Lotus 93T

Lotus 93T

Constructor:	lotus
Designer:	Colin Chapman Tony Rudd Peter Wright Martin Ogilvie
Predecessor:	Lotus 92
Successor:	Lotus 94T
Technical specifications
Chassis:	Monocoque made of fiber composite material
Length:	4240 mm
Width:	2150 mm
Height:	1003 mm
Wheelbase:	2667 mm
Weight:	540 kg
Tires:	Pirelli
Petrol:	Eleven
statistics
Driver:	Elio de Angelis Nigel Mansell
First start:	US Grand Prix West 1983
Last start:	Grand Prix of Germany 1983
Starts Victories Poles SR 8th - - -
World Cup points:	-
Podiums:	-
Leadership laps:	-

The Lotus 93T was a Formula 1 racing car from the British racing team Lotus , which was used in the 1983 Formula 1 season . It was also the team's first vehicle with a turbo engine.

Technical specifications

Team boss Colin Chapman had worked intensively on the Lotus 93T until his death on December 16, 1982. The vehicle was then developed to the end by the three Lotus engineers Tony Rudd , Peter Wright and Martin Ogilvie and presented to the public in London on February 8, 1983 . The following day, the Lotus 93T completed its first test drives on the Paul Ricard Circuit and was immediately faster than the competition from Renault . However, the racing car lacked enough downforce on the rear axle, which ultimately caused poor driving behavior. In addition, the vehicle was too heavy.

The monocoque of the chassis consisted of synthetic resin , which with carbon and aramid fibers was reinforced. External peculiarities of the Lotus 93T were its elongated side boxes, in which the oil and water coolers were housed, as well as a very high running engine cover. The wheels were individually suspended on double wishbones , the front wheel carriers were made of a magnesium alloy, the rear ones made of steel. A hydraulically assisted suspension was planned, but was not used in the race due to technical inadequacies. The car had disc brakes on the front wheels, each with one AP brake caliper, and two brake calipers on the rear wheels. The driver could change the vehicle's braking balance from the cockpit during the race. The shock absorbers were supplied by Koni . The wheels came from Gotti, the tires in the dimensions 15 × 11 inches (front) and 13 × 17 inches (rear) from Pirelli.

The Lotus 93T was powered by a Renault turbo engine of the type EV1. It weighed 170 kg, was water-cooled, had six cylinders in a V-arrangement with a cylinder bank angle of 90 ° and a displacement of 1492 cm³. With boost pressure limited to 3.0 bar, the engine developed a maximum of around 650 hp (470 kW) at a speed of around 12,000 rpm. The engine electronics came from Magneti Marelli and the injection system from Bosch. The manually shiftable, longitudinally installed Lotus- Hewland transmission had five forward gears and one reverse gear. It was another weak point of the vehicle. The two-disc dry clutch was 18.4 cm in diameter and was purchased from AP. The vehicle's tank held 240 liters.

sponsor

The main sponsor was the tobacco company with the cigarette brand John Player Special , which is why the vehicle was black with gold applications.

Season course

The Lotus 93T was mainly driven by Elio de Angelis in the first half of the season and proved to be uncompetitive due to the problems mentioned. In particular, engine defects and gearbox damage often prevented better placements, so that further development of the vehicle in favor of the Lotus 94T was stopped early. This type of car was last used on the occasion of the German Grand Prix . Nigel Mansell's race ended after just one lap with a leak in the cooling system.

In qualifying, however, De Angelis was occasionally successful. He was able to qualify for 5th place on the grid when he was first used in Long Beach , as well as in the subsequent race in Le Castellet . After that the performance decreased, but at the race in Detroit he achieved the best result of the vehicle with starting position 4.

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	Points	rank
1983 Formula 1 season																	(11)	(8th.)
E. de Angelis	11		DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	9	DNF	DNF
N. Mansell	12										DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

literature

• Jean-François Krause: Vehicle data sheet : Lotus 93T-Renault V6. Not easy enough! In: The large Formula 1 archive , Weltbild Verlag Augsburg, o. P.
• Anthony Pritchard: Lotus: The Competition Cars-All the Racing Type Numbers from 1947 to the Modern Era , Haynes Publishing Sparkford 2006, ISBN 978-1-84425-006-6 , p. 184.
• Ulrich Schwab: Grand Prix. The races for the 1983 Automobile World Championship , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 978-3-87943-959-1 , p. 41.

Web links

Commons : Lotus 93T  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files