Lotus History


From simple beginnings in a
small factory next to his father's pub in Hornsey, North London in 1947, Colin Chapman went on to build the world-famous, multi-million pound Lotus organisation and in so doing, he left an indelible mark on the sports car industry within the UK and estabished himself as "the greatest, most creative designer of racing cars in the history of motor racing", to quote Jackie Stewart 



As the badge above and the annotation on the photo on the left of Ketteringham Hall (the HQ of Team Lotus, the Grand Prix team) show, Lotus went on to win the Formula 1 World Constructors Championship 7 times and the Drivers Championship 6 times


Lotus also took on the Americans in "their own backyard" and won the
Indianpolis 500 in 1965 with a car built at the second Lotus factory in Cheshunt





Colin Chapman's main desire was always to take on the scarlet Ferraris on the race track and break their domination of the sport

The record shows that he certainly did this during the 1960s and, at the peak of their superiority in the 1970s, this became total dominance

In 1978 Lotus had amalgamated more Grand Prix victories than any other team, overtaking Ferrari after much less years in competition - Lotus had become a world-class team, that was second to none

Lotus had become the team by which all others were measured on the track and on the road, their sports cars, such as the Elan, Elite and Esprit, had elevated te marque from it's to self-build heritage, to the supercar league



The name "Lotus" would now forever be synomomous with superb handling and exotic performance



Chapman is pictured in this photo in 1981 on the grid at Brands Hatch, with his cars, drivers, mechanics, full logistics team and transporters, including future F1 world champion Nigel Mansell

Click on Chapman's signature below for more on his life and early Lotus history
















From 1960 to 1981, Chapman and Lotus became the most winning Formula One Team, posting championship after championship. Establishing a tradition of winning by a total commitment to creating a superior performing car through superior engineering and innovation.

It was a dedication to superior engineering and innovation that took Chapman and Lotus to an Indianapolis victory in 1965 and fielding the infamous STP Turbine cars and 4 wheel drive cars of the late 60s. It was this same dedication that created the first successful full monocoque racing chassis, the first successful fully stressed engine for racing, and the first full composite chassis for a road car.

It was the Chapman connection that brought Ford's money to the small firm of Cosworth, operated by two old employees, Frank Costin and Keith Duckworth. From this came the best known Formula One engine in history, the Cosworth Ford DFV.

The first win came with Jim Clark at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix. It was the maiden race for the sleek, ultra-light Lotus 49 powered by the Cosworth Ford in its first race. The competition was overwhelmed by the superior chassis and engine and victory was Clarks.

In 1978 Chapman unveiled the Lotus 78 Formula One race car and again the rule books would have to be rewritten as would history. The Lotus 78 used bodywork on the underside that effectively created a venturi, thus as the air rushed under the car the air was forced to accelerate and the pressure of the air was lowered dramatically.

The result was downforce never before imaginable, in excess of 2000 pounds of downforce was created in addition to Lotus 78's 1250 pound weight. The Lotus 78 was said to corner as if truly on rails and it took six Grand Prix wins in 1978. The impact upon racing created by ground effects cars were so astounding that by the end of 1981 the ground effects Formula One cars were banned and replaced with flat bottom cars in 1982.




1956 Vanwall

1957 the Mark 7, which enjoyed universal approval as the renouned Lotus 7 and still was verified by the list of customers lined up to purchase copies of the winning car.

The next few years were spent pursuing victories at Le Mans, the cars; the Mark 9, the Lotus Eleven and the Lotus 14, Elite.


The Sixties

By 1960 the Le Mans victories were in hand and Chapman's interests in racing turned from Sports Racer vehicles to open wheeled race cars, Formula Junior, Indianapolis Cars and the World Series of racing; Formula One, an arena dominated by the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes, Porsche, Cooper and BRM. Photo of Lotus 25 at Monaco - click here for my personal tour of the circuit

From 1960 to 1981, Chapman and Lotus became the most successful Formula One Team, posting championship after championship. Establishing a tradition of winning by a total commitment to creating a superior performing car through superior engineering and innovation.

It was a dedication to superior engineering and innovation that took Chapman and Lotus to an Indianapolis victory in 1965 and fielding the infamous STP Turbine cars and 4 wheel drive cars of the late 60's. It was this same dedication that created the first successful full monocoque racing chassis, the first successful fully stressed engine for racing, and the first full composite chassis for a road car.
























It was the Chapman connection that brought Ford's money to the small firm of Cosworth, operated by two old employees, Frank Costin and Keith Duckworth. From this came the most successful Formula One engine in history, the Cosworth Ford DFV. The first win came with Jim Clark at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix. It was the maiden race for the sleek, ultra-light Lotus 49 powered by the Cosworth Ford in its first race. The competition was overwhelmed by the superior chassis and engine and victory was Clark's.


The Seventies








































In 1978 Chapman unveiled the Lotus 79 Formula One race car and again the rule books would have to be rewritten as would history.

The Lotus 79 used bodywork on the underside that effectively created a venturi, thus as the air rushed under the car the air was forced to accelerate and the pressure of the air was lowered dramatically.


















The result was down-force never before imaginable, in excess of 2000 pounds of down-force was created in addition to Lotus 79's 1250 pound weight.

The Lotus 79 was said to corner as if truly on rails and it took six Grand Prix wins in 1978. The impact upon racing created by ground effects cars were so astounding that by the end of 1981 the ground effects Formula One cars were banned and replaced with flat bottom cars in 1982.








... Meanwhile, Chapman's R & D team at Ketteringham Hall came upwith Lotus's way of tackling what had now evolved into a totally stupid set of technical regulations. Skirted Grand Prix cars may well have thrown the technical initiative to the innovative British constructors but, properly engineered, they at least had predictable handling characteristics and their suspensions, though regarded as stiff by the standards of their time, were not in the same league as the rock-hard breed of F 1 machines which were spawned by the fIxed-skirt rules. FISA may have known what it was seeking to achieve, but the route by which it set out to reduce cornering spee ds was strewn with technical problems. Lotus's answer was the twin-chassis type 86, originally tested at the end of 1980 during the last season of the sliding-skIrt regulations.

WInd-tunnel testing had convinced Chapman's team that, instead of having separate sliding skirts moving up and down relative to the bodywork, it would be better to spring-mount the body structure atop the wheel uprights, thereby transmitting the aerodynamic loadings directly to the suspension and tyres, while also incorporating a conventionally sprung chassis riding free within the movable aerodynamic body This brilliant concept killed two birds with one stone, stabilising the under-car aerodynamics while at the same time precluding the driver from the physical battering which was now an inevitable byproduct of ultra-stiff suspension.This was a fundamentally intelligent and aerodynamically sound means of blending together the requirements of consistent and predictable performance with driver comfort and security but FISA got wind of what Chapman was up to and issued yet another ofits 'rule clari~lcations' to Article 3, clause 7. ~ny speci~lc part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance - must comply with the rules relating to bodywork; must be rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car (rigidly means not having any degree of freedom); and must remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car. , The Lotus boss remained absolutely convinced that the sport's governing body had no business or power interfering with the clause imposing rule stability for two years - a clause which FISA itselfhad only just had a major hand in enacting - and pressed on with the construction of a ~lxed-skirt version ofthe 86, now based round a carbon/Kevlar monocoque rather than the 86's aluminium honeycomb chassis. He presented itjust before the start of the season.The new type 88 would, in Chapman's view, solve the problem ofpitchsensitivity which had dogged his ground-effect efforts with the type 80 two years earlier. Resisting such pitch had meant stiffening springs to the point where half the suspension movement was coming from deflection within the rocker arms, a test of the car's structure which was as unnecessary as it was unsatisfactory not to mention the pounding received by the luckless ,

driver. Anyway to cut a long story short, a succession of protests and unfavourable edicts from FISA spelt the downfall ofthe 'twin-chassis' Lotus before it was ever permitted to take part in a race. Technical ingenuity had been stifled simply because the rest ofthe herd was ag'in it.Throughout 1981 and into 1982 spring rates gradually c1imbed to beyond the 3000-lb mark as designers fought to control the behaviour of their fixed skirts, these efforts quickly producing a breed of 200 mph go-karts from which bruised and battered drive rs emerged periodically to recount horri~lc tales of close shaves which their dif~lcult-to-control cars were unable to avoid.


When Chapman died in December of 1981, from a massive heart attack, no one questioned the indelible influence that Chapman and his small English motor car company had upon the engineering and manufacture of automobiles both for racing and for street. Every single automobile on the race track and on the road today owes some part of its design and engineering to Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman and his company, Lotus.


















ACBC - The letters that appear on the famous Lotus badge?
 
They are the initials of the name of the great innovator himself:
A
nthony Colin Bruce Chapman

LOTUS - The name of the company?

There have been several theories about the origins of the Lotus name: none of which have been confirmed by Colin himself, his family, the company or any of the Lotus clubs

Some avid theorists (including some owners!) would have it that the name is an acronym for Loads Of Trouble Usually Serious!! However, probably the most plausible explanation, is that one of Colin's very early projects started life as a car auction purchase, complete with a "lot" number and the car was sold-as-seen because it was unservicable or "u/s", as it is often abbreviated - after collection, the car apparently still carried the auction card, which read "LOT U/S"... and the rest is history!!