Esprit GT1




The Lotus Type 114 Esprit GT1 was developed by ex members of the Team Lotus F1 team, then as part of the Lotus GT1 Engineering Group, to compete in the GT1 class in the 1996 BPR International Endurance GT Series  


This allowed the team to use the newly developed Lotus 3.5 litre type 918 V8 engine, which was tuned with a single large turbocharger and chargecooler to produce 550 bhp with the mandatory dual 31.5mm inlet restrictors
The V8 was mated to a 6 speed Hewland TGT200 sequential manual gearbox.





 The GT1 used a complete carbon fibre  Esprit S4 body with its steel backbone chassis, with added rigidity from the addiion of a tubular steel roll-cage, giving a final weight of a little over 900 kg

Front suspension consisted of upper and lower wishbones with both upper and lower trailing arms, coupled with lateral links - Penske triple adjustable dampers were used on all four corners






The video on the right shows the Esprit GT1 in round 3 of the BPR Endurance Series in Jarama, Spain














The video on the left shows the Lotus Esprit GT1 V8 competeting well against the opposition of Mclaren F1 V12s at the BPR 4 Hours of Nürburgring... until a little fire intervened











The magazine article below features the Esprit GT1 in some detail at about thr time of its launch










Below, the Esprit GT1 shows its raw pace overhauling a Porsche 911 GT2 at the BPR 4 Hours of Anderstorp, before spinning






By the time of the 4th Round of the 1996 BPR 4 Hours of Silverstone, Lotus Racing Team had got the reliability right and the 3.5 litre Esprit V8 GT1 ahchieved a well earned 2nd place at the hands of Jan Lammers and Perry McCarthy, beating several 6.1 litre McLaren F1 GTRs and Ferrari F40s, as in the video below



Elise GT1








The Lotus Type 115 Elise GT1 was developed in 1997 for sports GT racing using a design exercise around the chassis of the production Lotus Elise road car and a carbon fibre body

Seven race chassis/cars were produced, with privateer teams using the Lotus V8 Lotus 3.5litre twin turbo V8 engine from the earlier Esprit GT1 race program with a 6-speed sequential transmission

Although the FIA rules still enforced the use of inlet air restrictors, two of 31.5 mm for the Elise GT1 as with the Esprit GT1, the Lotus 918 V8 still produced 550 bhp









The video on the right shows the Elise GT1 being tested at the Lotus Hethel test track in 1997

The Lotus race team actually chose to not use their own engine but opted for the GM 6 litre LT5 V8 because of a rule change by the FIA, which mandated smaller air inlet restrictors for turbocharged engines in 1997 and reduced the 918 engine power by over 100 bhp



The normally aspirated four valve, twin cam per bank LT5, which Lotus had helped General Motors develop for the Corvette, was allowed to run two larger restrictors of 36.8 mm and therefore more power


Bitter GT1 team purchased two Elise GT1 chassis and campaigned them in 1998 using 8litre Chrysler Viper V10 engine with a 6-speed sequential transmission

























There was also one Elise GT1 road car poduced with the Lotus 918 V8 engine, shown below






Click on the smaller photos above for shots that I took of this car at a Donnington Club Lotus meeting