Yamaha's forgotten attempt at making a super car

 

Were you aware of Yamaha’s go at developing a F1 inspired sports car?

In the year 1992 Yamaha came out with a formula one based prototype sports car.  We usually see Ferrari and McLaren claiming that their cars were inspired by Formula one cars, their inspiration is usually applied into the development of the road going sports cars. However, Yamaha actually incorporated a detuned version of the Yamaha 3.5L naturally aspirated V12, this very engine was used by Brabham and Jordan’s F1 cars. Even with such a great spec sheet it is still not spoken about that much in the car world. A modern-day equivalent of the Yamaha OX99-11 would be the AMG Project 1.

About the car

The Yamaha OX99-11 was a single seat race car with extreme aerodynamics, light weight with high amount of power and was very advanced. The car came into existence when Yamaha was an engine supplier 29 years ago. In the 90’s car manufacturers were generally doing well and there was a boom in the supercar market. We had some amazing examples like the Jaguar XJR-15 and XJ220, Bugatti EB110, Cizeta V16T, Dauer 962LM, Lister Storm, and the great McLaren F1 to name a few. This car belongs to the category of cars that are technically interesting and unattainable, only three prototypes were ever built with the goal of bringing formula 1 technology to the streets.

Yamaha commissioned IAD to design the OX99-11 in 1991, IAD was a design company situated on the south coast of England, and they were the ones who designed the Mazda Miata. Yamaha’s intention was to build an exotic supercar not just a street legal race car. The car had a carbon fiber tub which meant it had high amount of rigidity along with being light weight. The suspension duty was taken care of by a pushrod-actuated double-wishbone suspension which was connected to the carbon tub, thus adding stability to the cars handling. Yamaha had designed the OX to be a single seater only. The body was made out of aluminium.

The massive V12  breathed through a top-mounted air box

In an interview one of the main proprietors of the project Dave Sullivan who worked for IAD claimed that the project was being led by sporting goods division (they had various products such as yachts), they were the same division involved in running the F1 engine program. To support the F1 engine development Yamaha had setup a subsidiary called Ypsilon Technology in Milton Keynes, UK. Here Yamaha had setup a large enough facility to build and service the V12 engines and also manufacture the OX99-11. The factory setup and engineering of the car was taken care of mainly by Aston Martin race team. The whole tie-up with IAD came through due to Brabham as Yamaha was the engine supplier with the car concept having first brought up in the year 1989 when Yamaha entered F1 however it came into existence only in 1992. It was a money-no-object car that was supposed to completely incorporate F1 technology, this is despite Yamaha not doing so well in F1.

The car was designed by Takuya Yura, from IAD, the whole car was underpinned by a carbon- fiber chassis it weighed in at just 1,150 kg along with the 400hp that the V12 produced. The car did a 0-100 in just 3.2 sec and a top speed of 350kmph. The car had tandem seats allowing two occupants this was because Yamaha wanted a two-seater as well as something that resembled their products (motorcycles). This unconventional seating design made it look like a hybrid between an F1 and a Group C race car, the central seating was reminiscent of the McLaren F1. Even entering the car was very unique it didn’t have traditional doors, instead the canopy opened like a fighter jet from the left side of the car.

When presented like this one can see the F1 underneath the skin  

The prototypes were unpainted and tested at Millbrook Proving Ground in the UK, as well as wind tunnel tested at MIRA. The test drivers mentioned in an interview that the car was normal till 6,000 rpm past that the car was a whole different beast till the 10,000rpm red line.

What went wrong?

The whole project was rushed and it was clearly evident as there were many flaws with the car, IAD built only 3 prototypes all identical except for the paint colour, the most famous one was the red prototype. The car had lot of aerodynamic and handling issues that IAD never got to rectify due to a disagreement over budget between Yamaha and IAD. 

The project would remain in development for another 6 months at Yamaha’s own team at Ypsilon. Also at that time, the Japanese economy was not doing well causing Yamaha to put a hold on the development for a year. However, Yamaha then never got back to the project. I think if Yamaha had gone ahead and actually built it, it would have left a tremendous mark in automotive history like the McLaren F1.

 Sources: 

http://www.autozine.org/Archive/Yamaha/classic/OX99_11.html

https://thekneeslider.com/ox99-11-the-yamaha-supercar/

https://drivetribe.com/p/1992-yamaha-ox99-11-concept-RTygW6YFQ8iyM9yPD9SWmw?iid=f27sANURRQiH_3b8iPrVRQ