Модели - Lotus (Great Britain)
Principal: Colin Chapman/ Peter Warr/ Peter Collins.Base: Hornsey, London/Cheshunt, Hertfordshire/Ketteringham Hall, Norfolk.
Founded: 1952.
Colin Chapman created Lotus Engineering, later forming Team Lotus in 1954, building sports cars from a small workshop at 7 Tottenham Lane, Hornsey, North London. After design work for Vanwall, Chapman produced his own single-seaters that soon revolutionised Grand Prix racing. On the back of Cooper''s rear engine designs, Chapman re-introduced the the monocoque chassis with the 25, as well as introducing Ford Cosworth to power the all conquering Lotus 49. The 72 emphasised a new era in lay down designs, removing the bulky radiators to side pods and in doing so produced the streamlined chisel nose. Ground Effects was the next big breakthrough with the first real effective designs in the 78 and 79. Unfortunately the twin chassis 88 got no further than practice, falling foul of technical regulations. Colin Chapman died suddenly in December 1982 and under the guidance of Peter Warr, the Team carried on, but apart from the input of Ayrton Senna, never looked like regular winners again. Peter Collins led a buy-out of the famous marque in 1991 but at the end of 1994 the receivers were called in and the team folded in January 1995.
(Grand Prix Data Book)
Stat. of Lotus (Статистика)
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