On 15th August Elio De Angelis won the 1982 Austrian Grand Prix. The next day Chris Dinnage joined Team Lotus. A good couple of days for the Lotus marque. Bob Dance, who interviewed Chris in 1982, retained his application form complete with Bob’s note saying ‘This guy is worth a try, I reckon’. (40 years on and Bob has no regrets!)
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The Gold Cup weekend at Oulton Park in Cheshire saw conditions across the full range of British summer weather, as a wet practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday were followed by varying degrees of dryer track conditions for the two HGPCA F1 races.
CTL were pleased to welcome Photographer/Artist Alan Thornton to the workshop this week. Alan presented Clive Chapman with the first example of his remarkable, hand-signed, limited edition art screen prints titled simply, 'Lotus 72D'.
Classic Team Lotus were pleased to run a pair of Type 18s in the recent HGPCA races run as part of the Zandvoort Masters weekend. Andrew Beaumont was in car #49 (chassis 915) while Andy Middlehurst drove car #4 (chassis 18-907) which belongs to Charles McCabe.
Yes, it really is 44-years since Ronnie Peterson took his last race victory. At the 1978 rain-soaked Austrian Grand Prix held at a Osterreichring, Ronnie took a magnificent driving Type 79/2.
After a pretty extensive rebuild over the past 6-months Lewis Cullington fired up the Lotus Cortina and took her 'home'. Congrats to all the team at CTL for getting this historical car back on the road.
East Carleton Manor, Sunday 26th June 2022 East Carleton Manor was a fitting venue for the Memorial event for Hazel Chapman, who passed away in December 2021, aged 94. The Chapman, Payton and Hepworth families welcomed around 180 guests to come together to remember Hazel and celebrate her wonderful life.
Released today on what would have been Colin Chapman’s 94th birthday, this 15-minute insight into Classic Team Lotus filmed among the fabulous collection of cars at CTL is one to watch.
All at Classic Team Lotus were very saddened to learn of the tragic death of Historic Racer and true Lotuseer Simon Diffey in a road traffic accident this past weekend.
This weekend's Monaco Historic GP is a real "Lotus Fest"
Today, Lotus unveiled the all-new Emira GT4 race car on the Hethel test track. At an exclusive event VIP guests were treated to passenger laps of the legendary 2.2-mile circuit with Gavan Kershaw, Director of Vehicle Attributes at Lotus at the wheel.
Classic Team Lotus has significantly extended it's parts service with the acquisition of the Paul Matty Sportscars Parts Business.
CTL is out testing 77/1, 78/2 and 91/8 on the Lotus Cars test track at Hethel in readiness for Monaco. Here are the cars looking fabulous outside the workshop, on a beautiful Spring day.
80 years ago, on April 18 at 5:25pm., Karl-Jochen Rindt first saw the light of day. This great image of Jochen with a Team Lotus celebratory cake was taken on Saturday of the 1970 Spanish GP. Mechanic Dougie Garner (aka Joe Ninety) is in foreground and Team Manager Dick Scammell in background.
Lotus Elan +2S 130 reg: HNG 841L was purchased new by Team Lotus Chief Mechanic Eddie Dennis directly from Lotus Cars Ltd. in August 1972. Having sold the car in 1974, Eddie bought it back in 2007 and set about restoring it to its original condition. After Eddie sadly passed away in 2017, the restoration was taken on by his family and completed in late 2021. With the spring weather improving daily, last week Eddie' family brought HNG 841L to CTL for an emotional return to Hethel, 50-years after they had first ridden in the car with Eddie.
