Lotus 112
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The Lotus 112 was the proposed 1995 Formula One car of Team Lotus.


Conception

The Lotus 112 was Team Lotus' planned entry to the
1995 Formula One season The 1995 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 49th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1995 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1995 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contest ...
. It was a stillborn project conceived by chief designer Chris Murphy throughout their final Formula One campaign in 1994. Originally the designation of Type 112 was to be for the model that became the Lotus Elise. However, that car was given type number 111 instead, in homage to the original Lotus Eleven. As a project little had been confirmed about the car’s final specification. It was rumoured that Lotus were intending to include the promising higher-spec Mugen-Honda ZA5D engine, which had shown great promise at its first outing during the 1994 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. However, in an attempt to reduce the costs associated with an exclusive engine deal Lotus may have had to use a 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 ...
) unit. Team Lotus were planning to retain their final 1994 driver line-up of Alessandro Zanardi and Mika Salo. In appearance the 112 was broadly similar to other Chris Murphy-designed Lotuses. It incorporated a new and distinctive arrow nose and an unusual pushrod arrangement on the front suspension. Despite this radical departure, the car’s construction retained certain characteristic hallmarks. The tub would have been constructed from the traditional Lotus composite of carbon aluminium honeycomb, with the bodyshell being processed out of carbon fibre. Only a few parts of the 112 were ever fabricated before the project was suspended, along with the scale model for wind tunnel testing which was later to be found in the aeronautical engineering department of City University. Wind tunnel tests were promising, with the car producing a lot more downforce compared to the 109. The 112 also passed the mandated FIA crash tests.


Team Lotus demise

On 17 January 1995 new owner David Hunt (younger brother of 1976 world champion
James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...
) was forced to close down Team Lotus in the face of crippling debt and lack of sponsorship for the forthcoming season. The Lotus 112 therefore became the last Team Lotus type designation. David Hunt effectively merged what was left of Team Lotus with
Pacific Grand Prix The Pacific Grand Prix ( ja, パシフィックグランプリ) was a round of the Formula One World Championship twice in the mid-1990s and non-championship events in the 1960s. The non-championship events were held at Laguna Seca from 1960 th ...
with that team renamed Pacific Team Lotus for 1995. The season was unsuccessful with Pacific also going under at the end of the year.


References

{{Reflist
112 112 may refer to: *112 (number), the natural number following 111 and preceding 113 *112 (band), an American R&B quartet from Atlanta, Georgia **112 (album), ''112'' (album), album from the band of the same name *112 (emergency telephone number), t ...
Formula One cars that never raced