36 Facts About Lotus Cars

1.

Lotus Cars Limited is a British automotive company headquartered in Norfolk, England which manufactures sports cars and racing cars noted for their light weight and fine handling characteristics.

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2.

Lotus Cars was previously involved in Formula One racing, via Team Lotus Cars, winning the Formula One World Championship seven times.

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3.

Lotus Cars was founded and owned for many years by Colin Chapman.

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4.

Engineering consultancy firm Lotus Engineering, an offshoot of Lotus Cars, has facilities in the United Kingdom, United States, China, and Malaysia.

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5.

Team Lotus Cars, which was split off from Lotus Cars Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994.

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6.

Lotus Cars was notable for its use of fibreglass bodies, backbone chassis, and overhead camshaft engines, initially supplied by Coventry Climax but later replaced by Lotus Cars-Ford units .

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7.

Lotus Cars worked with Ford on the Lotus Cars Cortina, a successful sports saloon.

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8.

Lotus Cars Seven, originating in the 1950s as a simple, lightweight open two seater continued in production into the early 70s.

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9.

Lotus Cars then sold the rights to produce the Seven to Caterham, which has continued to produce the car since then.

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10.

Lotus Cars developed its own series of four cylinder DOHC engines, the Lotus Cars 900 series, and later a V8, and turbocharged versions of the engines appeared in the Esprit.

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11.

At the time of his death, both Chapman and Lotus Cars were linked with the DeLorean Motor Company scandal over the use of UK Government subsidies for the production of the DMC DeLorean, for which Lotus Cars had designed the chassis.

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12.

In 1996, a majority share in Lotus Cars was sold to Proton, a Malaysian car company listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

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13.

Lotus Cars were awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise for contribution to International Trade, one of 85 companies receiving the recognition in that category in 2002.

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14.

Lotus Cars chaired the executive committee of Lotus Group International Limited established in February 2006, with Syed Zainal Abidin and Badrul Feisal .

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15.

Lotus Cars announced on 7 June 2012 the termination of Bahar's employment and the appointment of Aslam Farikullah as the new chief operating officer.

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16.

Lotus Cars was the dominant driver in the dominant car and remains an inseparable part of Lotus's early years.

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17.

Team Lotus is credited with making the mid-engined layout popular for IndyCars, developing the first monocoque Formula One chassis, and the integration of the engine and transaxle as chassis components.

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18.

Team Lotus Cars was 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.

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19.

Team Lotus constructed cars won a total of 79 Grand Prix races.

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20.

Formula One Drivers' Championship winner for Lotus Cars were Jim Clark in 1963 and 1965, Graham Hill in 1968, Jochen Rindt in 1970, Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972 and Mario Andretti in 1978.

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21.

In 1973 Lotus Cars won the constructors' championship only; the drivers' title went to Jackie Stewart of Tyrrell.

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22.

Team Lotus Cars established Classic Team Lotus Cars in 1992, as the Works historic motorsport activity.

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23.

Classic Team Lotus continues to maintain Lotus F1 cars and run them in the FIA Historic Formula One Championship and it preserves the Team Lotus archive and Works Collection of cars, under the management of Colin Chapman's son, Clive.

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24.

Former racing driver David Hunt purchased the name 'Team Lotus Cars' and licensed it to the Formula One team Pacific Racing, which was rebranded Pacific Team Lotus Cars.

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25.

Lotus Cars name returned to Formula One for the 2010 season, when a new Malaysian team called Lotus Cars Racing was awarded an entry.

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26.

In December 2010 Group Lotus Cars announced the creation of Lotus Cars Renault GP, the successor to the Renault F1 team.

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27.

Group Lotus Cars was involved in several other categories of motorsport.

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28.

In 2011, Lotus Cars returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a semi-works effort run by Jetalliance Racing, which fielded two Lotus Cars Evoras.

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29.

At the 2010 Paris Motorshow, Lotus Cars announced five new models to be introduced over the next five years: Their intention was to replace the Elise with an entirely different model, as well as to introduce two entirely new sports coupes, which would have been known as the Elite and the Elan, a new sports saloon, the Eterne, to rival the Aston Martin Rapide and Maserati Quattroporte, and a modern interpretation of the Esprit supercar.

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30.

In 2011, Lotus Cars revealed this as the Lotus Cars Ethos, a plug-in hybrid car based on the EMAS concept from its parent company Proton, and likely to be primarily built by Proton in Malaysia.

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31.

In January 2021, Lotus Cars teased that the Elise, Exige, and Evora will be discontinued and be replaced by the Type 131 which had yet to be released at the time of announcement.

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32.

In November 2021, Lotus Cars teased the future introduction of the future Type 132 SUV.

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33.

Lotus Engineering Limited is an offshoot of Lotus Cars, which provides engineering consultancy to third-party companies primarily in the automotive industry.

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34.

Lotus Cars Engineering has established a group dedicated to hybrid and electric vehicles.

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35.

Lotus Cars Engineering developed the Evora 414E as their first hybrid concept car.

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36.

Lotus Cars unveiled their first series production electric sports car called the Evija in July 2019.

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