wheelbase: | 2776 mm |
Mass: | 540 kg |
Tire: | Goodyear |
Petrol: | Eleven |
The Lotus 100T was a Formula 1 racing car of the British Lotus racing team, which was used in the 1988 Formula 1 season.
History
The racing car was a creation of Lotus' chief designer Gérard Ducarouge. The composite chassis, made from carbon and aramid fibre reinforced resin, was essentially based on the Lotus 99T from the previous year, with different setup settings. In particular, the car an extremely bad cornering behaviour was changed. A total of four chassis were built. The main sponsor was the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company belonging cigarette brand Camel, according to the team was led in the entry lists of the season races as Camel Team Lotus Honda. In addition, the electronics company Epson and the British textile company Courtaulds advertised on the vehicle.
The Lotus 100T was powered by a 6-cylinder Honda turbo engine of the type RA 168E with a capacity of 1,494 cc. At a speed of about 13,800 rpm, it developed a power of about 670 kW with charge pressure limited to 2.5 bar. Hewland's manual transmission had six forward gears and one reverse gear. The tank was 150 litres. The brake system came from Brembo and the shock absorbers from Bilstein. Due to technical shortcomings, the installation of an active suspension has been omitted. All wheels were suspended individually on double wishbones.
Despite the poor handling characteristics of the Lotus 100T, Nelson Piquet in particular achieved respect. In the Grand Prix of Brazil, San Marino and Australia, he was third in each case. In other races, he drove regularly in the points. Team-mate Satoru Nakajima had major problems with the car due to a lack of driving talent and missed qualifying twice. Overall, the two drivers brought 23 World Championship points for Lotus, which ranged for fourth place in the Manufacturers 'Constructors' Championship., Honda announced its engine contract with Lotus at the end of the year. Team principal Peter Warr , who was mainly responsible for the bad chassis for the failures dismissed Ducarouge and recruited instead Frank Dernie as the new chief designer.
