The Lotus 100T is one of the Lotus entries the open record knows by name, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable. Gérard Ducarouge (Technical Director) / Martin Ogilvie (Chief Designer) / Mike Coughlan (Assistant Chief Designer) / Tim Feast (Chief Engineer) / Osamu Goto (Chief Engine Designer drew it.
How it came about
The Lotus 100T is a Formula One car designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Martin Ogilvie for Team Lotus, and used in the 1988 Formula One World Championship. The 100T was an update of the previous Lotus 99T model; technically the car was virtually unchanged, except for the ditching of the active suspension for a conventional setup, and a redesigned nose and rear bodywork.
The car was powered by the same, 640 bhp (477 kW; 649 PS), 1.5L turbocharged Honda V6 engine that powered the McLaren team to 15 wins in 16 races in 1988. The car was driven by reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet, and Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima.
The hardware
640-675 hp @ 12,300 rpm is the published figure. It weighs 540 kg. Work it out per tonne and you get about 1185 horsepower — hypercar territory, where the limiting factor is the tyre, not the engine. The wheelbase is 2776 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Lotus 99T; its successor was the Lotus 101. Its Lotus stablemates include the Lotus 101 and the Lotus 102.