Lotus 112

The Lotus 112 was the proposed Formula One car of Team Lotus for the 1995 season. It was a stillborn project that chief designer Chris Murphy conceived during the team's final campaign in 1994. The number 112 was originally meant for the model that became the Lotus Elise, but that car was given 111 in homage to the Lotus Eleven. Little is confirmed about its specification: Lotus may have used the promising Mugen-Honda ZA5D engine, or a Ford Cosworth unit to save the cost of an exclusive deal, and Alessandro Zanardi and Mika Salo were to keep their seats. It would have had a distinctive arrow nose, an unusual pushrod arrangement on the front suspension and a carbon aluminium honeycomb tub, and wind tunnel tests of a scale model showed far more downforce than the Lotus 109, while the car also passed the FIA crash tests. On 17 January 1995 the new owner David Hunt closed Team Lotus in the face of debt, so the 112 became the last Team Lotus type designation.