Lotus F1 Team – European GP 2012 – Friday Practice

Posted on 22nd June 2012

It’s the European GP this weekend in the Spanish city of Valencia, with the on track activity kicking off with the Friday practice sessions.

FP1 was used to try out upgrades for the E20, including a revised floor, rear suspension, front wing and steering adjustments, while in FP2 both Raikkonen and Grosjean completed over 30 laps as the team focused on it’s race pace.

Lotus F1 Team – Haring Round the Harbour – European Grand Prix, Free Practice 1 [Report + Pictures]
Lotus F1 Team – Go Long! – European Grand Prix, Free Practice 2 [Report + Pictures]

Discussion: SELOC Chat – European F1 1st practise now on

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Boston and Maidstone Sports Cars Win Again At Castle Combe

Posted on 19th June 2012

The weekends Elise Trophy and Lotus Cup UK races at Castle Combe saw a pair of familiar winners, with Rob Boston and Maidstone Sports Cars Adrian Hall repeating the results from last months outing at Brands Hatch.

Rob Boston dominated both Elise Trophy races, stretching out a 10 second lead in first race before a late safety car bunched up the field and winning comfortably in the wet in the second race.

In the 90-minute Lotus Cup UK race the Maidstone Sports Cars entry was outpaced by the Hofmanns Motorsport Europa and Go Green Motorsport Elise in the early stages, but came through to take the victory as the competition struggled with the changing conditions and unreliability.

Both series are back in action next month at Oulton Park on July 28th.

Discussion: SELOC Chat – Elise Trophy & Lotus Cup UK 2012

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Event Focus: Elise Trophy and Lotus Cup UK, Castle Combe, June 16th

Posted on 14th June 2012

The LoTRDC are back at Castle Combe this weekend, with the Elise Trophy returning to the circuit after missing out the circuit from the 2011 calendar, while the Lotus Cup UK series makes it’s first visit to the circuit.

The Elise Trophy will see series newcomer Rob Boston hoping to stay ahead of the pack having taken 3 wins from 4 races in the opening 2 rounds at Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Meanwhile the Lotus Cup UK series will see not just the Elises, Exiges, Europas and 2-Elevens battling each other, but also the new for 2012 Evora GTNs.

Tickets are priced at just £10 for the Saturday, with free entry for Under 16’s. You can buy tickets on the gate and find out more in our forum thread.

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Lotus Cars – Something From The Weekend (13th June 2012)

Posted on 13th June 2012

Lotus have another update on their motorsport activities over the past week, with strong finishes in the F1 in Canada, German Formula 3 and Formel Masters, news that the Exige R-GT will finally make it’s debut as the course car at the Geko Ypres Rally, and disappointment once again in Indycar.

FORMULA ONE – CANADIAN GRAND PRIX

Lotus was back on the podium in Montreal after Romain Grosjean clinched the best result of his F1 career so far with second place. Starting seventh on the grid on used super-soft tyres, he switched to new softs on Lap 21. When the leading cars of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, who were also one-stopping, struggled on old rubber in the final ten laps, two-stopping Lewis Hamilton was able to charge through and win. Romain was not far behind though after a spell of brilliant tyre management, passing Alonso for P2 on Lap 66 of 70. Continue reading →

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Lotus F1 Team – Canadian GP – Race Report

Posted on 10th June 2012

Lotus F1 Team proved the masters of the 1-stop strategy today, with Grosjean making his tyres last and enabling him to pass both Alonso and Vettel in the closing stages to take 2nd place and his second podium of the season behind the 2-stopping Hamilton.

Grosjean kept a low profile through out the race, losing positions early on but avoiding damaging the car and managed his tyres perfectly with a long first stint on the super soft tyres allowing him to attack Alonso and Vettel in the closing stages as they wore out their Pirellis.

Raikkonen, starting further back on the grid, attempted the reverse on Grosjeans strategy, running a very long first stint on the soft Prime tyres, then running to the end on the super soft Options. Time was lost for Raikkonen fighting in amongst the pack, and he came in 8th.

Discussion: Chapman Arms – Canada F1…..

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Lotus Festival Site Updated

Posted on 10th June 2012

The Lotus Festival website has been given a redesign ahead of this years gathering at Brands Hatch in August.

Last year at Snetterton was great and this year promises to be even better, with rally demonstrations around the Brands Hatch tarmac rally stage and air acrobatic displays along with the usual racing from the LoTRDC Elise Trophy and Lotus Cup UK series, Classic Team Lotus and Lotus Racing demonstrations, and live entertainment – including the return (despite popular demand) of Geoff Leppard…

If you’re looking to camp for the whole weekend event then you can sign up and buy camping tickets exclusively through SELOC, while Saturday, Sunday and non-camping weekend tickets are available at a discounted rate for SELOC and other club members.

Source: Lotus Festival
Discussion: SELOC Down the Hatch 16th-19th Aug 2012 – New Lotus-Festival.com website

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Lotus CEO Dany Bahar Sacked

Posted on 7th June 2012

It is being reported that the Board for Group Lotus plc have chosen to terminate the contract of company CEO Dany Bahar after a 2 week suspension following an internal complaint.

Although the full details have yet to be disclosed it is believed to centre around excessive expenses racked up by the former Red Bull and Ferrari executive during his 3 years at the helm of Lotus.

At this stage it appears the board has appointed DRB-HICOM’s Head of Vehicle Manufacturing Projects, Aslam Farikullah, to replace him.

Source: EDP24 – Lotus boss Dany Bahar dismissed
Discussion: SELOC Chat – Bahar sacked!

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Lotus Sport UK – Back At Full Strength For Rockingham

Posted on 7th June 2012

Lotus Sport UK will be looking to keep up their strong run of form as they head to Rockingham for the next round of the British GT Championship.

Source: Lotus Sport UK – Back At Full Strength For Rockingham

Lotus Sport UK head to Rockingham with two cars and will be looking to emulate their winning performance last time out at Nurburgring.

Race winners Phil Glew and Sailesh Bolisetti took the chance to test at the Northamptonshire circuit last week and were very happy with the results. Continue reading →

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Test Driven: Exige S

Posted on 5th June 2012

With the dealer demos beginning at Lotus Silverstone last week, we took a trip up to experience the new 345bhp, V6 engined Exige S.

You can read our thoughts on this hotly anticipated new model from Lotus in our Test Drive report, or see what the press made of it in our review roundup…

Don’t forget you can have your say on the review, or if you’ve driven the car let us know what you thought in our forums.

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Allon White – Saturday Breakfast Club – June 2nd

Posted on 31st May 2012

Allon White are hosting their Saturday Breakfast Club this weekend at their Bedfordshire garage, with this months focus being Performance and Upgrades Workshop.

The guys from Allon White will be serving bacon rolls, tea, coffee and chocolate biscuits from 9am and Chris Brown will be paying a visit from the Lotus factory to discuss performance upgrades for the Elise and Exige.

As well as this they’ll be offering free ‘Geo’ checks on all Lotus models using their new Super Tracker computerised 4-wheel alignment during the morning.

You can find out more on the Allon White website.

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