The Lotus T125 - The F1-Style Car You Used To Be Able To Buy
Believe it or not, this isn't a formula 1 car - but it's damn near close, and once upon a time, you could've bought it!
In a way, the car you see here is an imposter. It is in disguise, doing an impression on an automotive sketch show. But in looking like something it's not, it was still damn close to being that very thing.
Even the most discerning anorak would be forgiven for thinking they were looking at a genuine Formula 1 car. But the Lotus T125 actually is not an F1 car. That little omission however doesn't stop it from being the closest representation of an F1 car any manufacturer has ever produced for customers to buy.
That's right. A few years ago, anyone with the requisite amount of money could buy this F1-style car for their driving pleasure. Not on the road, that is, as the T125 was strictly a track-only weapon – with "weapon" being the critical word in the sentence, as this car was deadlier than many of the killing-devices used in wars.
Powered by a 3.5L, normally aspirated Cosworth V8 – that revved all the way to 10,300rpm - the T125 was capable of sending 640bhp hurtling at its slick rear tyres. And in a car that only carries 1411lbs (640kg) of mass, the performance was enough to make you feel like you were teleporting. It was so quick in fact, that no official performance figures were ever taken. Probably because the acceleration could more accurately be measured in how much of your last meal can be found in your racing overalls once you've finished rather than time.
While it may not have been an F1 car, every single part of the F1-car experience was there. The sequential gearbox required you to embark using a hand-operated clutch, which resulted in immediate stalling for anyone who wasn't capable of releasing their grip a thousandth of an inch at a time. Then there was the handling characteristics. Due to the fact that the large majority of its cornering ability came from the mystical entity that is downforce, it pretty much refused to turn unless you were doing a million. And that's a problem if you haven't got a death wish.
Lotus thought the prospect of an almost-F1 car that you could buy would be an irresistible prospect for their most affluent customers – so much so, they paid for them to come to the car's release at an event that was held under the Louvre in Paris. They hoped to sell every single one of the 25 cars they'd promised to make – for £650,000 a piece. But unfortunately for them, they never managed to sell a single unit.
The problem was, even for great drivers who've had experience swapping paint in the world of racing, driving something as monstrous as a Formula 1 car was a completely different undertaking. Even for a professional, if they haven't had the exact type of experience required, driving the T125 would be akin to putting a scalpel in a Pharmacist's hands, and telling them to cut someone's cataracts out.
The T125's quest for success wasn't helped by its appearance on Top Gear. If you're going to try and sell what is – to all intents and purposes – a £650,000 experience, you're going to want to advertise that experience as being the most breathtaking, exhilarating, and phenomenally fun experience going. But Clarkson found the car to be a recalcitrant, vicious bone-shaker, that could quite easily make its driver shit sufficient bricks to build the Great Wall of Donald.
Even though the car demolished the Top Gear Test Track with a time of 1:03.8 - just 4 seconds slower than a V10 powered Renault F1 car from 2005 – the lap time was marred by Clarkson's comments, describing the driving experience as "agony". And when you're rich enough to be able to afford a £650,000 car, you tend to never want to use the word "agony" to describe how you feel ever again.
The T125 then failed miserably, which when you think of what it was trying to be, was a crying shame. But when you think deeper into it, it was hardly surprising. The ideas that sound like they'll provide ultimate excitement tend to be massively over the top, only making sense either on paper, or within the minds of lunatics – and the T125 was all of that. What Lotus customers were looking for was a large prize Carp to put into their automotive aquariums – but what Lotus tried to sell them was a flaming big Great White Shark; technically more impressive – but massively more intimidating. And understandably, no one fancied driving one of those.
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Written by: Angelo Uccello
Twitter: @AngeloUccello
Tribe: Speed Machines
Facebook: Speed Machines - DriveTribe
Photo credits: car--reviews
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Comments (1)
I drive a Formula Continental. I love open wheel and, generally, nothing scares me. That said, I see no point in owning a car like this. Once one is committed to going that fast, one the edge, one tends to lean towards actual racing. Riding horses is great. Riding really fast horses is for the brave enthusiast. Riding a raging bull, well, that's for the pros.