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Classic Lotus Cars

Lotus Mark IV was a trials car by Colin Chapman built on a Austin 7 chassis. Colin Chapman’s success at building trials Lotus cars brought another previous customer, Mike Lawson, to order a second trials car in 1952 to replace his Lotus Mark II, in which he won the Wrotham Cup. Once again Colin Chapman chose an Austin Seven as the starting point, reinforcing the frame and installing a four-cylinder 1172cc (71.5ci) Ford sidevalve engine. Colin Chapman used all the tricks he had learned in his previous cars, constructing a lightweight aluminum body with a rounded nosecone. He fitted a 3-speed transmission taken from a Ford 8 and the divided front axle as on his previous cars.



Mike Lawson won his class in the very first attempt in this car, following up with others, solidifying Colin Chapman’s reputation as a designer and engineer. The success of this car, and other requests for more cars, led Chapman and Michael Allen to establish Lotus Engineering in a disused stable in Hornsey.

Ford Sidevalve Motor
Configuration: S4 SV
Displacement: 1172 cc
Bore/Stroke: 63.5mm x 92.456mm (2.5x3.64")

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Classic Lotus Cars

Classic Lotus Cars Mark III was a single-seat sports car from Colin Chapman as a 750 racer built.

In 1951, Colin Chapman began to focus on a car for the road, rather than processes, in the formula 750 Motorcycle Club, who compete the Austin 7 Cars as the base. To comply with the rules, Colin Chapman was among the seven chassis, engine, transmission and rearend, with the help of Nigel and Michael Allen, they changed the boundaries of the rules hold. Colin Chapman boxed the rails and has 14-gauge cross tubes torsional rigidity. An elegant aluminum two-seater body, which weighed only 65 kg. (29.5 kg) was added to reduce drag, and the engine was very coordinated. The car, for all his apparent delicacy, proved to be a surprisingly faster than the competition. It led to a request for copies (better B Mark III was built for Adam Currie, for example) and a copy of the previous Mark I. It was clear by the end of the season, the Lotus Cars Mark III was the best car in the Formula 750 in the country.


At this time, Colin Chapman was still working full time at the British Aluminium, and create car at night, and they ran, with the help of enthusiastic volunteers, over the weekend, but it was clear from the performance of the Lotus Cars Mark III and the demand is not there here's a chance. Following on the success of this year, 1st January 1952 Colin Chapman founded Lotus Engineering Company, to Michael Allen was the first commercial partner of Colin Chapman. They set up shop in a former stable in Hornsey.

Picture Of

Classic Lotus Cars

Lotus Cars that came to be known as the Lotus Cars Mark II was created in 1949, while Colin Chapman was serving with the RAF. For his second car Chapman built on the knowledge gained from building and competing in the Lotus Cars Mark I, so he again used the widely available and inexpensive Austin 7 chassis as a starting point. He boxed in the chassis rails and replaced the cross members with stronger tubular braces. He swapped the Austin engine for a Ford engine and transmission, first from a Ford 8, then from a Ford 10, but retained the Austin 7 rear axle. To be able to use a wider tire, Chapman adapted Ford pressed steel wheels. He modified the engine as far as the club rules would allow.


Chapman used this chassis and running gear to support a cigar-shaped body with a rounded nose. It has rudimentary cycle-type fenders. The result was a very competitive Trials car, but also suitable for circuit racing. Chapman used the car to compete in events sponsored by the 750 Motor Club. Although Chapman built the car to compete in English Trials events, he also entered the car in track events, such as Silverstone, where he won in his class. From that point forward, Chapman would concentrate on designing and constructing cars for race circuits instead of trials Lotus Cars.

Ford Sidevalve Motor:

* Config: S4 SV
* Displacement: 1172 cc
* Bore/Stroke: 63.5 mm (2.5 in) x 92.456 mm (3.6 in)

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The Lotus Mark I was the first car designed and built by Colin Chapman in 1948, while Chapman was still a student at the University of London. The car was designed to compete as a trials car, and was constructed on an Austin 7 chassis and running gear. Chapman built the body utilizing a composite made of thin aluminum bonded to plywood. He modified the rear suspension to give better handling and the engine to give more power. His approach to automobile construction using sound engineering principles and ingenious chassis design set the stage for many more revolutionary designs to follow. Although the original Mark I has been lost to history, a replica (see photo) was created to the same dimensions that uses an identical Austin chassis and running gear. Both Chapman and his future wife competed with the car in English Trials, a form of competition over rough terrain against time. Chapman continued to develop and modify the Mark I. First larger wheels and tyres were fitted and the front beam axle was split and hinged in the center to provide independent front suspension. The success of the car helped encourage Chapman to continue designing competition cars.

Picture Of Lotus Classic Cars

Picture Of Lotus Classic Cars

Picture Of Lotus Classic Cars

Picture Of Lotus Classic Cars

* Lotus Exige: A version of the Lotus Elise with a redesigned body to provide additional downforce (100 lb at 100 mph). Additionally, the following Elise Sport Pack and Hardtop options are standard on the Exige. The car is street legal and the base 2006 model was available in the USA for $50,990. Lotus updated the Exige with the supercharged Exige S in 2007.


* Lotus Exige S: An Exige with a supercharged engine providing 220 hp. The non-S Exige and Elise have 190 hp (140 kW).


* Lotus Europa S: The Grand Tourer (GT)-inspired two-seater is claimed to offer a more upmarket sportscar experience, although it is based on the same chassis as the Elise and Exige, limited accommodation and practicality. Power comes from a Lotus-tuned variant of the turbocharged four-cylinder engine which powers the VX220. The Europa has been criticised in the motoring press for being expensive and for lacking equipment and practicality compared to rivals like the Porsche Cayman.

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* Lotus Elise: The Elise incorporates many engineering innovations, such as an aluminum extrusion frame and a composite body shell. The Elise has also spawned several racing variants, including an exotic limited series called the 340R, which has an open-body design echoing the famed Seven. The Elise was recently introduced into the U.S., with a Toyota engine, in order to pass strict U.S. emissions laws. The 1ZZ & 2ZZ Toyota engines used have a Lotus ECU with their own fuel mapping. The supercharged Lotus SC and limited edition Jim Clark Type 25 Elise editions add a new performance dimension to the Elise range. 0–60 mph acceleration is in 4.3 seconds and 0–100 km/h in 4.6 seconds.


* Lotus Eco Elise is a version of its classic sports car that incorporates solar panels into a roof made from hemp, while also employing natural materials in the body and interior of the car.

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Even after Chapman's death, until the late 1980s, Lotus continued to be a major player in Formula One. Ayrton Senna drove for the team from 1985 to 1987, winning twice in each year and achieving 17 pole positions. However, by the company's last Formula One race in 1994, the cars were no longer competitive. Lotus won a total of 79 Grand Prix races. During his lifetime Chapman saw Lotus beat Ferrari as the first team to achieve 50 Grand Prix victories, despite Ferrari having won their first nine years sooner.

Formula One Constructors' Championships (Drivers' Championship winner for Lotus)

* 1963 (Jim Clark)
* 1965 (Jim Clark)
* 1968 (Graham Hill)
* 1970 (Jochen Rindt)
* 1972 (Emerson Fittipaldi)
* 1973
* 1978 (Mario Andretti)

Team Lotus established Classic Team Lotus in 1992, as the Works historic motorsport activity. Classic Team Lotus continues to maintain Lotus F1 cars and run them in the FIA Historic Formula One Championship and it preserves the Team Lotus archive and Works Collection of cars, under the management of Colin Chapman’s son, Clive.


Lotus (under the name Lotus F1 Team) will take up the 13th spot on the grid in the 2010 Formula One Championship. The new team is unrelated to the previous incarnation of Team Lotus, although it is funded by a Malaysian Consortium including Proton (the owner of Lotus Cars), and has legal rights to use the the Lotus name.

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The company encouraged its customers to race its cars, and itself entered Formula One as a team in 1958. A Lotus Formula One car driven by Stirling Moss won the marque's first Grand Prix in 1960 at Monaco in a Lotus 18 entered by privateer Rob Walker. Major success came in 1963 with the Lotus 25, which with Jim Clark driving won Lotus its first F1 World Constructors Championship. Clark's untimely death — he crashed a Formula Two Lotus 48 in April 1968 after his rear tyre failed in a turn in Hockenheim was a severe blow to the team and to Formula One. He was the dominant driver in the dominant car and remains an inseparable part of Lotus' early years. That year's championship was won by Clark's teammate, Graham Hill.


Lotus is credited with making the mid-engined layout popular for IndyCars, developing the first monocoque Formula One chassis, and the integration of the engine and transaxle as chassis components. Lotus was also among the pioneers in Formula One in adding wings and shaping the undersurface of the car to create downforce, as well as the first to move radiators to the sides in the car to aid in aerodynamic performance, and inventing active suspension.

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Michael Kimberley took over as Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Company and its Group from May 2006. He currently chairs the Executive Committee of Lotus Group International Limited ("LGIL") established in February 2006, with Syed Zainal Abidin (Managing Director of Proton Holdings Berhad) and Badrul Feisal (non-executive director of Proton Holdings Berhad). LGIL is the holding company of Lotus Group Plc.


Kimberley retired as CEO on 17 July 2009 and was replaced as CEO by Dany T Bahar on 1 October 2009. Bahar was formerly Senior Vice President, Commercial & Brand for Ferrari SpA where he was responsible for worldwide road car sales and after sales business, overall road car and F1 marketing activities, licensing, and merchandising business.

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The company also acts as an engineering consultancy, providing engineering development—particularly of suspension—for other car manufacturers. The lesser known Powertrain department is responsible for the design and development of the 4-cylinder Ecotec engine found in many of GM's Vauxhall, Opel, Saab, Chevrolet and Saturn cars. Today, the current Lotus Elise and Exige models use the 1.8L VVTL-i I4 from Toyota's late Celica GT-S and the Matrix XRS.


The company is organised as Group Lotus, which is divided into Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering.

Picture Of Lotus Classic Cars

Chapman died of a heart attack in 1982 at the age of 54, having begun life an innkeeper's son and ended a multi-millionaire industrialist in post-war Britain. The cars maker built tens of thousands of successful racing and road cars and won the Formula One World Championship seven times. At the time of his death he was linked with the DeLorean scandal over the use of government subsidies for the production of the DeLorean DMC-12 for which Lotus had designed the chassis.


In 1986, the company was bought by General Motors. On 27 August, 1993, GM sold the company, for £30 million, to A.C.B.N. Holdings S.A. of Luxembourg, a company controlled by Italian businessman Romano Artioli, who also owned Bugatti Automobili SpA. In 1996, a majority share in Lotus was sold to Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd (Proton), a Malaysian car company listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

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The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by engineer Colin Chapman, a graduate of University College, London, in 1952. The first factory was in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey, North London. Team Lotus, which was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. This was made up of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited which focused on road cars and customer competition car production respectively. Lotus Components Limited became Lotus Racing Limited in 1971 but the newly renamed entity ceased operation in the same year.


The company moved to a purpose built factory at Cheshunt in 1959 and since 1966 the company has occupied a modern factory and road test facility at Hethel, near Wymondham. This site is the former RAF Hethel base and the test track uses sections of the old runway.