Lotus Cars is a British automotive manufacturer specialising in small sports cars. Lotus is based on an old RAF base in Norfolk, England. What started out as a manufacturer of race cars has blossomed into the origins of the kit car movement.
Lotus Cars started out as Lotus Engineering Ltd., which was founded by a pair of Colins: Colin Chapman and Colin Dare.
They met in college and both graduated from the University College, London. The company started out customising cars for races. The first car that Colin Chapman made was based on the Austin 7 and was named “Lotus” which is where the company got its name. The logo of Lotus has the letters ACBC at the top which stands for Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman. In its first few years, the company focused on making racing cars and Team Lotus was ultimately born.
As a manufacturer, the first real mass production car for Lotus was the Lotus 7. The Lotus 7 was a small, agile open-top sports car. It was hugely successful as it was sold as a “kit” or a completely knocked down (CKD) car that had to be assembled. Being a kit car meant that it didn’t incur the expensive taxes of normal road cars.
The Lotus 7 was powered by a small 1.1 litre Ford inline four engine that only had 49bhp. Being meant for the Clubman circuit races, the 7 could accelerate to 62mph in under 7 seconds and a top speed of just 90mph. Being a kit car, the specification and parts vary from each owner. What is known though is that the car could outperform most road going cars of the era.
The claim to fame of the Lotus 7 was its handling. The 7 has a very low centre of gravity and almost even weight distributions makes it handle very well. The suspension was a hybrid semi-independent configuration. The frame was made from rigid tube space frame which made the car stable. The body panels in the 7 were made of aluminium to keep the weight light.
The Lotus 7 was successful both as a racer and a road legal car with over 2,500 cars from the initial production run were sold.
But the thing that makes the Lotus 7 a really successful design is that the car is still being produced now. Caterham purchased the rights to the 7 and still produces cars based on the design. There are 160 car makers using the design started by the Lotus 7 as the base for their own two-seaters.
Lotus as a company has had a turbulent journey with bankruptcy and change in ownership. Lotus is currently owned by Malaysian car maker Proton. They still continue to produce small sportscars.
As a racing team has had much success. Lotus competes in Formula One and has won the constructions championship and beat out teams like Ferrari. Currently, Team Lotus provides engines for various motorsports around the world.
Photos source: Petrolicious
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