<< Prev Page 2 of 2 During the winter the development continued and the Type 87 design evolved into the Type 91. Fitted with a cleaner body, it was lighter still; the composite tub, for example, only weighed 18 kg. Like most Cosworth-engined cars that year, the 91 featured water-cooled brakes. The trick behind this seemingly excess weight was that the rules specified that the fluids could be topped up before the cars were weighed. So, not surprisingly, the drivers used the brake-coolant very early in the race.
With an unchanged driver line-up Team Lotus entered what would be the last season for Colin Chapman. The one-year gestation period showed as De Angelis won the Austrian Grand Prix in the Type 91. The lack of power from the naturally aspirated engine did show and further victories eluded Lotus in 1982. For the next season a supply of turbocharged Renault engines were secured. While the new Type 93T was readied a flat-bottomed version of the 91 was raced as the Type 92 in the first races of 1983.
Although not particularly successful, certainly by Lotus' standards, the Type 87 and subsequent Type 91 do hold some distinctions; together with the McLaren MP4, it pioneered composite chassis in Formula 1 and Elio de Angelis' Austrian Grand Prix victory was Lotus' last before Chapman's untimely death. << Prev Page 2 of 2
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During the winter the development continued and the Type 87 design evolved into the Type 91. Fitted with a cleaner body, it was lighter still; the composite tub, for example, only weighed 18 kg. Like most Cosworth-engined cars that year, the 91 featured water-cooled brakes. The trick behind this seemingly excess weight was that the rules specified that the fluids could be topped up before the cars were weighed. So, not surprisingly, the drivers used the brake-coolant very early in the race.