Lotus Elise GT1 - Development

Development

Lotus Cars had previously been using a racing version of their Lotus Esprit model in the BPR Global GT Series since its foundation in 1994, competing in the premiere GT1 class against the likes of the McLaren F1 GTR, Venturi 600LM, Ferrari F40 GTE, and others. However in 1997 the series became known as the FIA GT Championship, and manufacturer involvement was increased with the new international exposure. Porsche was the first to start a new breed of racing car in 1996, with their purpose-built homologation special known as the 911 GT1. This was quickly followed by announcement that Mercedes-Benz planned to do the same with their CLK-GTR for 1997.

Thus Lotus decided that in order to remain competitive in the GT1 class, let alone be victorious, they would be required to follow the route set forth by Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. However, aware that they lacked the resources available that Porsche and Mercedes had to create not only the race cars but also the production sports cars at a guaranteed loss of money for the company, Lotus decided to take an alternate route. Through interpretation of the rules for FIA GT, Lotus realized they would only need to build a single production car in order to meet homologation requirements. The car would not even need to be sold to a customer, it merely had to be built.

With this in mind, Lotus turned to designing their racing car. Lotus decided to abandon the aged Esprit chassis and instead turn to its new sportscar, the Elise. Mechanically, only the Elise's aluminum chassis was retained for the GT1, although it was heavily modified from its stock form. A new carbon fiber body that resembled the Elise was built, featuring a much longer length in order to increase the car's aerodynamic capabilities.

For an engine, Lotus knew that the Elise's stock straight-4 engine would not be able to compete, and so it was initially decided that the car would use the 3.5L V8 engine out of the old Esprit racing car, attached to a Hewland six-speed sequential gear box. However testing showed that this engine was not as reliable as hoped. After installation in the production road car, the Lotus teams were left to decide whether or not to use the Lotus turbo V8 or opt for a Chevrolet LT5 6.0L V8 engine from the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, a car which Lotus had originally helped to develop when they had been owned by General Motors. Lotus further developed the LT5 by fitting it with a flat-plane crankshaft for the Elise GT1 Race car. With this, seven Elise GT1 racing chassis were built, going to factory teams GT1 Lotus Racing (run by Fabien Giroix's First Racing) as well as privateers GBF UK and Martin Veyhle Racing. The factory GT1 Lotus Racing team would be the only ones to opt for the Chevrolet V8 instead of the Lotus turbo unit.