Lotus 88

Active: 1981 - 1981 Team: Team Lotus

Team: Essex Lotus
Designer: Colin Chapman

From 1981 on, the FIA forbade movable skirts at the side of the car, and thus seriously limiting the ground effect of cars drastically. Steady skirts 60mm from the ground, were the only alternative. As this reduced cornering speed, all teams were looking for replacements and new things to make this disadvantage melt away.

After the revolutionary lotus 86 was conceived back to end 1979 at the time when the last attempt to cure the type 80 failed. While the 80 could create massive ground effect, the car became unbalanced as the ground effect was sensitive to movements of the car and altered during braking, acceleration and cornering. The trick was to maintain ride height all over the track At the time could this only be done by fitting really stiff springs in the suspension, though this would make the car nearly undrivable, as it would equal a car without any suspension at all. Lotus boss and designer Colin Chapman, already legendary at that time, believed the solution was to eliminate the aerodynamic and suspension loads exerted on the chassis. That's why the Lotus 88 was built, a car which by careful (yet legal) manipulation of the rulebook, featured two chassis!

Basically, the car consisted of a primary chassis that carried the aerodynamic bodywork, side pods, skirts and wings. The secondary chassis carried the wheels, tub and engine. The inner, primary chassis was relatively soft sprung, which allowed the driver to be in quite a comfortable position, as he would not feel all those harsh bumps. The outer chassis, thus lighter one, although it had to cope with the downforce created aerodynamically, was attached to the uprights (where brake blocks and wheel axis are located) by an extremely stiff coil spring damper arrangement.

The car appeared at Long Beach and was declared illegal and disqualified - by means of a black flag - during the middle of the Saturday practice sessions. Despite the fact that the scrutineers had declared the car legal, rival teams had protested and the car was destined never to compete in a Grand Prix. The FIA motivated that the second chassis was actually an aerodynamic device that acted directly on the wheel uprights, a feature that had been banned to improve the safety of fitting aerofoils onto cars. Despite the protests of Lotus the car never raced in a Grand Prix.

Elio De Angelis (driver for Lotus in 1981, with Nigel Mansell) - Grand Prix International, by Mike Doodson
Q: Now that you have driven the secret new Lotus, what do you think of its chances in 1981?
"To be perfectly honest, it's not working yet. But I am hopeful that it will make a big improvement when we have done some more work."

After
the ban at Long Beach, Colin Chapman threatens to pull Lotus out of Formula One and boycotts the new San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. When the teams arrived at Imola for the first San Marino GP (temporarely replacing Monza because it was modernizing), one of the sport's most legendary names was missing. Chapman afterwards had taken his Lotus 88 to the Brazilian and Argentinean rounds only to have it banned. He argued that the rule-makers, with their lack of vision, were destroying what was meant to be the pinnacle of motorsport. Balestre therefore fined him $100,000, however this was later cancelled after pressure from the same rival teams who had protested the car's legality in the first place.

So it was, that the 1981 San Marino GP marked the first time that a Grand Prix did not see a Lotus at the start since Monaco 1958. A little over a year later Chapman died of a heart attack and it's widely believed that following the '88 issue' the Lotus genius never saw the sport in quite the same light again.

This is a picture of a windtunnel model for the Lotus 88. Colin Chapman designed the Lotus 88 to race in the 1981 formula 1 championship. The theory behind the was to reduce the buffeting to which the driver of a formula 1 car had become accustomed since the introduction of ground effect cars, again pioneered by Chapman, in 1977. The car comprised a twin chassis, the first held the wheels, suspension, undertray and engine etc. the second held the bodywork and the driver. The two were linked by a soft set of springs mounted on the suspension. It was hoped that this would lead to improved comfort for the driver. However, the FIA (formula 1's governing body) ruled that the second chassis constituted an aerodynamic device that acted directly on the wheel uprights, a feature that had been banned to improve the safety of fitting aerofoils onto cars. Despite the protests of Lotus the car never raced in a Grand Prix.