The Lotus 107 was a Formula One car used by

Team Lotus Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar, and sports car racing. More ...

. Designed for the

1992 Formula One season The 1992 Formula One World Championship was the 46th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1992 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1992 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested ...

, and used throughout most of 1992,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

and part of

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, it brought in a final, short-lived period of competitiveness for the team in

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

Design

The 107 is attributed to the design work of Chris Murphy and his design team. Murphy joined Lotus after Akira Akagi's arrest and the

Leyton House Leyton House Racing was a Formula One List of Formula One constructors, constructor that raced in the 1990 Formula One season, 1990 and 1991 Formula One season, 1991 seasons. It was, in essence, a rebranding of the March Engineering, March team ...

team he owned was thrown into turmoil. Murphy had designed the 1991 car; the 107 looked very similar to his earlier design leading some to say that the new Lotus was simply a rebadged Leyton House. After several seasons spent perfecting the system, the 107 was fitted with

active suspension An active suspension is a type of automotive suspension on a vehicle. It uses an onboard system to control the vertical movement of the vehicle's wheels relative to the chassis or vehicle body rather than the passive suspension provided by large sp ...

, pioneered by Lotus ten years before. Unquestionably beautiful the 107 had smooth sweeping lines a world away from the long developed and antiquated

Lotus 102 The Lotus 102 was a Formula One racing car designed by Lotus for use in the 1990 Formula One season and would eventually go on to compete in 37 races spanning three seasons from until . Development Using the 101 as its basis Frank Dernie inco ...

D whose heritage can be traced to the

1990 Formula One Season The 1990 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 44th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1990 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1990 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were conteste ...

. The installation of the Ford

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

HB V8 engines, of a similar - if older - specification to those being used by Benetton, was complete by the unveiling of the car at the

1992 San Marino Grand Prix The 1992 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the XII Gran Premio Iceberg di San Marino) was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 17 May 1992. It was the fifth race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship. The 60-lap race was won from pole pos ...

. Johnny Herbert liked the car very much, saying it was sublime to drive and responsive to set up changes, but admitted it was not reliable.

Development

With a top notch driving squad of Johnny Herbert and a future double F1 World Champion Mika Häkkinen, the Lotuses were able to bring in some good results: at several races the twin cars were able to run in formation on the tail of the leading pack, at least in the early parts of the races. Reliability was limited. Häkkinen provided Lotus' best showing for several years at the

Hungarian Grand Prix The Hungarian Grand Prix ( hu, Magyar Nagydíj) is a motor racing event held annually in Mogyoród. Since 1986, the race has been a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship. History Origins The first Hungarian Grand Prix was held on 21 ...

where he diced for the final podium position with Gerhard Berger's McLaren. In Portugal he ran as high as second before having to pit for new tyres late in the race. A further potential podium place in Japan was also lost.

Variants

The car was developed over succeeding seasons into B and C variants, the latter with Mugen-Honda power in place of the Cosworth. As was standard practice at the time, the team employed the active suspension technology that they had introduced to F1 back in 1987 on later variants, but the budget was not enough to make it really work, and besides, it was now far from being a unique capability. According to Alex Zanardi's autobiography ''My Story'', the focus on this system was to the detriment of other aspects of the car. The team's financial difficulties dragged it under at the end of 1994. The Lotus 109, the last Formula One car of the team, which ran in the latter part of 1994, was a further derivative of this design.

Complete Formula One results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) *2 points scored in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

with the Lotus 102D

References

{{F1 cars 1994 1992 Formula One season cars 1993 Formula One season cars 1994 Formula One season cars

107 107 may refer to: *107 (number), the number *AD 107, a year in the 2nd century AD *107 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *107 (New Jersey bus) See also *10/7 (disambiguation) *Bohrium Bohrium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Bh a ...