Event Focus: Brands Hatch Coffee Morning – 1st March 2014

Posted on 24th February 2014

Lotus-on-Track are at Brands Hatch on Saturday 1st March for a track day on the Indy Circuit ahead of this years LoTRDC season, and even if you aren’t taking part on the track day you can pop along to take advantage of their hospitality with some great free offers including:

  • Free tea and coffee for all Lotus club members at the Essex Autosport garage.
  • Free raffle, with prizes including Andrew Kitson prints and LoTRDC season passes.
  • Free passenger rides with Lotus garages and LoTRDC drivers if signed up before lunch. (Over 20’s only)
  • Free entry to Brands Hatch including access to the GP Paddock.
  • Free fitting and £50 Lotus on Track voucher on Avon ZZR tyres purchased on the day. (Terms and conditions apply)

To find out more and register your interest be sure to check out our forum thread.

Also don’t forget if you’re looking to take part in this years Lotus Cup UK Speed Championship 2014 time is running out to register – be sure to visit the LoTRDC site for more details!

Posted in LoTRDC, Motorsport | Tagged , , , , ,

Lotus Cars – The Elise S Cup R makes global debut at Autosport 2014

Posted on 5th January 2014

Elise S Cup RIf you’re heading up to Autosport International 2014 next weekend then be sure to take a look at the Lotus Motorsport stand where they’ll be showing off the new Elise S Cup R alongside the existing Exige V6 Cup R and Evora GT4 models.

Classic Team Lotus will also be in attendance, showing off their latest, as yet unannounced, renovation, teased on their Facebook page as “one of the greatest ever Team Lotus F1 chassis which has not been seen for decades”.

Source: Lotus Cars – The Elise S Cup R makes global debut at Autosport 2014
Source: Facebook – Classic Team Lotus set to spring a surprise at Autosport International 2014

Discussion: SELOC Chat – Elise S Cup R at Autosport Show – Birmingham

Posted in Classic Team Lotus, Group Lotus, GT Racing, LoTRDC, Motorsport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

UK registrations for Lotus Cars see 56% year-on-year increase

Posted on 10th December 2013

The latest figures published by the SMMT were published last week and show that UK registrations of Lotus Cars grew 56% for the January-November time period compared to 2012 – a positive sign that things are on the up once again at Hethel.

2012 saw new registrations of Lotus’ fall dramatically in the UK, with the takeover of Proton by DRB-Hicom all but halting production at the factory as auditing and process improvements were carried out and consumer confidence being hurt amongst uncertainty over the companies future. Although 2013 UK registrations of 193 cars for the year to date are certainly an improvement over 2012, they still lag behind the 2011 figures of over 300 cars for the full year registrations, but we’d . Hopefully this trend can continue in to 2014.

Source: SMMT – New car registrations in November overtake 2012 full-year total
Discussion: SELOC Chat – Lotus UK registrations up 56% vs. 2012

Posted in Group Lotus | Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Lotus F1 Team – Grosjean and Maldonado to Drive for Lotus F1 Team in 2014

Posted on 2nd December 2013

Lotus F1 Team 2014 LineupThe Lotus F1 Team has announced its 2014 driver line-up, with Pastor Maldonado replacing the departing Kimi Raikkonen while Grosjean stays on for a third consecutive season with the team.

The choice of Maldonado has been a controversial one, with many hoping that the team would be able to secure the services of Nico Hulkenberg, but the Venezuelan will bring some much needed additional sponsorship to the team.

Source: Lotus F1 Team – Grosjean and Maldonado to Drive for Lotus F1 Team in 2014
Discussion: SELOC Chat – F1 Lotus confirms Maldonado

Posted in Lotus F1 Team | Tagged , , , , , ,

Lotus Cars – Multi-Million Pound Boost for Lotus

Posted on 25th November 2013

29048_Dr-Vince-Cable-MP-Lotus-Cars-25_11_13_1a_1024x719Business Secretary, Vince Cable MP, paid a visit to Hethel today as it was announced that the Regional Growth Fund had awarded £10.44m to Lotus to be invested in to product R&D, staff training and the creation of over 300 new jobs.

Source: Lotus Cars – Multi-Million Pound Boost for Lotus

The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) has awarded Lotus £10.44 million, which will be used for research and development of products, along with staff training. In addition Lotus is expected to create 313 new full time jobs to support production over the coming years. Continue reading →

Posted in Group Lotus | Tagged , , , , ,

Nitron SELOC Speed Championship 2013 Roundup

Posted on 28th October 2013

Xavier with NitronsOctober saw the culmination of the 2013 Championship which saw Xavier Brooke (Brooke Bond) crowned as the overall championship winner.  Xav has dominated the timesheets throughout the entire season which he has waged in his budget S1.  The prize this year, generously donated by Nitron, was a set of 46mm Race Pro shocks, which have already been supplied and fitted.

Article: Nitron SELOC Speed Championship 2013 Roundup
Discussion: Motor Sport – 2014 sprinting

Posted in LoTRDC, Motorsport, SELOC | Tagged , , , , ,

Deacon and Napier are crowned Lotus Cup UK Champions as Kershaw wins in the dark

Posted on 28th October 2013
Image courtesy of Snappyracers.com

Image courtesy of Snappyracers.com

The 2014 Lotus Cup UK season finished in style at Snetterton this weekend, with Simon Deacon taking the SuperSport championship, while Andy Napier claimed the Production champsionship title.

Simon Deacon and Andy Napier claimed the SuperSport and Production championships respectively in an incident-packed final round of the 2013 Lotus Cup UK season at Snetterton yesterday (Sunday 27 October).

Poleman Ken Savage battled with Steve Train, Ben Hetherington and Jamie Stanley in the opening
laps, but the former two retired early on under an extended safety car period caused by Rob  Fenn’s stranded Elise and then a further incident at the initial restart. This gave Deacon and Napier a boost in their title aspirations as full points were awarded after the first hour. Continue reading →

Posted in LoTRDC

Lotus hints at future models…

Posted on 21st October 2013

Elise Cup RLotus have dropped hints of possible future model variants for both the Elise and Evora in recent weeks in brochures and on social media.

First up came a teaser for the Elise Cup R in the latest Lotus Racing brochure. Details in the brochure are non-existent beyond “Coming Soon”, with even the associate image coming from a previous model. The moniker suggests be that, as with the Exige Cup R, this will purely big a track focused model build by Lotus Racing for the various Lotus Cup series run around the world in 2014, and not a road model to sit above the recently launched Elise S Club Racer.

The second piece of information is (amazingly) even less clear, with Lotus sharing a Bridge To Gantry video of a rear wing equipped Evora S running at the Nurburgring on an industry pool day on Facebook and, whilst commenting on the nature of testing at the Nurburgring, make reference to that it is “one of our latest test Evoras”.

The car appears to be one of the companies MY12 test mules, running on a ’61’ plate, and could potentially have been modified to test updates or upgrades for a future model – or it could all just be a red herring…

Discussion: SELOC Chat – New Evora model testing at the Ring?

Posted in Group Lotus, LoTRDC | Tagged , , , , ,

Charity evening with Ross Brawn raises £14,609 for HALOW and Little Haven Children’s Hospice

Posted on 1st October 2013

3M4A6309-shrinkA number of SELOC members were at the Silverstone BRDC Clubhouse last Friday with the Elise Garden Party for a charity evening with Ross Brawn, raising £14,609 for HALOW and the Little Haven Children’s Hospice.

Brawn was joined by esteemed motor racing journalist Alan Henry and auctioneer and former F1 driver Martin Donnelly for what proved to be an interesting evening raising money for two great causes.

Discussion: SELOC Chat – Ross Brawn at the BRDC

Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, SELOC | Tagged , , , , , , ,

Exige V6 and Evora S performance upgrades now available from Hangar 111

Posted on 25th September 2013

Lotus Exige S - EngineLucky enough to own an Exige V6 or Evora S, but feel like it needs a little more power? Then good news, because Hangar 111 are now offering the KomoTec EX390 and EX410 engine upgrades for the supercharged Toyota 2GR-FE engined models.

Further details of the upgrades can be found below or by contacting Hangar 111.

Discussion: Technical Discussion – Evora engine upgrade Hangar 111
 Continue reading →

Posted in Group Lotus | Tagged , , , , , , ,