Top Six Worse Lotus Race Cars ever!

Its been sixty years since the debut of Lotus entering in the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in 1955 with the Lotus Mark IX. With Lotus's history there was some great racing cars in their history (their will be a post on Top Ten Great Lotus Race Cars next week). But, in their history their were some bad race cars in Lotus History. And as you can guess this post is the Top Six Worse Lotus Race Cars ever.



Starting with number 6:

Number 6: 1988 Lotus 100T
Story: Lotus 100T was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Martin Ogilvie, Lotus 100T had the Honda 1.5 litre V6 turbo engine underneath, but unlike it's predecessor the 100T wasn't fitted with electronic active suspension, because of less power from the Honda turbo in the 1988 due to Bar limited from the turbo from 4.0 in 1987 to 2.5 in 1988. Despite all this, Nelson Piquet took three third place finishes with the 100T in 1988, overall the Lotus 100T took Lotus to fourth place in the Constructors standings in 1988 with just 22 points. The Lotus 100T was a slow and unreliable car compared to the all dominating McLaren MP4/4 in 1988 which won fifteen out of sixteen races, despite both having the same engine for 1988.





Number 5: 2014 Lotus E22
Story: Lotus E22 was designed by Nick Chester, the Lotus E22 was powered by 1.6 litre Renault turbo V6 power unit engine underneath. The car was very unreliable and underpowered in 2014 with only managed to score just 10 points, with best results from Romain Grosjean with two eighth place finished at Barcelona and Monaco, to give Lotus only eighth place in the constructors championship last season.



Number 4: 1989 Lotus 101
Story: Lotus 101 was designed by Frank Dernie and Mike Coughlan. The Lotus 101 was powered by the 3.5 litre V8 Judd engine. The Lotus 101 was a very unreliable and underpowered in 1989, with only managed to score just 15 points, with best results from Nelson Piquet with three forth place finishes at Montreal, Silverstone and Suzuka, and Satoru Nakajima getting a forth place finish in Adelaide. Worse still, both drivers failed to qualify for the 1989 Belgium Grand Prix at Spa, the first time in the Lotus team's history that neither of its cars had qualified. Overall the Lotus 101 took Lotus to sixth in the Constructors' championship that season in 1989.



Number 3: 1958-1960 Lotus 16
Story: Lotus 16 was designed by Colin Chapman, the Lotus 16 had the 1.5 litre 4-cylinder Coventry Climax FPF engine underneath. To give Lotus only 0 points in 1958 to give them 3 points (the other points came from the old Lotus 12) and sixth place in the constructors championship in 1958. While in 1959 season the Lotus 16 took Lotus to forth place in the constructors championship and only 5 points. The car wasn't fast, and was a very unreliable race car as-well despite it had the talents of Innes Ireland and Graham Hill behind the wheel.



Number 2: 1997 Lotus Elise GT1 (Lotus 115)
Story: Designed for purpose-built homologation rules in the FIA GT Championship. Lotus created the Lotus Elise GT1 for 1997, run by Lotus Racing was powered by the Chevrolet 5.7-litre LT5 V8 engine, which came from the C4 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 that Lotus helped develop when they were under the GM umbrella. And with the likes of Porsche, Mercedes and McLaren BMW developing their own GT1 race cars. And with a much less budget from the team compared to likes of Porsche and Mercedes. The Lotus Elise GT1 was quite frankly a very unreliable and not so fast car. Never finished well in the FIA GT Championship season back in 1997, managing only 2 points that season. And even one Lotus Elise GT1 was entered in that years 24 Hours of Le Mans which the car failed to finished. Which basically the Lotus Elise GT1 will be possibly the worse Lotus endurance race car ever but not the worse Lotus race car ever.





That's next, number 1 is.

Number 1: 1990-92 Lotus 102
Story: Lotus 102 designed by Frank Dernie, the Lotus 102 was powered by the 3.5 litre V12 Lamborghini engine in 1990. Team Lotus' manager confidently predicted that the team would score 40 championship points in 1990, unfortunately that prediction was wrong. The Lotus 102 managed to score just 3 points in 1990, with best results from Derek Warwick with a fifth place finished at the Hungaroring, to give Lotus a eighth place finish in the constructors' championship in 1990.



But that don't stop there. The 102 ultimately saw the end of Martin Donnelly's brief F1 career in a crash which almost cost him his life. During qualifying for the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, Donnelly had a horrific crash during Friday practice when he left the circuit in the fast right hand turn behind the pits and the car hit the barriers at speed. The 102 broke in half and the seat of the car broke free and was flung clear of the wreck with Martin still strapped in. Donnelly, who ended up laying in the middle of the track, received serious injuries that took months of recovery. Two races previous in Italy, Warwick also had a monumental crash on the first lap of the race at Monza when he ran wide on the exit to the Parabolica and clouted the barriers at speed. Despite the car overturning and sliding down the middle of the circuit upside down, Warwick was thankfully unharmed. He climbed out of his car (which was avoided by following cars), ran back to the pits and started the race in the spare car.



Overall the car was too slow and the engines from Lamborghini were completely unreliable, which ultimately cost the team its Camel sponsorship and almost cost the team its existence. Fortunately in December 1990, a consortium from previous Lotus designers which bought the team from the Chapman family. Due to the lateness of the takeover the team were unable to start the season with sufficient sponsorship. In addition, the planned introduction of Lotus 103 was cancelled, the team instead opting to developed the Lotus 102 to the Lotus 102B for 1991.



And so the Lotus 102B didn't had the 3.5 litre V12 Lamborghini engine. But instead used the 3.5 litre V8 Judd engine. As for the Lotus 102B, that wasn't successful either Lotus 102B managed to score just again only 3 points in 1991, with best results coming from Mika Häkkinen with a fifth place finished at Imola, to give Lotus a ninth place finish in the constructors' championship in 1991.

While there was a Lotus 102C with a 3.5 litre V12 Izuzu engine that Lotus tried with the engine never raced in F1. While the new Lotus 107 wasn't ready for the start of 1992 F1 season. Therefore, the Lotus 102 continue to race into 1992 as the Lotus 102D, this time with a 3.5 litre Cosworth HB V8 engine underneath. The Lotus 102D only give Lotus only 2 points in 1992 to give them 15 points (the rest with the all new Lotus 107). Overall, the Lotus 102 scored 8 points within two and a bit seasons in Formula 1. The car wasn't fast, didn't qualified a dozen times in that period and finally in which engine it had in it, the car was a very unreliable race car as-well despite it had Mika Häkkinen, Johnny Herbert and Derek Warwick behind the wheel.



To give the 1990-92 Lotus 102 the worse Lotus race cars ever!

End of blog for now, new post soon. Bye.