Racing History
Debuting at the first round of the 1997 FIA GT Championship season, the three factory Elise GT1s took to the grid. Unfortunately, their debut was short lived, as all three cars failed to finish, all due to alternator problems in the engine. For race two, privateer GBF UK received their two cars. Again the three factory cars suffered, failing to finish because of gearbox difficulty. GBF's Elise GT1s fared slightly better, with one of their entries actually finishing, although classified last and 25 laps down from the winner.
The third race of the season in Helsinki was a shorter race, featuring a smaller field. Only three Elise GT1s were entered, but GBF was able to succeed in taking 5th place, earning them points in the championship. The other two Elise GT1s also finished the race as well, an improvement for the company.
However as the season progressed, the teams began to suffer. After Helsinki was the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in which only a lone GT1 was entered due to concern over the car's ability to last 24 hours. The car unfortunately did fail due to an oil leak after 121 laps. Returning to FIA at the Nürburgring, the full team managed to muster only 11th place, while at Spa they achieved 8th, but at Zeltweg all five cars failed to finish again. The teams did not attempt the Suzuka round, and again could only earn 12th place at Donington and 11th at Mugello when the series returned to Europe. The final two races in the United States saw only the factory team bring two cars, in which they managed a 13th and 9th place finish. The factory squad ended the season without any points, while GBF's points finish at Helsinki earned them 8th place in the championship.
Following the 1997 season, Lotus and its parent company, Proton, decided that the GT1 was not only lacking in pace in comparison to Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and the older McLarens, but that it was also extremely expensive. The Chevrolet V8 was not a custom built race engine like its competitors leaving it lacking in top speed while the Lotus turbo V8 was faring even worse. The chassis was also too similar to a production car to compete with the exotic designs of other machines. The project was therefore cancelled and the factory team folded. The privateer teams also either folded or bought more capable machines.
Miraculously, in 2003 British squad Team Elite announced plans to purchase Elise GT1 chassis #05 and to use in the 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2004 as a closed cockpit Le Mans prototype. This was similar to a plan by Panoz and French squad Larbre Compétition to use a Panoz Esperante GTR-1, a car which had originally competed with the Elise GT1 in FIA GT in 1997, as a closed cockpit prototype as well. The Elise would be modified to meet modern regulations as well as to attempt to bring the seven year old car up to speed. Unfortunately at Sebring the car proved its age, lasting a mere seven laps before its transmission failed. The project was promptly cancelled.
Read more about this topic: Lotus Elise GT1
Famous quotes containing the words racing and/or history:
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)