Like Father, Like Son – Introducing Classic Team Lotus | M1TG
With Seven Formula 1 Constructors' titles and six Drivers' Championships, Colin Chapman made Lotus one of the most successful racing teams of all time. Today, Chapman's son Clive continues his father’s legacy running Classic Team Lotus. Mobil 1 The Grid visited the headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk where Clive gave a behind-the-scenes tour and told the inside story of one of the most famous teams in racing.
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Classic Team Lotus start Camel Team Lotus type 102
The type 102 is an exciting combination of two great marques, Lotus and Lamborghini. Interestingly it is the only Lotus ever to run a V12 engine.
Designed under the technical direction of Frank Dernie the 102 represents about 150,000 hours of R&D, wind tunnel, continuous engineering and design time from concept to racing car.
All composite manufacture was undertaken in-house at Ketteringham Hall. (The Team even made a super light carbon fibre helmet for Warwick and knuckle protectors for Donnelly.)
The engine is a 3.5 litre 80 degree 48 valve V12 which gave the team a competitive 650 plus horsepower, from a strong and practical unit. The gearbox is a 6 speed (+ reverse) transverse unit designed by Team Lotus and incorporating Lamborghini internals.
The 102 was raced in the 1990 F1 World Championship by Derek Warwick and Martin Donnelly. They achieved some good points finishes in a competitive season for Team Lotus, thereby preserving the team's vital top 10 status.
Martin Donnelly suffered a big accident at Jerez. Johnny Herbert deputised for Martin for the remainder of the season, making his Grand Prix debut at the Japanese GP.
classicteamlotus.co.uk
Classic Team Lotus start Team Lotus type 92 chassis 5
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Introducing Classic Team Lotus - Custodians of Lotus' Formula One Legacy
In this video I want to introduce you to Classic Team Lotus. A continuation of the original Team Lotus, Classic Team Lotus is responsible for the restoration, maintenance and the race support for a large number of historic race cars - including a number of very significant F1 cars. I got to sit down with Clive Chapman - son of Colin - to talk briefly about what they do at their unassuming base in Norfolk. These guys are responsible for maintaining and race prepping the iconic cars of drivers like Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Mario Andretti, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell to name but a few.
To help support the team, or to go yourself - please check their website for details.
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Classic Team Lotus start type 79/1 for the first time
classicteamlotus.co.uk The mechanics at Classic Team Lotus start the Team Lotus type 79 (chassis 1) for the first time in over 25 years. It is currently being restored and will be travelling to the Barber Museum in Birmingham, Alabama for its debut run 21/22 May 2011.
A day at the Classic Team Lotus factory
Classic Team Lotus
Hethel Lotus factory tour - EVO
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Lotus takes evo Magazine's competition winners on a tour of the Hethel factory.
Lotus Indy Race Car 1968 & 2014
56/3 returned ‘home’ to Hethel in November 2013. New owner Milton Verret, of Texas, wanted the car restored to running mechanical condition and presented exactly as she was on race day, back in 1968.
With its unique resources of mechanics from the day, the original design drawings and photographic archive, Classic Team Lotus specialises in restoring cars to exactly period specification.
Lead mechanic Lewis Cullington has spent hundreds of hours disassembling, researching, restoring and rebuilding the car. Team Manager Chris Dinnage and buyer Roger Yallop have played vital roles in helping Lewis to conduct the restoration to the highest possible standard. Lewis has been helped in particular by apprentice Keiran Cook and new recruit Paul Reed. As the deadline has loomed large it has been all hands to the pumps, with all at Classic Team Lotus getting involved, to have the car ready for its departure to the States.
Extensive research in the course of the restoration has confirmed the provenance of the car as 56/3, Graham Hill’s car number 70. Every detail is exactly in accordance with the original Team Lotus design, created by Maurice Philippe, working together with Colin Chapman. Detail features unique to 56/3 are evident and consistent throughout the car.
Clive Chapman observes: ‘Once again, the Classic Team Lotus mechanics have done an exceptional job to restore a very famous Team Lotus racing car. We appreciate the owner entrusting us with the responsibility and we have lavished the appropriate amount of care and attention on this extraordinary car. As we delved deeper into the restoration it was rewarding to discover every detail of the car being consistent with her history.’
‘Furthermore it has been a pleasure to establish a working relationship with both Vince Granatelli and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, both of whom have been extremely helpful and encouraging. Happily Vince and I have managed to avoid the ups and downs that were a feature of the relationship between our mercurial fathers…so far.’
The original Team Lotus mechanics from 1968 were reunited at Hethel, to be together again with the car with which they shook the racing establishment, 46 years on from when the car was first revealed to an astonished media, at Hethel.
Immediately after the Hethel reunion, 56/3 was flown to Phoenix, Arizona for installation of its gas turbine engine, which was undertaken by Vince Granatelli, son of the late Andy Granatelli, famous head of the STP Corporation who initiated the STP Lotus attack on the World’s greatest race, the Indy 500.
The dramatic wedge shape, dayglo red cars were reunited by the Hall of Fame Museum to celebrate the history of gas turbine powered cars at Indy. Classic Team Lotus was pleased to accept the invitation to include the 1971 Formula One type 56B version raced by Emerson Fittipaldi. Hopefully next time the 56B will be able to join in the parade…
Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones and Vince Granatelli paraded three of the revolutionary 1968 Team Lotus type 56 Indy cars at the 2014 Indy 500 before the 300,000 strong crowd, with the 33 car field already lined up on the grid.
The extraordinary noise of their gas turbine engines was almost drowned out by the cheering crowd as three of the Indy greats drove by in tight formation.
Parnelli Jones was driving car number 70 which was Graham Hill's car in 1968. Owner Milton Verret commissioned Classic Team Lotus to restore the car and he was proud to give her a shakedown run at the Brickyard, the day before the parade.
Tour around a Banks (Lotus) Europa S1 race car
Lotus Cars
Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars, famous for its Esprit, Elan, Europa and Elise sports cars and for the highly successful Team Lotus in Formula 1. Lotus Cars is based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics. It also owns the engineering consultancy Lotus Engineering, which has facilities in the United Kingdom, United States, Malaysia and China.
Lotus is owned by DRB-HICOM through its subsidiary Proton, which acquired it following the bankruptcy of former owner Romano Artioli in 1996.
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Lotus 70th Anniversary Event Live Stream #Lotus70
Join us live from Hethel to celebrate 70 years of Lotus.
Provisional Track Schedule:
10:15am 110 Lotus Bike Club Cycling Time Trial
10:45am Welcome & Introductory Speeches from Senior Lotus Executives
11:00am 70th Celebration Unveiling
11:15am Classic Team Lotus Display (1)
11:45am Sunbeam Lotus Rally Cars
12:15pm Lotus Cortina Register
12:45pm Lotus Dynamics Display
13:00pm ‘One of every Lotus car ever made’ Parade
14:00pm Lotus Driving Academy - Win a Hot Lap!
14:30pm Classic Team Lotus Display (2)
15:00pm Special Event Set Up
15:30pm Special Event Activity
Lotus Driving Academy - AMAZING DAY!
Christian takes part in the Lotus academy bronze award! A day filled with track driving, tuition, factory and classic team Lotus tours!
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Lotus - Inside the Factory
Inside look at Lotus facility and how cars are designed and built
Leven Lotus Edinburgh - Servicing
Here at Leven Lotus Edinburgh we pride ourselves in delivering an exceptional level of service throughout…
As part of our standard servicing we go above and beyond the already very high Lotus standards of service.
Watch this video to discover what you should expect as part of your Leven Lotus Edinburgh service.
Call our experienced team on 0131 442 2442 to book your Lotus in today.
#LevenLotusEdinburgh #Lotus #Servicing #GoingTheExtraMile
Lotus Exige V6 Cup - road car vs race car - autocar.co.uk
Lotus is on its way back, and the proof is the Lotus Exige V6 Cup - both in street trim, the Cup S, and the Cup R racer. Steve Sutcliffe puts them to the test.
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For most people, the standard Lotus Exige V6 would surely represent the ultimate kind of sports car. It weighs little more than a box of feathers, its interior is quite extraordinarily uncluttered by unnecessary luxuries, and its supercharged Toyota V6 engine provides it with enough grunt -- 345bhp -- to embarrass all but the most ambitious supercar drivers. Sutters travels to Lotus' test track in Hethel to drive the Exige V6 Cup S road car and the Exige V6 Cup R racer.
Autocar, the world's leading motoring magazine and website, delivers industry-leading news, the most in-depth car reviews and opinion from our team of experts. Our presenters include some of the world's top motoring journalists who have unrivalled access to the world's fastest, rarest, most exotic and most exciting cars on some of the world's best roads and race tracks.
Can a supercar beat a superbike? Can a Audi A1 outrun a Nissan GT-R on a wet circuit? Can a Porsche 911 slay a Corvette on the drag strip? Autocar pitches the giants of the performance car world against each other to deliver the all-important verdict.
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Behind the scenes at Lotus factory in Enstone
The History of Lotus | From F1 to the Street
Lotus Cars is a small sports car manufacturer based out of England. They've been producing some of the best track and street cars since 1948, but due to extensive financial issues the company is still relatively obscure. So how did Lotus get its start?
It all started with structural engineering student Colin Chapman. He built British Trial Racing cars as a hobby during his college years, then founded the Lotus Engineering Company in 1952. He built a series of racecars that performed very well, but eventually moved on to Formula 1.
Lotus' first F1 car, the Lotus 12, didn't compete well. So, Colin Chapman went back to the drawing boards, and came out with the Lotus Type 14. This car helped the company and team win their first victory; one of many. Throughout the mid-1900's, Lotus and Chapman introduced tons of innovative technologies to Formula 1 that continue to shape the sport today.
In the 1980's, Lotus Cars and Chapman began to their shift focus to road cars. The Lotus Elan, Europa, Esprit, Elise, and Evora are just a few of Lotus' most memorable road car successes.
Today, Lotus still has a competitive F1 team, but they are much more focused on road cars. The Evora Sport 400 dominates their lineup, but a high-performance supercar and SUV are planned for 2020 and 2022.
⚫ Special thanks to Dimmitt Automotive Group:
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Lotus Hethel circuit with Dave Minter
2 Laps around the Lotus factory circuit in Hethel with Dave Minter in an Elise S2.
Colin Chapman Anniversary
Even though his passing was premature, his legacy and reputation live on in our business every day as we continue to engineer and build the world’s best driver's cars adhering to Colin’s light weight design philosophies.
#Lotus #ColinChapman #Elise #Exige #Evora #3Eleven #Hethel #Handmade #lightweight #lightisright
Lotus History - Elise, Exige, Europa
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Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at Hethel, Norfolk, England. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and high handling characteristics. Majority of Lotus is privately owned by Proton.