Here we have a Lotus 98T.
97T-3 by
David Freeman, on Flickr
97T-2 by
David Freeman, on Flickr
97T-1 by
David Freeman, on Flickr
The Lotus 98T was a Formula One car designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Martin Ogilvie and built by Team Lotus for use in the 1986 Formula One World Championship. Development of the previous year's 97T, the car was raced by Brazilian Ayrton Senna, in his second year with the team, and Scottish newcomer Johnny Dumfries.
The chassis featured a lower monocoque than the 97T as a result of a regulation change stipulating a reduction in fuel capacity to 195 litres. The powertrain consisted of the new Renault EF15B turbocharged V6 engine, driving through a six-speed, manual transmission by Hewland.
The EF15B was to appear in two forms, the standard engine and the "D.P." engine which featured pneumatic valve springs for the first time. At the end of the season Renault introduced the revised EF15C which in addition to the D.P. valve gear also boasted common rail fuel injection and much-revised water cooling through the cylinder head reducing the likelihood of pre-ignition (detonation). Power figures for this period of F1 history are largely speculative as most engine manufactures freely admitted that their testbeds would not have a sufficient power rating to measure the 1.5-litre turbo's output at above 14-bar boost. It is claimed that the Renault EF15B in its pinnacle increment was claimed to produce in excess of 2000 HP at unrestricted boost pressure, thus making it one of the most powerful engines ever used in Formula 1 history.
This was, however, during qualifying, where teams used unrestricted boost pressures for maximum power output, and for very quick lap times. These unrestricted engines were very unreliable,and would only last about a couple of clean laps. Therefore, the 98T produced around 1500 HP in race trim. The 98T was also the final Lotus powered by a Renault engine, as Lotus switched to Honda for the following year/season.
The gearbox came in two variants, a conventional five-speed, and a new six-speed. The six-speed was very much a development gearbox and was largely unreliable. While Senna opted to run only with the five-speed, Dumfries was tasked with testing the six-speed. Both gearboxes featured Hewland internals within a Lotus designed casing.
Other notable innovations of the 98T included a two-stage ride height adjustment, water injection through the intercoolers, an early form of barge board (also present on the 97T), and an advanced (for the time) fuel consumption microcomputer.
This car is not available in kit (that I'm aware) and is actually a modified Tamiya Lotus 99T - which would look like this:
99-1 by
David Freeman, on Flickr
99-2 by
David Freeman, on Flickr
Part of the upper body has been filled with putty to change the contour, the Turbo inlets have beem moved, and the whole in the top relocated. The front of the cockpit has been levelled off - I need to make a windscreen for it.
