Conception

The Lotus 112 was Team Lotus

Team Lotus

Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport series including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar and sports car racing...

' planned entry to the 1995 Grand Prix season. It was a stillborn project conceived by chief designer Chris Murphy throughout their final Formula One

Formula One

Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

 campaign in 1994. Originally, type 112 was to be the designation for the model that became the Lotus Elise

Lotus Elise

The 1996 Lotus Elise weighed . Because of its relatively low weight, it was able to accelerate 0- in 5.8 seconds despite its relatively low power output of...

. However, that car was given type number 111 instead, in homage to the original Lotus Eleven

Lotus Eleven

The Lotus Eleven was a racing car built in various versions by Lotus from 1956 until 1958. The later versions built in 1958 are sometimes referred to as Lotus 13, although this was not an official designation...

.

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

Italian Grand Prix

The Italian Grand Prix is one of the longest running events on the motor racing calendar. The first Italian Grand Prix motor racing championship took place on 4 September 1921 at Brescia...

 at Monza. Johnny Herbert

Johnny Herbert

John Paul Herbert is a British racing driver from England. He competed in Formula One, winning three races, and also in sports cars winning the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1991 driving a Mazda 787B...

 had qualified his car 4th on the grid before being shunted by a late braking Eddie Irvine

Eddie Irvine

Edmund "Eddie" Irvine, Jr. is a former racing driver from Northern Ireland. He grew up in Conlig, County Down, and was influenced by his parents, who were also involved in motor racing...

 at the Rettifilio. However, in an attempt to reduce the costs associated with an exclusive engine deal Lotus may have had to use a Ford

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 (Cosworth

Cosworth

Cosworth is a high performance engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in engines and electronics for automobile racing , mainstream automotive and defence industries...

) unit.

Team Lotus were also planning to retain their final 1994 driver line-up of Alex Zanardi

Alex Zanardi

Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi is an Italian racing driver and paracyclist.He won two CART championship titles in North America during the late 1990s. He also had a less successful career as a Formula One driver...

 and Mika Salo

Mika Salo

Mika Juhani Salo is a Finnish racing driver. He competed in Formula One between and . His best ranking was 10th in the world championship in 1999. He also won the GT2 class in the 2008 and 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans....

.

In appearance the 112 was broadly similar to other Chris Murphy designed Lotuses. It did, though, incorporate 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.

Team Lotus demise & impact on the 112

On 17 January 1995, new owner David Hunt (younger brother of 1976 world champion James

James Hunt

James Simon Wallis Hunt was a British racing driver from England who won the Formula One World Championship in . Hunt's often action packed exploits on track earned him the nickname "Hunt the Shunt." After retiring from driving, Hunt became a media commentator and businessman...

) 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 Formula One chassis to be designed by the legendary Team Lotus.