Among many other advances in its history, Lotus Cars has been revolutionized the Formula 1 car on three different occasions, innovations that embraced feathery weight, ground effects and even turbine power. Cutting-edge engineering is still very much what this specialist automaker is all about, especially when it comes to road cars that mortals can buy. We looked with interest on last week’s announcement by Group Lotus, as it’s now officially known, that its consulting subsidiary of Lotus Engineering will establish a new technology center in partnership with WMG and the University of Warwick, where about 130 engineers will work on advanced research projects. They will thus join the engineering staff of some 500 radical thinkers that now design Lotus road cars at the marque’s production headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk, in the United Kingdom.
The artist’s impression shows what the new technology center on the University of Warwick’s Wellesbourne campus, located in the Midlands region of Great Britain, will look like. As a geographical marker, the center will be located near Stratford-on-Avon. The technological partnership between Lotus and WMG, formerly known as the Warwick Manufacturing Group, will see the staff at Wellesbourne working on academics, teaching, training and production technologies relevant to future Lotus Group production cars. One such discipline will be the development of advanced propulsion, very much in vogue in today’s auto industry. We can only imagine that Lotus founder Colin Chapman, himself a degreed aeronautical engineer, would have been pleased at this news. Lotus Engineering was established as a free-standing subsidiary of the automaker since 1980s. Its past projects have included development of the Vauxhall/Opel-based Lotus Carlton sedan, various F1 projects, track bikes, boats, and light aircraft, with a strong emphasis on lightweight structures and vehicle dynamics.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 