Six years after the death of the dynamic Colin Chapman, Lotus was now devoid of innovative ideas, and even the Lotus 100T, used by the Camel Team Lotus Honda in the 1988 season, was nothing more than yet another evolution of a design already three years old. From a technical standpoint, the 100T remained virtually unchanged compared to the car used in 1987, although technical director Gérard Ducarouge and his collaborators Martin Ogilvie and Tim Feast slightly revised the nose and rear bodywork.
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| LOTUS 100T, Satoru Nakajima Detroit, United States GP 1988 |
The chassis, however, remained identical to the 1987 version, mainly because the new technical regulations stipulated that for newly designed chassis, the pedals had to be positioned behind the front axle, a rule waived only for cars reusing the previous season’s chassis. Sporting director Peter Warr chose to take advantage of this exemption, keeping the 100T’s monocoque unchanged, though the traditional suspension system made a comeback, abandoning the previously innovative active suspension system. This decision was driven by another regulation that further reduced the maximum turbo boost pressure to 2.5 bar from the previous 4 bar, along with a significant reduction in the maximum allowed fuel for a race, from 195 liters in 1987 to 155 liters in 1988.
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| LOTUS 100T, Nelson Piquet Monza, Italian GP 1988 |
These new limits forced engine manufacturers to reduce turbo engine performance even further, and according to Warr, the power consumption required by the active suspension system, around 40 to 50 hp, and the system's weight of about 25 kg did not justify the advantages offered by electronic suspensions. The engine used by Lotus in 1988 was still the turbocharged Honda V6, updated to the RA168E version, which, due to FIA-imposed restrictions, delivered only 675 hp at 12,300 rpm, about 200 hp less than the previous version. Although the wheelbase of the 100T was slightly lengthened to improve stability, the aging chassis design became increasingly apparent, and without the electronic suspension to compensate for the chassis’s poor rigidity, the 100T proved to be a difficult car to drive at the limit.
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| LOTUS 100T, Satoru Nakajima Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1988 |
It’s also worth mentioning that newcomer Nelson Piquet, reigning World Champion, seemed more interested in his paycheck than performance, perhaps complacent after winning three world titles, while his teammate and Honda-backed driver, Satoru Nakajima, displayed all his limitations by failing to qualify for two races during the season (the only two failures to qualify for a Honda-powered turbo car). To better understand the 100T's difficulties, it's important to note that toward the end of the season, three-time World Champion Jackie Stewart was invited by Peter Warr to a testing session at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk, then Lotus's test track, in hopes of gaining insight to improve the car. The Scotsman identified the chassis’s lack of rigidity and the cramped cockpit as the car’s main flaws, later telling the press that the 100T was one of the worst cars he had ever driven, a statement promptly denied by Warr, who instead praised Stewart and claimed to have finally understood the car's issues.
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| LOTUS 100T, Satoru Nakajima Suzuka, Japanese GP 1988 |
Unsurprisingly, the season was a disappointment, and at the end of the championship, the 100T had collected 23 points (22 of which were scored by Piquet, who also achieved three lower-tier podiums), allowing Lotus to finish fourth in the Constructors' Championship. This result was also aided by the very poor performance of the Judd-powered Williams cars, though Lotus still trailed McLaren, using the same engine, by a staggering 176 points.
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