GP4: 1994 Lotus 109 Mugen-Honda - Australian GP Version released

1994 Lotus 109 Mugen-Honda (Australian GP) by Fongu

I proudly present to you the 1994 Lotus 109 Mugen-Honda for GP4. The shape had been completed for some years now, and has been stop/start in progress sine then. You can read more about the journey and its features in my blog.

Work in Progress post 1

Work in Progress post 2

The team put all their hopes on this car, that along with Mugen-Honda’s special new engine. The new car, well one of them, only made its debut in Spain, and then the engine, again only one of them, appeared in Italy, only making it to the first corner. The combination looked competitive in Monza, but sadly it was too little too late, as Irvine pitched Herbert into a spin and the resulting melee caused a race restart. The team ran out of money, and Herbert was drafted to Ligier then Benetton. The team saw off the season with pay drivers and went into administration, and the Lotus name left the sport.

To read more about how the team faired that season, you can read more here: 1994 season summary & model review

This is the Australian GP version of the car, with Mika Salo and Alex Zanardi at the wheel. 

I have to thank Oggo for sharing his textures of the early season 107C, some of the logos and race numbers were brought over to this car. 

GP4: 1994 Lotus 109 WIP update 2

The shaping of the 1994 Lotus has been finished for quite a few months now, but I hadn't yet posted any pictures of it. Here it is in GP4, under the lights in Singapore. 

The car hasn't yet been mapped, just putting finishing touches on my other cars before I turn my attention back on this one. I wanted to make sure I got lots of practice on Photoshop before attempting the livery on this one. 

The rear end on this car is the most detailed I have done yet, I've made it super shiny below so that you can see the detail on it. 

It's been nice to hear in recent weeks that Alex Zanardi has been able to communicate with his family, although it sounds like a long road to any kind of recovery, sadly, but once more this car is entirely dedicated to this true hero who has battled through so much and is still fighting. 

I can't wait to get back to working on this car, I'll post updates when there is more news.

GP4: 1994 Lotus 109 WIP update 1

Hi again. It's been about a month since I last worked on my Haas which has just been released. In that time I've mapped my 1993 Tyrrell 021, it's only taken 9 years to do! It's now on somebody else's to do list. 

I nearly took that momentum and map one of my 1994 cars, but I couldn't resist going back to shaping. 

I decided to go back to 1994. Actually, I had made a start on another car, but I decided not to go back to it, but start a brand new project. It was this, the 1994 Lotus 109 Mugen-Honda. 

I think it had one of the best liveries that season, and it was unfortunately the last classic Team Lotus car, although Lotus made a return of sorts in 2010. This car had so many drivers, Johnny Herbert, Alex Zanardi, Pedro Lamy, Philippe Adams, Eric Bernard and Mika Salo, have I missed anyone out? 

There's some more history in my model blog here

But it's July 2020, and it's been two weeks since Alex Zanardi had another horrible accident. His life is a mixture of triumph (CART Champion and Paralympic Gold medalist) and horrific accidents (Spa 1993, losing his legs in a CART race and now this). As of the time of writing he's still in an induced coma from a hand-bike accident when colliding with a truck. I hope you make a recovery #ForzaAlex.

It goes without saying that when this car is completed, it will be dedicated to Alex. 

Lotus began the 1994 season with the C spec version of the 107, which began life in 1992. One of the new Lotus 109's was ready by the Spanish Grand Prix and Johnny Herbert drove that car, whilst Zanardi had to settle for the 107C at the Spanish and Canadian GP. The 109 was based on the 107, so there are many similarities and I could use the 107C as a guide for my own car. 

The GP4 107C is by Paolo RF900R (who is still creating excellent cars from the 1990s for ASR Formula), which Oggo brought into GP4. The cars for the 1993 mod are great, but my only complaint is the lack of consistency with the scaling between the cars. So the first thing I did for my 109 was to base it on the proportions of my other 1994 cars. In reality, the 109 has a shorter wheelbase, but in GP4, my 109 will have a longer wheelbase. 

I started out with the wings on this car, they are pretty unique and I enjoyed recreating them. I probably went a little overboard with the details on the rear wing, whilst the front wing is pretty straight forward. Like the McLaren, the front wing end plates have a small horizontal element at the rear. The suspension is lifted off my Williams and Ligier and re-positioned. The main chassis came together quite quickly, the longest part was the nose. You'll notice in these screens there's a slight bulge, which isn't immediately obvious on pictures, with the livery hiding it very well. My shape kind of reminds me of a beluga whale. 

The Lotus also has uniquely shaped barge-boards, compared to other cars from that season it looks like it was put on backwards. The mirrors are also quite pyramid shaped, which I also like. The car also featured a unique interpretation of putting  hole in the engine cover, adopting holes to the side near the rear end. 

With the car coming together quite quickly, I started to get a little carried away with the detail, and below is the result. Now when I started making 1994 cars, I had consciously decided not to spend too much time making engine parts, rather just sticking to the gearbox detail, but I got a little ambitious. The odd thing is that I've only created the rear half of the engine. The reason being that from some angles you can see a bit more into the engine from the engine cover holes, and also I'm going to put a cooling hole in the rear of the sidepod, so it would be nice to see in. In terms of internals, this is the most detail I've put in on any GP4 car.

The car is still a work in progress, I need to finish the rear of the chassis, the cockpit needs a seat and details adding, and I'm going to add some more details on the side of the gearbox. There's a few more details to add here and there, and then body lines. 

I hope you enjoyed this update, I'll post more shots when the car is hopefully complete. 

1/43 Model Review: 1994 Lotus 107C and 109 Mugen Honda

Background

The Lotus 107, designed for the 1992 season, was in its third year of racing, having been competitive if not unreliable in 1992 and a points scorer in 1993. In 1994 Mugen Honda engines were being used but the team were struggling with their finances. The team were able to introduce the Lotus 109 mid-season, although it was heavily based on the 107C.

The Lotus 109 was debuted at Spain for Johnny Herbert, but it wasn't until France that both drivers had a 109. The team lacked the cash to develop the car and so it bore little gains, but at the Italian Grand Prix, Herbert looked competitive with an upgraded Mugen Honda engine, qualifying in fourth place before colliding on the first lap with Irvine. He had to switch to the spare car for the restart with the old engine. The team confirmed they were in receivership a day later and the team stopped racing at the end of the year. It was a sad end to the legendary Team Lotus name. They did merge with Pacific GP for the 1995 season but they too exited the sport at the end of 1995.

Johnny Herbert had signed a long term deal with Lotus, but with such an uncompetitive season, Herbert considered retiring from the sport altogether. That was until the Italian Grand Prix where he shone all weekend until that first lap crash. He was bought out of his contract by Ligier, before moving to Benetton the race after that.

Alex Zanardi was injured in a crash in 1993 and Pedro Lamy filled the seat for the final four races and retained the seat for the 1994 season. However his crash in testing a few races saw him end up in a spectator tunnel, sidelined Lamy with an injury for the remainder of the year.

With Lamy out, Zanardi, now recovered, took his seat. Philippe Adams earned enough funds to buy himself two races in the Lotus. At the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Adams won a support race, but retired from the F1 race in his Lotus.

Eric Bernard arrived in a swap with Herbert, but he struggled to impress at Ligier and was promptly dropped after one race at Lotus. Pace not withstanding, Lotus really needed pay drivers at this stage, and so Mika Salo raced in the final two Grand Prix.

There are some interesting livery variations from the Brazilian Grand Prix, and even from pre-season testing. The design was tweaked again when the 109

Pre-Season Testing, Estoril Circuit, 20th January 1994

Running two different cars and slightly different liviries at the Canadian GP:

 

Onyx/Heritage Formula - 107C

Onyx 192

Onyx produced this version of the 107C with the livery from the Monaco GP if I'm not mistaken. The car is shape is perhaps a little bit short, but I quite like the job they've done on the decals which kind of makes up for it. My only real complaint is the radiator opening at the front of the sidepods does not angle forward at the bottom, it's straight on this model. Still, quite a decent effort from Onyx on this model.
Score 6/10

BBR - 107C

BBR Met11

I got myself a BBR version of the 107C (built by someone else) which, on the box is based on the Brazilian GP. As mentioned above, this is not the livery they ran for the first two Grand Prix, and it looks like this is from the San Marino Grand Prix. In fact when you look at the instructions it does indeed state it is from the San Marino Grand Prix. I've seen better built ones online, but I'm not sure this is one of BBR's best efforts. The car looks a bit too low, which makes the car look a little stretched.
Score 7/10

Spark - 109

Spark S1670

For nearly two decades, you could only get the 109 kit car by Tameo (see below). Spark finally released their 109 in recent years, and it came with versions with all the drivers who drove the 109. 

• #11 Zanardi - British GP

• #11 Adams - Belgian GP

• #11 Salo - Japanese GP

• #11 Bernard - European GP

• #12 Herbert - Belgian GP

I went for the Herbert version and also Salo's Japanese GP because I quite liked  the sponsor set. My complaint about Spark cars of the 90's is that the tyres are too big. The rollover bar is a bit small, and needs to be a bit taller. I think the front wing is sitting too high as well. I like the clear visors, but I'm generally left disappointed with the helmet shape overall. Otherwise this would be a really lovely model, but I feel the proportions let it down. 

Spark S1780

Score 7/10

Tameo - 109

Tameo TMK181 

I've not owned this model, but this Tameo offering is lovely. Proportions are good, and this one is beautifully put together. It's the Australian Grand Prix version with the extra rear wing elements by the rear tyres. I also think the curves around the front of the cockpit is better than the Spark version.
Score 9/10

For more 1994 Model Reviews, click here: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/p/1994-model-review.html