HISTORY OF LOTUS

LOTUS HISTORY

'''Lotus Cars''' is a British manufacturer of sports cars and racing cars based in East Anglia, and formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by the engineer Colin Chapman in 1952. The Company's first factory was in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsea. Lotus was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. Since the 1960's the Company occupies a modern factory and road test facility at Hethel, near Norwich.

Chapman died of a heart attack in 1982, at the age of 54, having begun life an innkeepers son and ended a multi-millionaire industrialist in post-war Britain; whilst building tens of thousands of successful racing and road cars, and winning the Formula One World Championship seven times.

In 1986 the company was bought by General Motors. On August 27, 1993, GM sold the company for £30 million to ACBN 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), the state-owned Malaysian car company.

The company also acts as an engineering consultancy, performing development, particularly of suspension, for other car manufacturers.

As of 2005, the Malaysian company Proton organized Lotus as Group Lotus divided into Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering. A Formula One team is in the works according to rumour.

Formula One

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 first Grand Prix for the marque in 1960. Major success came in 1963 with the Lotus 25, which - with Jim Clark driving - won Lotus its first F1 World Championship. Clark's untimely death - he crashed driving a Formula Two Lotus 48 in March 1968 after his rear tyre failed in a turn - 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's early years. That year's championship was won by Clark's Lotus team-mate, Graham Hill.

Lotus is credited with establishing the mid-engine configuration as the best design for formula 1 and Indy cars, with developing the first monocoque Formula 1 chassis, and the integration of the engine and transaxle as chassis components. Lotus also was first with adding wings to Formula 1 cars to add downforce, as well as moving radiators to the sides in F1 cars to aid in aerodynamic performance, and inventing active suspension.

Even after Chapman's death, until the late 1980s, Lotus continued a major player in Formula One. Ayrton Senna drove for the Lotus team from 1985 to 1987, winning twice in each year, whilst achieving 17 pole positions. However, by the company's last Formula One race in 1994 the cars were no longer very competitive. During the Formula 1 years 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 Formula 1 race nine years before Lotus won their own first GP victory.

Formula One driver's world championships: * 1963: Jim Clark * 1965: Jim Clark * 1968: Graham Hill * 1970: Jochen Rindt - the only posthumous world champion * 1972: Emerson Fittipaldi * 1973: Formula One World Championship for Manufacturer's Only (Drivers Championship to Team Tyrell) * 1978: Mario Andretti

Lotus models

Previous

1973]] * Lotus Mk1 - 1948-1948 * Lotus Mk2 - 1949-1950 trials car * Lotus Mk3 - 1951-1951 * Lotus Mk4 - 1952-1952 * Lotus Mk5 - 1952-1952 * Lotus 6 - the model just before the classic 7 (1953-1956) * Lotus Seven (and Super Seven) - The Lotus Seven is a classic open sports car, a minimalist machine designed to maneuver around a race track - and do nothing else. Amazingly, this 1957 design is still widely produced by a number specialty firms, including Caterham Cars and Donkervoort. * Lotus Eight - 1954-1954 sports car * Lotus Nine - 1955-1955 sports car, based on Eight * Lotus Ten - 1955-1955 sports car, a more powerful Eight * Lotus Eleven - 1956-1956 sports car * Lotus Twelve - Formula 2 and Formula 1 racecar (1956-1957) * Lotus 15 - 1958-1958 * Lotus 16 - 1958-1959 (improved Twelve) * Lotus 17 - 1959-1959 * Lotus 18 - 1960-1961 * Lotus 19 - 1960-1962 * Lotus 20 - 1961-1961 * Lotus 20B - 1961-1961 * Lotus 21 - 1961-1961 * Lotus 22 - 1962-1965 * Lotus 23 - 1962-1966 * Lotus 24 - 1962-1962 * Lotus 25 - 1962-1964 (Formula 1 World Champion) * Lotus 26 - 1962-1971 (Original Elan) * Lotus 27 - 1963-1963 * Lotus 29 - 1963-1963 * Lotus 30 - 1964-1964 * Lotus 31 - 1964-1966 * Lotus 32 - 1964-1965 * Lotus 33 - 1964-1965 (Formula 1 World Champion) * Lotus 34 - 1964-1964 * Lotus 35 - 1965-1965 * Lotus 37 - 1965-1965 * Lotus 38 - 1965-1965 * Lotus 39 - 1965-1966 * Lotus 40 - 1965-1965 * Lotus 41 - 1965-1968 * Lotus 42 - 1967-1967 * Lotus 43 - 1966-1966 * Lotus 44 - 1967-1967 * Lotus 46 - 1966-1968 (Original Europa) * Lotus 47 - 1966-1970 (racing version of Europa) * Lotus 48 - 1967-1967 * Lotus 49 - 1967-1969 (Formula 1 World Champion) * Lotus 51 - 1967-1969 * Lotus 55 - 1968-1968 * Lotus 56 - 1968-1971 * Lotus 57 - 1968-1968 * Lotus 58 - 1968-1968 * Lotus 59 - 1969-1969 * Lotus 61 - 1969-1969 * Lotus 62 - 1969-1969 (prototype Europa racer) * Lotus 63 - 1969-1969 * Lotus 64 - 1969-1969 * Lotus 65 - 1969-1970("Federalized" Europa S2) * Lotus 67 - 1970-1970 * Lotus 68 - * Lotus 69 - 1970-1970 * Lotus 70 - 1970-1970 * Lotus 72 - 1970-1973 (Formula 1 World Champion) * Lotus 73 - 1973-1973 * Lotus 74 - 1971-1975 (Europa Twin Cam & Special) * Lotus 76 - 1974-1974 * Lotus 77 - 1976-1976 * Lotus 78 - 1977-1977 * Lotus 79 - 1978-1979 (Formula 1 World Champion) * Lotus 80 - 1979-1979 * Lotus 81 - 1980-1981 * Lotus 83 - 1983-1983 * Lotus 86 - 1980-1980 * Lotus 87 - 1980-1982 * Lotus 88 - 1981-1981 * Lotus 90 - 1981-1983 * Lotus 91 - 1982-1982 * Lotus 92 - 1983-1983 * Lotus 94 - 1983-1983 * Lotus 95 - 1984-1984 * Lotus 96 - 1984-1984 * Lotus 97 - 1985-1985 * Lotus 98 - 1986-1986 * Lotus 99 - 1987-1987 * Lotus 100 - 1988-1988 * Lotus 101 - 1989-1989 * Lotus 102 - 1990-1991 * Lotus 103 - 1990-1990 * Lotus 105 - 1990-1990 * Lotus 106 - 1991-1991 * Lotus 107 - 1992-1994 * Lotus 108 - a bicycle (1992-1992) * Lotus 109 - 1994-1994 * Lotus 112 - 1995-1995 * Lotus 114 - 1995-1995 * Lotus 115 - 1997-1997

* Lotus Carlton - 1990-1992 Tuned version of the standard Vauxhall saloon (designated Lotus 104).

* Lotus Excel - 1985-1992

* Lotus Eclat - (1975-1982) Fastback version of the Elite. The rear roof line of the Elite was sloped down into a sporty fastback.

* Lotus Elite - The Lotus Elite was an ultra-light 2-seater coupe, produced from 1958 to 1963. Its most unusual feature was its fiberglass unibody construction. Unlike the Corvette, which used fiberglass for exterior bodywork, the Elite actually used this glass-reinforced plastic material for the entire load-bearing structure of the car.

* Lotus Elan - Two generations of Elan were produced, both extremely innovative for their time. The first, in the 1960s, was a small light roadster that made use of the Lotus-trademark steel backbone frame, coupled with a fiberglass body. This car was the design inspiration for the 1990 Mazda Miata.

* Lotus Europa - 1966-1975 mid-engine sports car, the first affordable mid-engined road car ever produced.

* Lotus Elan - The second Elan, released in 1989, was a technical tour de force but one that also defied Lotus 'performance through light weight' tradition, to its detriment. The idea of a front-drive Lotus, powered by a turbocharged engine, was a brave concept and its cornering performance was undeniable. But the handling was negatively compared to the original Elan by some Lotus loyalists, and its relatively high price (vs. e.g. the Mazda Miata) meant it was not a sales success.

* Lotus Esprit - A mid-engined sports car, launched in the early 1970s. The Esprit shocked many at its launch - its geometric, laser-cut lines seemed far more futuristic than anything on the road - or on the movie screen, for that matter (the car prominently featured in the 1977 Bond movie ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and briefly in ''For Your Eyes Only''; it also appeared in the 1990 movie ''Pretty Woman''; two Esprit's raced each other in ''Basic Instinct''). The styling was by Italian designer Giugiaro. The Esprit started with a light, high-strung 4-cylinder design, which went through several iterations of turbocharging and electronic upgrades, before finally being replaced by a highly advanced V8. The last Lotus Esprit rolled off the line on 20 February, 2004 after 28 years in production. A total of 10,675 Esprits were built since production began in 1976.

Current

* 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 had an open-body design echoing the famed Seven. Recently introduced into the US with a Toyota engine to pass emissions specifications

* Lotus Exige - A coupe version of the Lotus Elise that provides more rigidity and with additional modifications to provide more downforce (and thus more of a hard-core autocross and track car than the Elise). The Exige is street legal and expected to be released in the United States in late-2005.

* Lotus Europa S - The new Grand Tourer (GT) inspired two-seater provides Lotus customers with a spectacular sports car with significantly enhanced levels of touring and cruising capability. It provides drivers with higher levels of practicality and refinement to complement the simplicity of the Lotus Elise and Exige models.

The Lotus Europa S follows the core Lotus philosophy of performance through light weight obtained through the clever use of advanced and high tech materials including an extruded and bonded aluminium chassis, composite body panels and a very advanced composite energy absorbing front crash structure.

Collaborations

* Vauxhall Lotus Carlton(also Opel Lotus Omega) (Lotus Type 104) - At the time (early-1990s) this was the fastest saloon car available, with a top speed of over 170 mph.

* Lotus Talbot Sunbeam - Talbot's hot hatch rally car of the '70s.

* Lotus Cortina

* Lotus also produced the Vauxhall VX220 / Opel Speedster for General Motors, based on the same aluminium chassis design as the Lotus Elise. Production of these models ended in 2005

Many classic Lotus cars feature the 2.2 L 16-valve engine which was closely based on Vauxhall's Slant Four.

Further reading

Source: Wikipedia

	Model	Year	KM's	Location	Price
	lotus exige s	2007	150	Victoria, Australia	$114,990 AUD
	lotus exige s	2007	5,500	Victoria, Australia	$114,990 AUD
	lotus europa s	2007	24,000	Victoria, Australia	$74,990 AUD
	lotus elise s	2007	1,800	Victoria, Australia	$69,990 AUD
	lotus exige s	2007	150	Victoria, Australia	$114,990 AUD