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Monday 3 June 2019

Lotus 88B

I photographed this car at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.
It's the controversial 1981 Lotus 88B that never actually started a Grand Prix race. It was created by Colin Chapman and his design team of Tony Rudd, Peter Wright and Martin Ogilvie and effectively had two chassis to take advantage of the downforce produced by ground effects cars, and was powered by the 2,993cc V8 Cosworth DFV engine. The other F1 teams queried the legality of this twin chassis layout and for the first three Grands Prix of the 1981 season the original Lotus 88 passed scrutineering but was then not allowed to take part in the races. Minor changes were made to the car before the British Grand Prix to create the Lotus 88B, but the car was not even allowed to be presented for scrutineering. You can read the full story of the car in this auto123.com article.

On 18 January 2017 I showed a photograph of this car at the 1995 Coys meeting at Silverstone.

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