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Concept
Lotus Cars
Summary
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.
Lotus was previously involved in Formula One racing, via Team Lotus, winning the Formula One World Championship seven times.
Lotus Cars was founded and owned for many years by Colin Chapman. After his death and a period of financial instability, it was bought by General Motors, then Romano Artioli and DRB-HICOM through its subsidiary Proton. It is currently majority owned by Chinese multinational Geely, with Etika Automotive as a minority shareholder.
The engineering consultancy firm Lotus Engineering, an offshoot of Lotus Cars, has facilities in the United Kingdom, United States, China, and Malaysia.
Notable Lotus cars include the Lotus Seven, the Lotus Esprit and the Lotus Elan.
The company was formed in 1952 as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by engineers Colin Chapman and Colin Dare, both graduates of University College, London, but had earlier origins in 1948 when Chapman built his first racing car in a garage. The four letters in the middle of the logo stand for the initials of company founder, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman. When the logo was created, Colin Chapman's original partners Michael and Nigel Allen were led to believe that the letters stood for Colin Chapman and the Allen Brothers.
The first factory was situated in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey, North London. Team Lotus, which was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. This was made up of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited, which focused on road cars and customer competition car production, respectively. Lotus Components Limited became Lotus Racing Limited in 1971 but the newly renamed entity ceased operation in the same year.
The company moved to a purpose-built factory at Cheshunt in 1959 and since 1966 the company has occupied a modern factory and road test facility at Hethel, near Wymondham in Norfolk.
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