Lotus Open Day

Pics from the 60th birthday celebrations at Hethel

By Oli S / Wednesday, 17 September 2008 / Loading comments

All Lotus models on display

Sixty years after Colin Chapman founded Lotus the company opened its doors on Sunday to the public. Colin's wife Hazel, his son Clive and CEO of Group Lotus Mike Kimberley invited the public to the factory in Hethel to see every step of the production line, from paint shop to final inspection.

Lotus is currently building the Elise, Exige, 2-Eleven and Europa and production of the all new 2+2 Evora sportscar will start towards end of the year. Lotus is also building the Tesla Roadster.

Lotus had a special customized Europa SE worth £150,000 on display. This car has a special interior and features £111,000 worth of diamonds, but for security reasons the show car on display had replica diamonds fitted. The 'Project Eagle Development Story' showed the steps of the development from the first model, the chassis, the first test mule (a heavily modified blue Esprit), the first prototypes, the crash test cars, the work of Alpine for the multi media system, the Toyota engine and finally the showcar 'Evora' for the British motor show.

Lotus Design also showed the interior model of the Evora, the M250 Project car and the APX show car. Designer Russell Carr and his team were on hand to speak to customers and to explain their work. The engineering facilities were opened up and past and present projects were on display.

Many parts like engines, suspension and even the chassis to complete cars like the Exige 270E or a Proton with hybrid technology were on show. The motorsport division of Lotus - Lotus Sport - opened its doors and the Exige GT3 race car and road concept car on display as well as the legendary Elise GT1.

High speed demonstration laps for passengers with a Lotus test driver on the test track were available and Lotus Trim, the customizing division of Lotus was showing many examples of its work. One employee built the interior of a Europa SE during the open day.

Classic Team Lotus owner Clive Chapman had his new race truck and a selection of some old formula 1 cars on display. Lotus Clubs were showing a selection of all Lotus road cars from different years and more than 15,000 people from all over the world attended the open day.

Mike Kimberley official opening	Lotus Elise GT1 race and road car
Esprit mule part of Evora story	Rear of Esprit/Eagle mule
Selection of Lotus race cars	Tesla Roadster
Lotus Evora on show	Lotus Trim shows of its products
GT3 race car and road car concept	Passenger rides on the track
Lotus Evora	Lotus Carlton on display
Solar yellow Lotus Exige S	Lotus Evora test car
Production line	More production line!