This Is How The Lotus Evora Rewarded Its 91-Year Old “Co-Founder”

This Widow Found Love Again With This Lotus

Automakers have a way of making their anniversary and just about any other celebration a big deal. They blow the trumpets so loud that no matter where you are you are likely to hear something about it.

2018 marked the 70th year of Lotus meaning it has made cars since 1948. That’s quite a long period and one that anyone should be proud of.

To mark this historic milestone, I did a number of things. First, it presented Hazel Chapman, the widow of company founder Colin Chapman with a Lotus Evora GT410 Sport, which was approved as the company’s 100,000th car. Apparently, the car was hand-built on the same site that Hazel Chapman helped establish.

It looks amazing. Painted red with a silver roof and tartan seats, the vehicle is also a tribute to the original Lotus Elan and late racer Jim Clark, who died driving a Lotus race car in 1968.

The event held last September was in itself a gathering of over 8,000 Lotus owners and enthusiasts. In attendance too were about 1,600 Lotus cars.. or Lotuses if you like. Precisely, there were Lotus road and competition cars of all ages present.

Of course, there are car makers such as Ford that would easily trash the 100,000th marks every week but for a specialist such as Lotus, this is no mean achievement. Hazel Chapman summed it emotionally.

She said, “Seventy years ago, I never dreamt that there would be a 100,000th Lotus, I’m immensely proud of the company and Colin’s legacy. Today Lotus still builds such fantastic sports cars and I’m touched to be able to see this car.”

Now a subsidiary of the Chinese Geely Holdings, the company is no doubt keen on continuing with this legacy.