Lotus: The Full Story

Introduction

The definition of a sports car is as follows; A sports car, or sportscar, is a small, usually two-seater, two-door automobile designed for spirited performance and nimble handling. A sports car should not have a mid mounted engine with high revs being track focused, nor can it weigh as much as a boat. A sports car must be nimble on the track and weigh a bit. They should also be fun to drive, not fun in a serious way like driving a super car, where the car’s advanced systems try to maintain zero error every track run.

Lightweight, fun, and cheap. That is how everyone describes a Lotus. Weighs almost as light as track focused supercars, fun and nimble to drive around a track, and relatively cheaper than most high end sports cars. Their cars are not that focused on speed, but more on handling and racing agility. Their history is mainly designing and building race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics.

Sadly, Lotus is a fading name in the sports car industry, slowly being conquered by the Japanese, with offerings from Toyota and Subaru such as the 86 or and BRZ, Nissan with the 370Z, Mazda with the MX-5 Miata, and many more. More and more people think of those models when the word sports car comes up. This blog embodies the full history of Lotus, from its early days to where it is today.

Early Days

It all started back in 1952, when two university graduates, Colin Chapman and Colin Dare, decided to make cars for a living after graduating from the University of London. You might wonder what the four letters of the Lotus logo represent, the merged ACBC logo that defines Lotus. It stands for the founder’s initials, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman.

Their first factory was based in an old stable behind the railway hotel in Hornsey, London behind the Railway Hotel. Team Lotus, which was different from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. They decided to merge with the Lotus Chapman founded.

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

In its early days, Lotus sold cars aimed at privateer racers and trialists. Its early road cars could be bought as kits, in order to save on purchase tax. The kit car era ended in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Lotus Elan Plus Two being the first Lotus road car not to be offered in kit form, and the Lotus Eclat and Lotus Elite of the mid-1970s being offered only in factory built versions.

Times of Success

Shortly after, the company moved to a factory in Chestnut in 1959, and in 1966, Lotus acquired a modern factory and a road test facility at Hethel, UK. It was way more advanced and more well equipped for future mass production. It also had a proper runway, as it was once RAF Hethel, a British RAF Base.

After their elegant but delicate Lotus elite of the 1950s, Lotus found success in their sales in the 1960s with the Lotus Elan two seater, later developed into a 2+2 form. They had several innovations implemented in their cars such as fiberglass bodies, backbone chassis, and twin cam engines supplied by Coventry Climax, later replaced by an in-house engine co-developed with Ford.

Another Lotus of the late 1960s and early 1970s was the two seater Lotus Europa, initially intended only for the European market, which paired a backbone chassis and lightweight body with a mid mounted Renault engine, later upgraded to the Lotus-Ford twin cam unit as used in the Elan.

Models Lotus Built

Lotus made another car, called the Lotus Seven in the 1950s as a simple, lightweight, open two seater produced till the early 1970s. Lotus then sold the rights to produce the Seven to Catheram, which produces the car until today.

Lotus decided to step in to the upmarket, more premium sports car game with the Lotus Elite and the Lotus Eclat, both four seaters aimed at the high-income and prosperous buyers. Some features Lotus provided were air conditioning and optional automatic transmissions.

The mid-engined line continued with the legendary Lotus Esprit, produced all the way to 2002. The Esprit was one of the longest lived Lotuses ever made, and also the most iconic. The Esprit came with a four cylinder DOHC engine, which would be later replaced by the Lotus 900 Series engines, and later a V8 and turbocharged versions appeared.

Lotus 900 Series

One of the most successful Lotus engines ever built was the Lotus 900 series engines, a successor to the original Lotus-Ford Twin Cam engine. Found in many cars from the Lotus Esprit to the Lotus-Vauxhall Carlton, it was applied to many cars at that time for racing and road use.

Colin Chapman wanted to replace the aging Lotus-Ford Twin Cam engine they have been using for years already. Chapman requested the engine to be efficient, flexible, full of torque and have a smooth drive. Initial plans were for a 120-degree Straight 6 engine, but it was scrapped due to incompatibility with current Lotus models.

So in the end, a 2-liter I4 was decided for the final engine design, with four valves per cylinder and operated by belt-driven dual overhead cams. The car produced an output of 150HP. Some applications of this engine were on the Lotus Esprit, the Jensen GT, and the Lotus-Vauxhall Carlton, the fastest Vauxhall ever made.

Formula 1

Lotus entered Formula 1 through sister company Team Lotus in 1958. It’s first victory was during the Monaco Grand Prix in 1960, driven by Stirling Moss. Moss drove a Lotus 18 entered by Rob Walker. Major success and victory in the team came in 1968, with the lotus 25 driven by Jim Clark, when Team Lotus won its first F1 World Constructors Championship.

Sadly, Jim Clark’s racing career was ended short when he died in a crash in the Hockemheimring in Germany. In April 1968, Clark’s Lotus Formula Two Lotus 48’s rear tyre failed and crashed. It was a huge blow to Team Lotus, as he was the major driver in the team, and the dominant car was also destroyed in the crash. On a brighter note, Jim Clark’s teammate, Graham Hill won the championship.

Team Lotus is credited with making the mid-engined layout popular for IndyCars, developing the first monocoque Formula One chassis, the integration of the engine and transaxle as chassis components. Team 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 of the car to aid in aerodynamic performance and inventing active suspension.

Group Lotus is currently also involved in several other categories of motorsport. It sponsors the KV team in the IndyCar Series and used to sponsor the ART team in the GP2 and GP3 Series in 2011 & 2012. In 2011, Lotus also returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a semi-works effort run by Jetalliance Racing, which fielded two Lotus Evoras.

Times of Trouble

In the 1980s, Lotus was in serious financial trouble. Production drastically dropped from 1,200 units per year to only 333, a quarter compared to usual. It was also hit even harder by the global economic recession in the 1980s, and sales in the United States basically collapsed. Little to no development has also been made.

Aiming to re-enter the North American market, Chapman was approached by Joe Bianco, an investment banking professor who proposed a new United States sales company for Lotus, founding Lotus Performance Cars Inc. It was a success, providing Lotus income back in the UK, and when Ferrari North America manager John Spiech was in charge, he brought in the Giugiaro designed Esprit to the US, and sales quickly jumped into the triple digits annually.

Sadly, Colin died of a heart attack on 16 December 1982 at the age of 54. Both Chapman and Lotus were linked to the DeLorean Motor Company during the time of his death. Lotus was also being sued by inspectors, and were sued 84 million pounds. If Chapman was still alive, he would face a sentence ‘of at least ten years’

Shortly after, David Wickins, founder of British Car Auctions agreed to be the new company chairman and took over. Wickins oversaw a complete turnaround in the company’s fortunes, which resulted in him being called “The saviour of Lotus”

Lotus Engineering

Lotus Engineering is a subsidiary of Lotus Cars, which provides engineering consultancy to other companies, primarily in the automotive industry. With their main office in Hethel, United Kingdom, Lotus has engineering centers in Ann Arbor, USA, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Shanghai, China.

Some notable projects undertaken by Lotus Engineering were the Vauxhall-Lotus Carlton, the fastest sedan at that time with a top speed of 175mph, the DeLorean DMC-12, with most parts shared with the Lotus Elise, the suspension handling of the R35 Nissan GT-R and Toyota Supra Mk2, the design of the Tesla Roadster, and the Spyker B6 Venator with a Lotus built engine sourced from a Toyota block.

Ownership

In 1986, David Wickins sold Lotus to General Motors, with engineer Bob Eaton, who was a big Lotus car fan. Lotus was co-owned by General Motors and Toyota, before selling the rest of their share to General Motors. In 1993, they sold the company to A.C.B.N Holdings S.A, who also owned Bugatti at that time before VAG did. In 1996, they sold the company to Malaysian car manufacturer Proton, and finally, on this day this blog was written in 2017, Proton fully sold the company to Chinese car manufacturer Geely, who also owns Volvo.

Where It Stands Today

Today, Lotus still manufactures sports cars and are still based in Hethel, United Kingdom. Currently, Lotus produces three models, the Elise, Exige S, Evora, and one limited edition track only supercar, the Lotus T125 Exos, one costing a million pounds each. All are lightweight powerful sports cars.

The Lotus Elise was introduced in 1999 with a Toyota 1ZZ or 2ZZ engine, and feature a Lotus ECU with thier own fuel mapping. The car goes from 0-60 in 4.3 seconds. The Exige features a supercharged 3.5L V6 providing 345hp. The Lotus Evora is a 2+2 sports car with a transverse mid-mounted 3.5-liter V6 engine, and the car is featured in the Rome and Milan Carabinieri as rapid response vehicles.

The Lotus T125 Exos is a track only F1 inspired car with a 3.5L Cosworth V8 producing 640bhp. One can cost one million pounds and only 25 were made. Owners are part of an ultra-exclusive club called the Exos Experience by Lotus, operated by Lotus Motorsport where drivers can challenge themselves with expert one-to-one advice from former Grand Prix drivers and trainers.

A new model has also been recently added to the lineup, the Lotus 3-Eleven which features an open-top and a 3.5L V6 making 460HP for the race version and 410HP for the road going version. 0-60 takes 3.3 seconds with a top speed of 174MPH.

Conclusion

Lotus is an iconic company and the marque of Hethel, United Kingdom. All started by a university graduate based in a small barn, they are one of the most prestigious names in sports car and Motorsport history, building light and nimble sports cars since the 1950s. And with Geely recently fully acquiring them, we could not wait what would come on the road ahead.