Lotus Honda 99T

LOTUS HONDA 99T

A new era had begun for Team Lotus for the 1987 Grand Prix season. The tradtional elegant John Player Special livery had disappeared and had been replaced by US-American cigarette brand Camel. Team Lotus had also changed their engine supplier. Had they relied on engines from French turbo pioneer Renault from 1983 to 1986, for 1987 they had switched to Japanese Honda units. Honda had returned to Grand Prix racing with the small Spirit team back in 1983, but they had switched to Williams before that year´s last championship round held at South African Kyalami. In the years of 1984 to 1986 Honda had made enormous progress with their turbocharged V6 engines becoming stronger and stronger. So they had decided to supply a second top level team with that unit, but they insisted on their fellow countryman Satoru Nakajima becoming number 2 driver. That was no real problem for Team Lotus. They sacked their second driver Johnny Dumfries, a Scottish earl, to replace him by the Japanese. Ayrton Senna remained in the team as their leader. French engineer Gerard Ducarouge, who had been at Matra, Ligier and Alfa Romeo before he had joined Team Lotus in the middle of 1983, once again had designed a very competitive Lotus chassis for the use of the Honda V6. In spite the 99T looked very similar to it´s Renault powered predecessors, the car was completely new. It also had got active ride suspension, a system once had been invented by Colin Chapman and Peter Wright. 1987 became a very good season for Camel Team Lotus. Senna won two Grand Prix, the United States round at Detroit and the Monaco round held at Monte Carlo, and he finished 3rd in the drivers´worldchampionship behind the Williams Honda drivers Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. Lotus also scored the 3rd position in the constructor´s worldchampionship behind Williams Honda and McLaren TAG.

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Year: 1987 Model Designation: Lotus Honda 99T Designer: Gerard Ducarouge Tean Manager: Peter Warr Chassis: Lotus Carbon Fibre Monocoque Engine: Honda 1.5 Litre V6 with Twin-Turbocharger Gearbox: Lotus/Hewland 5 Speed Manual Tyres: Goodyear Fuels & Oils: elf Sponsors: Camel (Cigarettes), De Longhi (Electrical Appliances) Drivers: Ayrton Senna/BR, Satoru Nakjima/J

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