The Lotus 99T was a Formula One car designed by Gérard Ducarouge for use by Lotus in the season. After Renault pulled out of F1 at the end of 1986, Lotus signed a deal with Honda for use of their turbocharged 1.5-litre engine. Due to Honda's existing deal with Williams which allowed that team exclusive use of the 1987-spec RA167E unit, Lotus instead used the previous season's RA166E. As part of the deal, Lotus agreed to sign Honda's test driverSatoru Nakajima as teammate to Ayrton Senna. Lotus also had a new title sponsor and livery, with the black and gold of John Player Special being replaced by the bright yellow and blue of Camel. The 99T was the second Lotus chassis to be fitted with electronic active suspension after the team had experimented with the system on the Lotus 92 used in the first part of the season. The system's benefits of a consistent ride height with no pitch or roll in the chassis came at a cost, as the system added significant weight to the car, and also robbed the Honda turbo of approximately 5% of its power. Ducarouge clawed as much performance back by spending many hours in the wind tunnel to compensate, although by the end of the season Senna was describing the car as nothing more than the previous year's 98T with a Honda engine instead of the Renault. The 99T was generally regarded as the more bulky of the cars that won a Grand Prix in 1987 with the Williams FW11B, McLaren MP4/3 and Ferrari F1/87 all regarded as better aerodynamically than the Lotus. Despite this, the 99T was often among the fastest cars in a straight line. After pre-season testing at the Jacarepaguá Circuit in Rio, Senna had insisted on the team using the active suspension throughout the season, feeling that due to having the previous year's engine the computer-controlled system and its benefits would help keep Lotus at the front of the field. However, while the Brazilian was able to take wins on bumpy street circuits at both Monaco and Detroit, the car proved difficult to set up for other circuits. The 99T proved to be competitive in Senna's hands; the Brazilian won twice and scored six other podium finishes during the season, helping him and the team to third in the drivers' and constructors' championships. Senna's win at the Detroit Grand Prix was the final ever Grand Prix win for the team. In Italy, Senna came within a handful of laps of winning the race but on badly worn tyres he made a mistake which let Nelson Piquet through to take the chequered flag. Senna would move to McLaren for and would win his first World Drivers' Championship. The season was also Senna's second worst in terms of pole positions, scoring only one in Round 2 at San Marino, his worst season being his rookie year in with Toleman. Nakajima, who for his part very much overshadowed by his teammate, proved to be a steady, if unspectacular driver. He openly admitted that he favored the faster circuits such as Silverstone, Hockenheim, Österreichring and Monza as well as his home track of Suzuka, but was ill at ease on the tighter circuits. He qualified 17th in Monaco and finished 10th, 24th in Detroit before crashing out on lap 1, and 17th in Hungary before suffering a broken drive shaft on the first lap. Nakajima's best finish in his first season was a 4th at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. He finished the season in 12th place with 7 points scored. Nakajima's best qualifying performance came in Round 15 in Japan for what was the first Japanese Grand Prix since 1977. At the Honda owned Suzuka circuit, Nakajima qualified in 11th place, only four places and 0.962 seconds behind Senna. It was the closest he would qualify to his teammate all season. During the season, television viewers were able to get an up close view of the Japanese rookie's driving as his car usually carried an onboard camera. The 99T was updated for 1988 to 100T specification; the car technically was virtually unchanged, except for a redesigned nose section, longer wheelbase and tighter rear bodywork, and the dumping of the active suspension for a more conventional setup. New team leader, 1987 World Champion Nelson Piquet used the car to score consistently but was unable to add any further wins to Lotus' score sheet however, with three 3rd placings his best finishes. Senna's 99T was included in the Japanese and American versions of the 2001 video gameGran Turismo 3 under the alias "F687/S". The F687/S was the second most powerful Formula One car in the game producing 900 PS. The 99T also makes appearances in Rad Racer from Square and Continental Circus from Taito, both released in 1987.
