Lotus Cars is a British automotive company that manufactures sports cars and racing cars in its headquarters in Hethel, United Kingdom. Lotus cars include the Esprit, Elan, Europa, Elise, Exige and Evora sports cars and it had motor racing success with Team Lotus in Formula One. Lotus Cars are based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics. It also owns the engineering consultancy firm Lotus Engineering, which has facilities in the United Kingdom, United States, China, and Malaysia.
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, was an influential English design engineer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars.
Michael Henderson Spence was a British racing driver from England. He participated in 37 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 8 September 1963. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 27 championship points. He also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races, as well as sports car racing.
Stebro was a Canadian constructor of Formula Junior racing cars. The team also competed in one Formula One race, the 1963 United States Grand Prix, where their one car finished in seventh place.
Nota Sports and Racing Cars is an automobile manufacturer in Australia. The company was founded by Guy Buckingham in 1952. He was an aircraft engineer and used his expertise to build triangulated spaceframed sportscars. Possibly Australia's first space-framed cars. In 1958 the company built a series of all-enveloping aluminium streamlined sports cars. First called "Streamliners", and later called "Mazengarbs". Up to 1960 eleven of those were made. In the late 1950s the company produced Formula Junior cars in both front and mid-engined formats. Nota also made a series of specialist monoposto racing cars for the track and hill climbing events. In 1963 the company made a series of Mini powered sports cars. In 1964 they started production of the Nota Sapphire, an alloy bodied sports and coupe designs with Ford Fiat and Coventry Climax engines. In 1965 Nota started producing Formula Vee cars for Warrick Farm race track making 34 in the first year. In the 1960s the company formulated their "Sportsman", a Lotus 7 lookalike, which they still build today and are now building in a mid-engined version for the modern day transverse engines which the major car manufacturers produce. In 1968 came the Nota Fang Chris Buckinghams first real design, a midengined sports car using a Cooper S engine power plant behind the driver but in front of the rear wheels, their most successful model with over 100 being made. Later the Fang was equipped with Lancia engines, then Toyota engines, finally being fitted with Toyota's V6 Quad cam supercharged engines with over 400BHP. In 1973 Nota started with their Marauder range of cars using the same mechanicals as the Nota Fang. At the same time they were making the Nota Levanti front engine twin cam coupe. In 1975 the supply of Leyland 1275 GT engines started to run out so Nota contacted FIAT and both Marauders and Fangs were made with the 2-litre twin cam FIAT/Lancia engine.
Leyland were then approached and the P76 engine was fitted to the Marauders using a Nota made gearbox trans-axle with the gear box next to the driver and the engine behind.
In the late 1970s Nota had started on 4WD 351 V8 mid-engined Marauders, but in the 1980s Ford stopped export of the 351 engine to Australia. After a trip to England Chris Buckingham assembled a design team to design a Fang with Fl 3 litre V6 quad cam engine as well as a fully enclosed, similarly specified Chimera. In 2003 Nota developed the Nota Le Mans, powered by either a Suzuki GTi 1300 cc or 1100 cc motor cycle engine. For road use it could also use a Toyota 1800 cc VVTi 6-speed or the 3.5-litre V6 quad cam. By 2012 Nota had decided that due to the lack of front engine rear wheel drive 4 cylinder engine being available they would use an existing front-engined Nota clubman chassis and move the seats forward by 150mm and fit a transverse engine behind the driver. It looks just like their front-engined clubmans but with the advantage of a mid-engined design.
Kurt Kuhnke was a racing driver from Germany, although he was more successful in motorcycle racing.
The Lotus 31 was a racing car produced by Lotus for the new 1-litre Formula 3 introduced in 1964, replacing the expensive Formula Junior. The chassis was a multi-tubular spaceframe, of similar design to the 1962 Lotus 22 Formula Junior. A 997 cc (60.8 cu in) Ford Cosworth 105E with Single Choke Weber or SU carburettors produced 97 bhp (72 kW) at 8000rpm. The 31 had little success against the more advanced monocoque cars that dominated in 1964. Records show only 12 were built in 1964/5.
The Lotus 32 was a Formula 2 racing car built by Team Lotus in 1964. It was developed from the Lotus 27 Formula Junior model. Twelve cars were produced, four of which were run by Ron Harris Team Lotus, whose drivers included Jim Clark and Mike Spence. Spence won the 1964 Autocar British Formula 2 Championship while Clark was fourth in the Trophées de France Championship.
The Lotus 112 was the proposed 1995 Formula One car of Team Lotus.
The Lotus 79 was a Formula One car designed in late 1977 by Colin Chapman, Geoff Aldridge, Martin Ogilvie, Tony Rudd and Peter Wright of Lotus.
The Lotus 18 was a race car designed by Colin Chapman for use by Lotus in Formula Junior, Formula Two, and Formula One.
The Lola Mk4 and the derivative Mk4A were Formula One racing cars constructed by the Lola company in 1962. They were designed by Lola founder, owner and Chief Designer Eric Broadley at the request of Reg Parnell, proprietor of the Bowmaker Racing Team. The Mk4 was the first design that Lola produced for the top tier of motorsport.
The Lotus-Ford Twin Cam is an inline-four petrol engine developed by Lotus for the 1962 Lotus Elan. A few early examples displaced 1.5 litres, but the majority were 1.6-litre engines. It used a Ford 116E iron cylinder block and a new aluminium cylinder head with dual overhead camshafts. The Twin Cam was used in a variety of vehicles until Lotus stopped production in 1973. It was succeeded by the Lotus 907 engine.
The Lotus 22 was a racing car built by Lotus cars in 1962, and a total of 77 cars were built. It was developed from the 1962 Lotus 20, with the major differences that it had disc brakes all round, a top link and the 'rubber donut' to the rear suspension and a dry sump engine that was canted over to lower the centre of gravity. Also notable is the smoother bodywork covering the engine, compared to the boxy design of the 20.
The Brabham BT3 is a Formula One racing car. It was the first Formula One design to be produced by Motor Racing Developments for the Brabham Racing Organisation, and debuted at the 1962 German Grand Prix. The Brabham BT3 was the vehicle with which team owner – then two-time World Champion – Jack Brabham, became the first driver ever to score World Championship points in a car bearing his own name, at the 1962 United States Grand Prix. The following year Brabham also became the first driver ever to win a Formula One race at the wheel of an eponymous car, again driving the BT3, at the 1963 Solitude Grand Prix. The BT3 design was modified only slightly to form the Tasman Series-specification Brabham BT4 cars.
The BRM P61 was a Formula One racing car built for the 1963 Formula One season. It was BRM's first attempt at the monocoque design introduced by Lotus a year earlier. Fundamental design issues would mean the car only competed 2 Grands Prix before being garaged in favor of the older, more reliable spaceframe P57. A redesigned monocoque car, dubbed the P261, was introduced for 1964.
Colotti Trasmissioni is an Italian mechanical engineering firm located in Modena, Italy. It specializes in gears, limited-slip differentials and transmission systems for racing cars.
