Discussion
Team Lotus is a separate entity to Lotus Cars and is still owned by the Chapman family. I believe they operate race cars for many series and provide customer support to historic F1 cars. As previously states, the attempted F1 bid was from a separate company that supplies services to Team Lotus.
IIRC -
Classic Team Lotus ios the group now run by Clive Chapman, which basically looks after old F1 cars, maintains customer cars etc. Seen much of their collection and Clive is always happy to chat and show off his toys!
Team Lotus and Lotus F1 names are not any longer owned by the family although I could be wrong on this.
Lotus (both the company and the Chapman family) have both said they do not back the new so-called Lotus F1 team. It has no association with either and I seem to recall rumours of legal action to protect their name.
Much though I would love to see Lotus in F1 again they have always maintained that they would not do so unless they had the money and skills to be able to compete at the level that the team is still remembered for in its heyday.
Classic Team Lotus ios the group now run by Clive Chapman, which basically looks after old F1 cars, maintains customer cars etc. Seen much of their collection and Clive is always happy to chat and show off his toys!
Team Lotus and Lotus F1 names are not any longer owned by the family although I could be wrong on this.
Lotus (both the company and the Chapman family) have both said they do not back the new so-called Lotus F1 team. It has no association with either and I seem to recall rumours of legal action to protect their name.
Much though I would love to see Lotus in F1 again they have always maintained that they would not do so unless they had the money and skills to be able to compete at the level that the team is still remembered for in its heyday.
Pappa Lurve said:
Much though I would love to see Lotus in F1 again they have always maintained that they would not do so unless they had the money and skills to be able to compete at the level that the team is still remembered for in its heyday.
+1. Their demise with that sorry effort with Pacific in 1995 was bad enough - we don't need another brand engineering endeavour from someone wishing to cash in on the cachet of the badge. Autosport article from June: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75997
"Permission to use the Lotus name had apparently been granted by rights-holder David Hunt, however the Lotus company challenged that in a statement released today."
"Permission to use the Lotus name had apparently been granted by rights-holder David Hunt, however the Lotus company challenged that in a statement released today."
luke111s said:
Autosport article from June: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75997
"Permission to use the Lotus name had apparently been granted by rights-holder David Hunt, however the Lotus company challenged that in a statement released today."
also, classic team lotus has sod all to do with David Hunt"Permission to use the Lotus name had apparently been granted by rights-holder David Hunt, however the Lotus company challenged that in a statement released today."
if I remember rightly, the entry was by Litespeed F3 team.
Scuffers said:
luke111s said:
Autosport article from June: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75997
"Permission to use the Lotus name had apparently been granted by rights-holder David Hunt, however the Lotus company challenged that in a statement released today."
also, classic team lotus has sod all to do with David Hunt"Permission to use the Lotus name had apparently been granted by rights-holder David Hunt, however the Lotus company challenged that in a statement released today."
if I remember rightly, the entry was by Litespeed F3 team.
Clive chapman runs classic and runs the cars up to 91-the point at which the chapman family sold out to the peter collins/peter wright partnership. David hunt took over team lotus from the recievers of team lotus at the end of 94 and spent nearly 5 years trying to get back to f1,despite the hard work of several people (an i know as i was one of them !)team never made it.David has passed the name on to Lightspeed who are run by an ex lotus cars guy an a ex team lotus guy.Lotus cars an others are just trying to muddy the waters same as they did from 94 onwards,do you think if someone was using the name illegally they would let it pass ?
The RTN factory is still empty an avalible an there are still lots of "real" racing ex team lotus people nearby alough im not sure how much space there is for "real" teams in f1 these days
The RTN factory is still empty an avalible an there are still lots of "real" racing ex team lotus people nearby alough im not sure how much space there is for "real" teams in f1 these days
It would be great to have the Lotus name back in F1 but its important that some of the "spirit" of Lotus is part and parcel of that organisation not just the name , it would have to have some sort of mentorship from experienced ex-employees etc otherwise the name wouldn't mean anything.
RedexR said:
It would be great to have the Lotus name back in F1 but its important that some of the "spirit" of Lotus is part and parcel of that organisation not just the name , it would have to have some sort of mentorship from experienced ex-employees etc otherwise the name wouldn't mean anything.
you could actually argue the exact opposite.... (there are far more ex.Lotus staff with real race experience than current)The thing that made team so diffrent was the bigger the s
t fight was, the more effort people put in and pulled out all the stops.when collin chapman built the race shop at kett hall it was state of the art compared to the other teams but once the old man died team stayed where it was an other teams ended up head an shoulders above lotus but the lotus spirit managed to keep the team going.People really preformed miracles to do what they did an build the cars in the last few years of team.You look what all the big teams of today were doing from the late 80,s you will see they were investing in the future
F1 is so big now if you come back you will need more than the old team spirit f1 is at a totally diffrent level now even a small place like williams is 500 people and how the teams are set up and operate is so proffesional and organised people are just little cogs in the machine theres not much room for spirit
t fight was, the more effort people put in and pulled out all the stops.when collin chapman built the race shop at kett hall it was state of the art compared to the other teams but once the old man died team stayed where it was an other teams ended up head an shoulders above lotus but the lotus spirit managed to keep the team going.People really preformed miracles to do what they did an build the cars in the last few years of team.You look what all the big teams of today were doing from the late 80,s you will see they were investing in the future F1 is so big now if you come back you will need more than the old team spirit f1 is at a totally diffrent level now even a small place like williams is 500 people and how the teams are set up and operate is so proffesional and organised people are just little cogs in the machine theres not much room for spirit
RedexR said:
It would be great to have the Lotus name back in F1 but its important that some of the "spirit" of Lotus is part and parcel of that organisation not just the name , it would have to have some sort of mentorship from experienced ex-employees etc otherwise the name wouldn't mean anything.
Ahem 
mchammer89 said:
Scuffers said:
luke111s said:
Autosport article from June: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/75997
"Permission to use the Lotus name had apparently been granted by rights-holder David Hunt, however the Lotus company challenged that in a statement released today."
also, classic team lotus has sod all to do with David Hunt"Permission to use the Lotus name had apparently been granted by rights-holder David Hunt, however the Lotus company challenged that in a statement released today."
if I remember rightly, the entry was by Litespeed F3 team.
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