CTL at the Goodwood Revival 2023
The 2023 Goodwood Revival was billed as "The Greatest Show on Earth" and, for many Lotus fans it quite possibly was. As part of this year’s 75th Anniversary celebrations of the brand, Lotus was the featured marque of what is now a full four-day extravaganza of all things automotive. Team Manager Chris Dinnage coordinated the 11 mechanics for the 11 customer race cars, realising the outstanding accomplishment of 10 race finishers. CTL were unquestionably the prime movers in showcasing the Lotus brand, including 10 additional cars that joined in the daily Lotus Parade. The now customary CTL Team Photo taken late on Saturday, featuring Marks 1, 2 and 3, and with almost everyone involved in the weekends efforts, was a big one!
The weekend activities started early for CTL as truly a glorious Thursday afternoon saw Karun Chandhok, Clive Chapman, the Mark I and the Type 79 camped out at the far end of the circuit filming an introduction to Lotus at the Revival, for Goodwood TV.
After Karun interviewed Clive he was given the opportunity to drive both the recently completed 1948 Mark I recreation and the Mario Andretti's 1978 Championship winning Type 79. Experiencing thirty years of development from Hazel and Colin's first Austin Seven based car, to running the Type 79 in full "skirts down" ground-effects mode was something special.
Several car to car passes in both vehicles with both in car and boom cameras, not to mention a drone, gave the viewer a real insight into the differences between driving the two history making cars.
Following the early Lotus history theme it was great to welcome the owner of Lotus Mark 3 to the Revival. James Moores (seen here with Clive Jane and Alice) was excited to drive the Mk3 in the 75-years of Lotus parade which also saw Arthur Chapman out in the Turbine-powered Type 56B.
There were so many great Lotus cars on display it was hard to pick out your favourites, so this gathering of pre-70 Lotus F1 cars that was was pushed out for a group photoshoot on Thursday evening, managed to get eleven of the best in one go.
There was also a once in a lifetime opportunity to get three period correct 'High-wing" cars, from three different fomulas together for what we think is the first time ever. The 59B, 49B and 41X ran in F2, F1 and F3 respectively over the course of 1968-1969 and all that was missing from getting a full-hand of four high-wing cars together was a USA spec Type 70 F5000 car. Not many of those in the UK though!
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