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THE GOOD LIFE Driving


L


otus has always been different from the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. While, in years gone by, the Italians handcrafted their V12 engines and mounted them in delicate birdcages of lightweight tubing,


Lotus used four-cylinder engines and fibre glass. The 1974 Lotus Elite used an Austin Maxi gearbox, believe it or not, and the daring, wedge-shaped Esprit borrowed its doorhandles from the Morris Marina. No wonder Enzo Ferrari referred to Lotus (and other British F1 teams) as ‘garagistes’ – lowly, back-street garages who might offer you an MOT and a respray while knocking up homemade race cars. The Italians could sneer all they liked at the plastic and the proletarian parts, but Lotus still beat them on the track (winning seven F1 titles between 1963 and 1978) and the ‘James Bond’ Esprit was both lighter and quicker than the equivalent Ferrari when it was launched in 1976. Lotus has always placed perfor- mance above pedigree. The company founder, Colin Chapman, was a genius,


a maverick, a free-thinker whose mantra was ‘simplify, then add lightness’. But the resulting cars were more than just stripped-out featherweights with Marina doorhandles: they were also agile, alive and intimately communicative. Lotus became world-renowned for its expertise in suspension and steering, the subtle science of lengthening a wishbone here, stiffening a rubber bush there – dark arts that can transform the way a car drives and feels. Lotus lost its way after Chapman died of a heart


attack in 1982, but in 1996 it launched a brand new, groundbreaking car that was the true heir to his legacy: the Elise, a lightweight sports car that distilled everything that was great about the Lotus brand. Yes, it


Colin Chapman was a genius, a maverick,


a free-thinker whose mantra was ‘simplify, then add lightness’


JORDAN BUTTERS


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