Lotus 108

The Lotus 108, also called the Lotus Type 108 and first sold as the LotusSport Pursuit Bicycle, was an Olympic individual pursuit bicycle from Lotus Engineering. Its frame was a carbon composite monocoque with an aerofoil cross-section, based on the monocoque design of the Norfolk designer Mike Burrows, which British cycling manufacturers had rejected and the sport's governing body had once treated as illegal. After the ban on monocoques was lifted in 1990, the Lotus employee Rudy Thomann took the design to his manager Roger Becker, and by February 1992 Lotus had acquired the rights and refined the shape in wind tunnel tests with the aerodynamicist Richard Hill. Chris Boardman rode it to the 4000 metre pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Britain's first Olympic cycling gold in 72 years, and its success led Lotus to a production version, the Lotus Type 110. Sixteen Type 108 frames were built: four prototypes and twelve factory replicas sold at 15,000 pounds each, one of which the Science Museum keeps.