Nigel Allen

Born on 31st January 1932, two and a half years after his brother Michael, Nigel was the last surviving member of the original "Lotus gang" of Colin Chapman, Hazel Williams and Michael Allen. With his brother Michael, Nigel probably did more than anybody else to set Colin and Hazel Chapman on their way to the formation of Lotus Engineering Ltd. and the Lotus brand.

Without the Allen brother’s considerable engineering skills, tools, garage and enthusiasm (not forgetting their mother Jennie Allen’s tea and biscuits!) (above) the Lotus Mark III would probably not have become the huge success it did in 1951.

In 1950 the brothers lived with their parents at 104 Vallance Road (above), and both were intending to follow in the footsteps of their dentist father, Michael was studying for the dental preliminary examinations, but Nigel was already on the main course at Kings College in London. They were both interested in cars, and their father had encouraged them in their hobby to the extent of equipping their large double garage with a mouth-watering range of tools and equipment.

Towards the end of 1950 they had noticed a young man driving slowly past their house on a number of occasions. One day he stopped in and introduced himself. The Allens proudly showed him their lovely workshop, and Colin must have blessed the day he stopped at their house; this was exactly what he needed to make a proper job of his new car!

Nigel recalled: "I think Colin couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw all the facilities. Before long we were all the best of friends and we started building the Mark III, which is when the photo of the three of us, Michael with Colin and me behind (above) was taken in the new garage with the drawing board propped up on a brake drum."

"Michael and I did a huge amount of work on the Mark III. I did most of the chassis work and the welding on the cylinder head while Michael worked on the block by de-siamesing the inlet ports. After fitting a steel division between the ports, he spent hours using a rotary file to reshape the apperture until a 7/8" wooden ball on a stick would pass down each inlet tract."

Nigel and Michael both worked on the design and development of the Mark VI and Nigel raced the Ford Consul powered development car XML 6 (above) extensively in 1952 and into 1953.

In 1953 the Allen brothers withdrew from Lotus Engineering Ltd. and went on to pursue careers elsewhere. Michael remained in engineering while Nigel concentrated on the important task of passing his final examinations to become a dental surgeon, soon opening a new Dental Surgery in Cheshunt, co-incidentally very close to where Lotus would open their new factory in Delamare Road a few years later.

Despite being a dentist, Nigel had not lost his interest in mechanical things and worked on developing, producing, and patenting new systems of high-sped, air-driven dental drills that would later use new air-bearing technology he helped develop.

The result of this activity is that for over 25 years, as well as continuing in dental practice, Nigel was in the forefront of air-bearing activity, with the formation of two companies engaged in bearing production. They had a worldwide reputation and ensured that the various industries using the air bearing principals were able to produce better silicon chips for the electronics industry, high speed drills and grinding equipment, and near perfect optical quality on contact lenses, optical mirrors, and polygons. The commonest version of the latter may be seen rotating under the scanner in your local supermarket checkout.

Having had little involvement with Lotus for over 40 years in the late 1990s both Nigel and Michael were happy to get involved with the brand again. They were always ready to share their knowledge and give valuable advice to enthusiasts engaged in the rebuilding of some of the early Lotus cars that they both had a hand in developing with the Colin and Hazel Chapman all those years ago!

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