The bankruptcy declared by Gérard Larrousse in July 1991, with the sale of part of his team to the Japanese group Central Park, which allowed the French team to complete the season, left heavy consequences heading into the 1992 season. With the breakdown of partnerships with chassis supplier Lola and engine builder Brian Hart, who had prepared the Ford-Cosworth V8s for Larrousse, the small French team found itself without a chassis and engine, practically without a car to enter the championship. A sudden and unexpected lifeline came thanks to Gérard Godefroy and Claude Poiraud, founders eight years earlier of the small French sports car manufacturer MVS (Manufacture de Voitures de Sport), later renamed Venturi, based in Couëron near Nantes.
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| VENTURI LC92, Bertrand Gachot Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1992 |
Venturi acquired 65% of the Larrousse team, renamed it Central Park Venturi Larrousse, and took control with the goal of establishing a long-term presence in Formula 1. According to the Venturi founders, the brand visibility gained from participating in Formula 1 would serve as a launchpad for future production of road-going sports cars, which was intended to become the company's main business. An operational headquarters was set up in Toulon, while the single-seater project was entrusted to the English atelier "Fomet" led by Robin Herd, who had already worked with Fondmetal in 1991. Herd had on his desk a project already in progress for what was meant to be the 1992 version of the Fondmetal Fomet 2, but the end of the collaboration with the Brescia-based team allowed him to repurpose the project for the Venturi LC92.
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| VENTURI LC92, Ukio Katayama Monza, Italian GP 1992 |
To design the new single-seater, French engineer Michel Tétu was also brought in. He was a historic designer of the Renault-Turbo cars in the late '70s and early '80s and later worked with Ligier in the second half of the '80s, along with aerodynamic engineer Tino Belli. The new LC92 featured smooth lines with a raised, sharply pointed nose under which sat a full-width front wing supported by two small pillars. The sidepods had a violin-box shape with a strongly tapered rear end, and the bodywork fully covered the engine and gearbox. After the break with engine supplier Brian Hart, Venturi returned to using the Lamborghini 3512 V12 engine, which had already powered the Larrousse cars in 1989 and 1990, paired with a semi-automatic gearbox designed by Fomet. Suspension units were supplied by German firm Eibach, and the suspension system used the classic push-rod configuration.
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| VENTURI LC92, Bertrand Gachot Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexican GP 1992 |
To drive the new LC92, the team confirmed Frenchman Bertrand Gachot and paired him with Japanese rookie Ukyo Katayama, who was strongly supported by Central Park. Unfortunately for them, the car proved to be far below expectations, with only modest performance. In qualifying, the two LC92s rarely made it beyond the lower half of the grid, and in races they rarely saw the checkered flag, exposing serious reliability issues. Only on 10 occasions did the cars reach the finish line, with a points-scoring result coming in Monaco where Gachot finished sixth, securing the team’s only point of the 1992 season. The lack of results made it clear to Godefroy and Poiraud that the substantial capital investment needed to run a competitive Formula 1 team was far beyond the company’s means. The two partners left the team in November, after offering their shares to the Comstock company of Rainer Walldorf. However, this deal collapsed when it was discovered that Walldorf was actually Klaus Walz, a wanted criminal who was later killed in a shootout with the police. Thus, like a meteor, Venturi appeared and disappeared from the top tier of motorsport within a single season.
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| VENTURI LC92, Ukio Katayama Montréal, Canadian GP 1992 |
However, the Venturi brand continued as a manufacturer of sports cars until 2001, when it declared bankruptcy and was acquired by Monegasque entrepreneur Gildo Pallanca Pastor, who moved the company's legal headquarters to the Principality of Monaco and transformed the business to focus exclusively on the design and development of electric vehicles. Although it is not currently producing any cars, the Venturi brand returned to competition from 2013 to 2022 by participating in the Formula E World Championship.
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