NEWS Headlines

At yesterday evening’s International Historic Motoring Awards held at a glittering celebration in Pall Mall, London, motorsport legend Bob Dance was honoured as the recipient of the Royal Automobile Club's Lifetime Achievement Award. The award honours an individual who has, in the opinion of the Club, made an outstanding contribution to British motoring history and heritage, or to the British historic motoring and motor racing movement, across many years.

The Chapman family is pleased to announce the 2025 Classic Team Lotus Garden Party will take place at East Carleton Manor on the weekend of 14-15 June 2025

The very sad news today is that John Bowers has died. Classic Team Lotus got to know John when in 2008 he purchased the 1963 Lotus Type 25 chassis R4 at auction in Australia, from the Estate of the Hon John Dawson-Damer. He had not intended to buy R4, but as the auction played out - and with the encouragement of wife Margaret – he decided on the spot that he should. (John was a brilliant economist and was particularly able at assessing situations and reacting quickly, with logical, sound decisions. Much like Margaret, in fact.)

The third edition of the TABAC Classic GP held over the weekend of 14-15 September at the Assen Circuit in the Netherlands was a huge success. The program featured 21 car and motorcycle races, various stunning demonstrations and a paddock filled with historic race cars. The undoubted stars of the show however, were Emerson Fittipaldi and 72/7.

A week ago: Andy Middlehurst scored an extraordinary ninth Glover Trophy win at the Goodwood Revival. Racing the Jim Clark Lotus Type 25 owned by Australian John Bowers, Andy managed to hold off the challenging Ferrari to win by just 0.038 seconds.

More images from this two-day Lotus extravaganza held at East Carleton Manor. Use this CTL link to see an online library of more images from the weekend.

The Chapman Family were pleased to welcome guests to East Carleton Manor, for this, the second celebration of Hazel & Colin Heritage.

"What is the greatest racing car of the past 100 years?" Is a question as easy to ask, as the answer is hard to find. But in this, their 100th year, Motor Sport magazine have been trying to answer that very question.

A break in the qualifying sessions on Saturday at the Monaco Historique saw a tribute parade to Ayrton Senna, who passed away 30 years ago. Five iconic cars and Ayrton's Go-Kart were scheduled to complete 3-laps of the Principality with celebrity drivers that included Bruno Senna behind the wheel.

The Monaco F1 Grand Prix has always taken place at the end of May and, two weeks before this year’s Formula 1 race came another reminder of the glamour and excitement of the past, as the 14eme Grand Prix De Monaco Historique turned back the clock to the golden era of F1. The weekend is a tribute to, what some might say, is an age of smaller, louder, less sophisticated but more interesting machines, featuring plenty of legendary and championship-winning cars.

The weekend of March 29-31 saw Lotus Day 2024 at the Zhejiang circuit in China. Clive and his sister Jane were delighted to be invited along as guests of honour by Lotus Cars and to be part of this enjoyment of Lotus.

We are delighted to be announcing the 2024 Classic Team Lotus Garden Party. This splendid Celebration of Hazel & Colin Chapman Heritage will take place over the weekend of 15 & 16 June.

In 1948 Hazel & Colin Chapman constructed their first car which became the Lotus Mark I. To celebrate 75 years of Lotus, on the 16th of December 2023, Hazel & Colin’s daughter Jane, and son Clive completed a recreation of the first ever Lotus drive that took place early in the spring of 1948.

Ayrton Senna raced his Lotus Renault type 97T chassis number 2 to his first Grand Prix victory, at Estoril in the 1985 Portuguese GP. Earlier this year there was a chance this famous car was headed for the Brazilian GP at Interlagos for a very high profile demonstration run.

Sad news. Today we learnt of the passing of Colin Crombac who died yesterday at his home in Paris. Colin James Crombac was the son of Gérard "Jabby" Crombac and his wife Catherine and was named Colin James in honour of close friends Colin Chapman and Jim Clark.