Lotus

Engineer and racing enthusiast Colin Chapman inaugurated the car company Lotus Engineering Ltd. in 1952, a factory that was firstly located in Hornsey and would only move to Hethel in 1962. Previously, around 1947, Colin Chapman had already built his first automobile based on an Austin 7Austin 7United Kingdom, 1909 > 19395 versions
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chassis. He was still a college student by that time and his extremely light car had been built for competition purposes and would be later called the Lotus Mk1.

When his car factory was founded, Chapman launched his first real production Lotus, the Mk VI, which was the first to have a chassis that was 100% designed by Chapman. For 2 years, around 100 units of the 6 were built. Not too long after the company had opened, Lotus entered the Formula 1 competition, in 1958. The British brand would get its first F1 victory in 1960 and its first whole championship in 1963.

Also in 1958, the Lotus Group of Companies was established, which consisted on the road car producer Lotus Cars Limited plus the competition car producer Lotus Components Limited. However, the Components firm would be closed in 1971. The current Group Lotus is composed by Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering, which respectively work on car production and engineering consultancy.

Lotus founder, Colin Chapman, would die in 1982, victimized by a heart attack. Nevertheless, he managed to see his factory produce some thousands of road and race cars that would be quite successful. Lotus cars indeed competed in the Formula 1 World Championship until 1995, achieving a sum of 78 victories and 7 championship titles.

General MotorsGMUnited States of America, 1998 > present8 models
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bought the British car company in 1986 but would sell it in 1993 to Luxembourg’s A.C.B.N. Holdings S.A. Then, in 1996, Malaysian car company Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd purchased an amount of Lotus’ shares that provided them the direction of the British brand.

Lotus’ symbol is composed by a yellow background with a green “rounded” triangle over it and the word “Lotus” on top of it, plus the letters “ACBC” on top of each other. The letters “ACBC” are a reference to the company’s founder, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman.   Until 1968           1968-1983: In 1968, following the accidental death of Jim Clark, yellow and green colors of the background were replaced by total black.           1986:  when General Motors took the control of Group Lotus Plc., they decided that the company’s badge had to identify a new Lotus era and it was completely redesigned, also excluding the letters “ACBC” that referred to the company’s creator.       1987-1988: the letters “ACBC” were added once again.      
  In 1989, Lotus restored the original badge, despite some minor changes on the color tones and form – "orange norfolk mustard" yellow and darker green

In 1954, two years after the Lotus car factory had been established, the Team Lotus was formed as the British brand’s motorsport corporation that would compete in racing events with the Lotus trade name. After some years of simply persuading their customers to race, the company’s management decided to enter the Formula 1 Championship on their own in 1958. The Team Lotus also started participating in other racing competitions, such as the Formula 2, Formula Ford, Formula Junior and Indy Car, as well in sports car races.

Lotus cars, namely the ‘type 12’Lotus 12 ClimaxUnited Kingdom, 1958 > present1 photo
, would begin their motorsport victories with the F2 class at the 1958 Silverstone’s International Trophy. The Lotus 14 would also be quite successful in the 1950’s by winning 6 class races at the 24 Hour of Le Mans. At the turning to the 1960’s, weak front-engined Lotus cars were replaced by a mid-engined Type 18Lotus 18United Kingdom, 1960 > present1 photo
, in which driver Stirling Moss gave the brand their first Grand Prix title, at the 1960 Monaco GP. 

The first Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championship that Team Lotus won happened in 1963, with driver Jim Clark at the wheels of a Lotus 25Lotus 25 ClimaxUnited Kingdom, 1962 > present2 photos
. In that same year, Jack Sears’ Lotus Cortina won the British Touring Car Championship and Jim Clark did the same the following year. Triumphant and popular Jim Clark would offer Lotus yet another World Championship title in 1965 at the wheels of his Lotus 33Lotus 33 ClimaxUnited Kingdom, 1964 > present1 photo
. However, in 1968, Clark crashed to death at a Hockenheim racing event while driving a Lotus. His Lotus teammate Graham Hill would, however, win that year’s Formula 1 World Championship, with a Lotus 49Lotus 49 CosworthUnited Kingdom, 1967 > present2 photos
.

The beginning of the 1970’s would bring Lotus a new World Championship title, by the hands of Jochen Rindt, in 1970, who drove a 49 and a 72Lotus 72 CosworthUnited Kingdom, 1970 > present1 photo
but passed away before being announced as champion. Two years later, Lotus would be associated with the world’s youngest world champion (until 2005) when Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi brought the British team their 1972 Championship at the age of 25. 1973 was another dominant year for Team Lotus in the Formula 1, winning their 6th World Manufacturers’ Championship.

Colin Chapman’s cars were undeniably successful due to their experiments and search for innovativeness: the Lotus 25 was the first Formula 1 car ever to come with a monocoque chassis and the brand’s several race cars were also among the earliest cars in Formula 1 to come with wings and “downforce” technology. In the 1970’s decade, the British team made it to be the first of all racing teams to achieve the sum of 50 Grand Prix wins. The 1978 F1 World Championship was another victory for the Lotus Team, thanks to the Type 78Lotus 78 CosworthUnited Kingdom, 1977 > present2 photos
and the 79Lotus 79 CosworthUnited Kingdom, 1978 > present2 photos
that Mario Andretti drove.

With Lotus front man Colin Chapman’s death in 1982, the Team’s direction went to Peter Warr’s hands and suffered a large decrease on their racing success, despite having continued to be an important Formula 1 participant until the late 1980’s. In the 1994 racing season, Lotus cars raced their ultimate Formula 1 championship to date, as the Team could no longer deliver competing vehicles. In the beginning of 1995, Team Lotus was absorbed by the less successful team Pacific Grand Prix and the ‘Lotus’ designation was dropped.

The Lotus racing team has summed up 79 Grand Prix titles, seven F1 Constructors’ titles, six F1 Drivers’ titles and the United States’ Indianapolis 500 of 1965. Even though the Team Lotus hasn’t competed for over 10 years, they are still remarked as one of the most successful racing teams.