Black + Gold

There are fast racing cars, and then there are legends. Ayrton Senna in the Lotus 98T belongs firmly in the latter camp, a pairing that distilled the madness and magnificence of mid-’80s Formula 1 into something almost mythical.

Picture Jerez in qualifying trim: heat shimmering off the tarmac, pneumatic guns screaming in the pits and 1.5-litre turbocharged engines idling with a menace that bordered on violence. In the cockpit, though, Senna was ice-cold. Eyes closed. Visualising every camber and kerb. Then the boost was turned up, and the black-and-gold Lotus tore across the Spanish circuit. A 1:21.605 lap secured a famous 100th pole for the legendary Norfork-based team, nearly a second and a half clear of the field. It was total dominance.

Race day heroics followed throughout that 1986 season. At Jerez he edged out Nigel Mansell by just 0.014 seconds, one of the closest finishes in F1 history. In Detroit, after a puncture dropped him down the order, Senna carved back through the field in a drive of surgical precision. Poles, wins, podiums, and the sense that something extraordinary was unfolding in only his third year in the sport.

The 98T arrived at the height of Formula 1’s turbo era, a time when regulations were loose, qualifying engines were turned up to absurdity and bravery was as critical as engineering. Designed by Gérard Ducarouge, the car featured a carbon-fibre and aluminium composite chassis and Renault’s ferocious EF15B V6. In race trim it produced around 900bhp. In qualifying? No one truly knows, estimates push well beyond 1,100bhp.

Backed by the iconic black-and-gold John Player Special livery, the 98T became the final Lotus to wear those colours and perhaps the most evocative. Just four chassis were built. Of them, 98T-3, the car featured here driven exclusively by Senna in the first half of ’86, stands apart: two victories, five poles, three further podiums.

More than numbers, though, the 98T represents an era when Formula 1 felt untamed, when qualifying laps bordered on the reckless and drivers wrestled monstrous power with fingertip sensitivity. Mansell, Prost, Piquet… and above all, Senna.

This iconic 1986 Lotus 98T is set for auction via RM Sotheby’s Sealed held from the 4th March 2026. It’s expected to fetch between $9.5m-$12m. Photos © RM Sotheby’s / Tim Scott Fluid Images / Girardo & Co Archive.