LOTUS

In 1952, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman was loaned £50 by his girlfriend Hazel Williams to establish Lotus Engineering Company.

Team Lotus which fielded Formula One racing cars from 1958 to 1994 was a spin off  of Lotus Engineering . In 1959, the Lotus Group which consisted of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited was established. The company’s factory has been located at the old RAF Hethel base near Wymondham, England since 1966.

Lotus first came to the attention of American’s general public when Jim Clark appeared at Indianapolis with his Ford powered Lotus 29 in 1963. Then there were the Lotus Elan and Europa sports cars and Mario Andretti’s world championship in 1978.

Colin Chapman died in 1982 at the age of 54.

General Motors purchased Lotus Group in the mid-1980s and then in the early 1990s sold it to Romano Artioli who in 1996 sold it to the Malaysian car company Proton.

LOTUS ELAN S4 in red                                                                         PRINTS AVAILABLELOTUS ELAN S4 in green                                                                    PRINTS AVAILABLE