Lotus History

Lotus Engineering Ltd was founded in 1952 by Colin Chapman, an engineer. The first Lotus factory was set up in an old stable in Hornsey, in North London. In 1959, Lotus Engineering developed into the Lotus Group. The company moved production to a new factory in Cheshunt in the same year, where it remained in operation until it moved to new premises, combining a factory and a road testing facility, at the old RAF base in Hethel, in 1966.

The Lotus Group was composed of two halves, Lotus Cars and Lotus Components. Lotus Cars focused on the production of road cars, while Lotus Components produced customer competition cars. In 1971, Lotus Components was renamed as Lotus Racing Ltd, but this part of the Lotus brand ceased to exist in the same year as it had changed its name.

Chapman had started his life as the son of an innkeeper, but by the time of his death in 1982, he had become a successful manufacturer and a multi-millionaire. He had created a number of successful road cars and racing cars, and his Lotus cars had won seven Formula One World Championships. Lotus was involved with the scandal over the use of subsidies from the government for the development of the DeLorean DMC-12 in the early 1980s. Lotus had designed the chassis used in this car.

General Motors bought the Lotus company in 1986. GM resold the company in 1993 to ACBN Holdings SA. This company was controlled by Romano Artioli, who was also the owner of Bugatti. Majority shares in Lotus were sold on in 1996, to a Malaysian car company, Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd. The company, known as Group Lotus, is formed of Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering. As well as producing its own Lotus vehicles, the group consults on engineering projects with other manufacturers. The Lotus engineers are particularly known for their work on developing suspension systems, although the Powertrain department has developed the four cylinder Ecotec engine, which is used by many GM vehicles. Lotus Group International Ltd was formed in 2006, as the holding company of the Lotus group.

Lotus encouraged buyers of its cars to compete in them in motor sports, and it was also involved in Formula One. Lotus had its own Formula One team, Team Lotus, which competed between 1958 and 1994. Team Lotus separated from the main Lotus company in 1954. The first Lotus car to win a Grand Prix was a Lotus 18 driven by a private driver, Rob Walker, in 1960. Lotus went on to enjoy many more victories, including winning the World Constructors Championship in 1963. The winning driver, Jim Clark, was later killed after crashing a Lotus car during a Formula Two event. This was a major blow for the Lotus team since Clark was their dominant driver. Lotus recovered from this loss, however, and one of Clark's teammates, Graham Hill, went on to win the championship in the same year. Many Lotus race cars were very successful, but the team stopped racing in 1994, after struggling to keep up with the competition.