Lotus 79, 81, 87 & 91

[chernaudi]

I know that the never raced Lotus 88 and the McLaren MP4/1 series introduced carbon fiber tubs to F1 and auto racing. But the first Lotus carbon tubbed car to race was the Lotus 91 in 1982.

I also know that Lotus introduced ground effects on the 78 of 1977 and the 79 of '78 was a refinement of the 78's GEf package.

But what I really want to know is what relation do the Lotus 81 and 87 have to the Lotus 79, and what relation the 87 has to the 91.

By the way, here's a good Lotus F1 site(mostly 70's and 80's stuff):

http://www.jpslotus.org/lotus.htm