David Hewitt, Operations Director for Group Lotus, has joined a select list of captains of industry to promote manufacturing in the United Kingdom.

The Make It In Great Britain campaign calls upon individuals, businesses and media to get behind British manufacturing and challenge the misconception that “Britain doesn’t build anything anymore” – an outdated view that restricts investment, finance and recruitment to one of the country’s most vital sectors.

Business Minister Mark Prisk said, “The outdated perception of the manufacturing industry does not match the reality of today. Make it in Great Britain is all about encouraging support for the sector, dispelling myths and encouraging greater interest in industry by young people and investors .”

David Hewitt has a wealth of experience and knowledge of the modern manufacturing environment, making him best placed to spread the good news we have to tell. That is why I want industry champions like David to generate excitement and interest amongst our young people and future workforce”.

David Hewitt joins 29 other experienced executives, from some of Britain’s most successful and reputable companies, in promoting the government-backed campaign. Group Lotus is one of just five automotive enterprises represented, the others being the Williams F1 Team, Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Nissan.

Group Lotus is at the forefront of Britain’s high-tech and automotive engineering industries. Since the first Lotus car was built in 1948, the Lotus brand has been synonymous with innovation, style, and success on and off the race track. With five exciting new models in the pipeline and £509 million pounds planned investment at its factory in Hethel, Norfolk, over the next five years, Lotus is a proud British company with a strong future.

“Britain is a nation of innovators,” explains David Hewitt. “Just look at all the brilliant products and inventions that have originated right here in theUK.

“Lotus is a great British company with a rightful place among the very best our country offers in both manufacturing and engineering,” Hewitt continues. “I want to show that British manufacturing can be an exciting, challenging and rewarding place to be.”

We’re launching a special edition of a special edition, and to make things extra special our Lotus F1 Team driver Kimi Raikkonen will be there to field questions.  Now, it doesn’t get more special than that…

Who:             Kimi Raikkonen

What:            A limited-edition F1-inspired Lotus Evora GTE

Where:         Geneva Motor Show, Palexpo, Hall 2, Stand 2230

When:           From 11.15am (CET), 6^th March 2012

Why:             Kimi doesn’t talk much, he’s a man of action rather than words but he’ll be making an exception in our case.  If you would like to speak with the former F1 World Champion directly after our press conference at the Geneva Motor Show, contact our press office for more details on group interview opportunities

Lotus F1 Team will not run for the remainder of the second test at Barcelona, scheduled from today until Friday.

During initial runs this morning with Romain Grosjean at the wheel, the team identified an issue with the chassis. After investigation at Enstone, initial plans to bring out chassis E20-01 to Barcelona have been held in order to give the team enough time to rectify the situation.

Lotus F1 Team will be back on track next week in Barcelona (1-4 March)

James Allison, Technical Director:

“Before we were due to fly chassis E20-01 out to Barcelona in replacement of chassis E20-02 – damaged this morning – we ran a series of simulations at the factory based on the data provided by our brief running on track today. As a result, we were able to identify an area which requires some additional work. It will be more productive for us to carry out these modifications to both chassis at Enstone rather than send E20-01 out to this week’s test. We’ll put the right measures in place and we will be able to fix the problem before next week.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal:

“Not running this week has been a tough decision to take, but we feel that our choice is the right one. On the positive side, we have quickly identified the issue with the chassis and our design office has already devised a solution. We will be present at next week’s test in Barcelona. We draw faith from the fact that the E20 was quick out of the box in Jerez and showed its reliability there. We have a lot of work ahead of us over the next week but everyone at Enstone is ready for this challenge.”

Lotus Motorsport and Alex Job Racing are joining forces to compete for the American Le Mans Series GT (ALMS) championship beginning in 2012. The team will be known as Lotus Alex Job Racing (AJR). The factory-endorsed sports car team will focus its primary efforts in North America.

Lotus F1 Team has stopped running early in the first day of testing at Barcelona and will not run for the rest of the day.

Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver: “We completed a few aero runs and then started timed runs, but I was very quickly aware that the car wasn’t responding as it should. It’s not ideal to lose track time, but fortunately we will have the chassis which ran perfectly in Jerez so I should get some good track time tomorrow. It’s far better that we have an issue like this now rather than in Melbourne.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “This morning was our first shakedown of our second chassis. Once the car was on track it was soon evident that everything wasn’t quite as it should be. As a precaution we are returning the chassis to Enstone for further investigation. Chassis E20-01, which we used in Jerez, is being sent over and we expect to be on track with that chassis tomorrow.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “This is a minor setback to our overall test programme. Fortunately we accumulated good mileage in Jerez. If this is the only issue we have during testing then we will still be well prepared for the start of the season. We’ll be back on track tomorrow with chassis E20-01 and assessing chassis E20-02 back at Enstone.”

Lotus on Track Racing Drivers Club launched their 2012 season at the MotorSport Vision Racing Media Day on Tuesday, which will see continued expansion in their sixth year of racing. The Elise Trophy continues to provide some of the UK’s finest club racing, whilst Lotus Cup Europe visits some of the continent’s finest venues.

The biggest change for this season will be the addition of a new championship as Lotus Cup UK splits into Production and Supersport categories, the latter for the faster Exige Cup, 211 and Open classes. The Lotus Cup’s Evora class is renamed V6 Cup and opened up to include the many Evora variants and the imminent Exige V6 model. The power-to-weight regulations of these faster classes ensure that the championship is decided on driving ability and team strategy.

Entering the V6 class for a shot at the Supersport championship will be LoTRDC veteran Steve Williams, who is one of the first racers to take advantage of Lotus Racing’s new GTN kit. The comprehensive package, announced at January’s Autosport International show, allows drivers to convert their existing road cars into a race version and includes bodywork, suspension and powertrain upgrades. Williams’ commitment to Lotus racing has seen him win in the Production and 2-Eleven classes, plus the former Modified class, since renamed Open.

Williams was also taking part in the track sessions, driving Mark Gooday’s SW Lotus/Ashdown Music black and gold 2-Eleven, whilst BJ Chong and Paul McNeily ran their 2010 1000km-winning Fox Motorsport Exige and Paul Pattison lapped the number 2 guest car that has seen action with Land Speed Record holder Wing Commander Andy Green and BBC F1 presenter Jake Humphrey at the wheel.

Adding to the Lotus flavour, there were two guest cars to promote the Lotus Festival, taking place on 18-19 August.  An Elan was representing a recently-announced race celebrating the diminutive sportscar’s 50^th anniversary year, whilst Steve Griffiths brought along his 1989 Lotus 101, which was once driven by both Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakjima, and completed some well-received laps of the circuit.

(Images courtesy of Jakob Ebrey)

This is Matt’s car – at least it was until he ordered a Burnt Orange MY2012 Evora S and needed to sell it to make room for the impending arrival. Matt also has an Esprit S1 in Colorado Orange which is currently undergoing a full restoration, including interior retrim in his families tartan.

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I think people thought me mad. Seeing a mid-engined sports car out in thick snow, especially a rear wheel drive one earned me more looks and interest than if I’d been driving along with the car in flames. Usually this would be well deserved, my Esprit with open differential would spin up a wheel at the first chance leaving me stuck on even the flat in the cold. The Evora has the advantage of traction control, an electronic diff and most importantly the Evora IPS Long Term Review car is fitted with the original equipment Yokohama W-Drive tyres in 215/40 R18 on the front and 245/45R19 on the rear.

These are winter tyres, they’re not snow tyres and it seems that most people, certainly in the UK think they’re only for driving on snow and ice. It turns out that the all purpose (summer) tyres fitted to most cars, most of the time struggle to become useful below 7^oC as the rubber compound is designed to be optimum in the warm and dry. The colder they get, the harder the rubber which decreases grip levels. Winter tyres have not only a unique tread pattern but are made from a different compound which is designed to work at these low temperatures, in fact they also wear less than summer tyres in the cold which show accelerated wear when the winter sets in. The UK average temperature is below 7^oC from November to April, 6 months of the year so it really does make sense to have a set of summer tyres on the car when it’s warm, winter tyres when it’s cold and you’ll see extended tyre life too, important on a mid-engined RWD car which by definition uses rear tyres fairly quickly.

TLF asked Matt Becker, Lotus’  Chief Engineer of Vehicle Attributes why winter tyres make sense on the Evora (and indeed any car!):

Why fit winter tyres, what’s the benefit over summer/all year round tyres – Are they really that much different to a top end all year round tyre?

Winter tyres have a compound which is designed to work below 7^oC and therefore winter tyres are not just better for snow they are better for all winter conditions. The general recommendation from most manufacturers is to change from Summer to winter tyres as soon as temperatures fall below this level. Winter tyres in snow conditions are hugely impressive, the block design of a winter is cut into much smaller sections than a summer tyre which gives the tyre the ability to ‘bite’ or deform into the snow at a lower vertical load, if you look/feel the blocks of a winter tyre and stroke your finger across it with not much load you will feel the sharp edges of these sections, this is what makes the tyres work in snow and icy conditions

How exactly do they work, when should they be fitted and removed from the car?

Depending on countries as some you must change to winter tyres due to law. I personally change my own tyres from November and switch back to summer tyres end of March.

Alternatively, could you/would you run winter tyres all year around or is the grip too compromised in summer?

No, the winter tyres would be too compromised for summer performance, compare the blocks and compounds of a summer and winter tyres and the evidence is very clear why you use the tyres specifically for the given time of year

Do they have any effect on the DPM/ABS systems, for better or worse?

The DPM/ABS systems are developed for all conditions, the winter testing that we do is always with winter tyres, and you would not get on or off the frozen lakes with the summer tyres.

Would you brave an Evora in the snow on summer tyres?

No, you can but summer tyres are just not designed to work in these types of conditions for the reasons given

Can you still take the car on track on winter tyres?

Would not suggest it, the compound would overheat sooner than a summer tyre and again reasons explained before.

Any ideas on wear rates compared to summer tyres?

Wear rates are a very difficult thing to judge based on driving style and conditions of use, but generally winter tyres will not wear any quicker than summer tyres of used in the prescribed months.

Since the IPS was delivered it’s been a mild January then snow, snow, snow! When it’s been warm(ish), the car still rides well and when pushed you can feel the softer compound and more dynamic tread which takes a small amount of getting used to. The car feels less planted as the tread has more ‘give’ but once you’re keyed into the fact you’re no longer on P-Zero Corsa’s it’s still exceptionally grippy and just as entertaining to drive. I was expecting more road noise but personally can hardly tell the difference and that’s with well over 1,000 miles in the car so far on various types of journey. In the wet, the winter tyres are superb especially in standing water as the plentiful and wide gaps in the tread and the addition of sipes allow water to disperse very quickly, impressive stuff.

Fortunately we’ve also had a decent amount of snow this February, traditionally winters coldest month which gave me the chance to try the Evora in snow, slush and ice. The multitude of sipes in the tread blocks add plenty of extra gripping surfaces to find traction, the compound stays soft and pliable allowing the tyre to dig into the snow and you can actually drive the car under control. Pulling away with careful throttle input results in zero wheelspin and braking and steering are still completely useful. Even in deep fresh snow the Evora coped well as you can see from the pictures. Push it and of course, physics is as physics does and you’ll be able to slide the car about, activate the DPM and ABS but really, you can maintain control and the available grip from the tyres mean the car is easy to bring back to normal driving.

The tyres are good, they’re not as good as snow chains but are from my recent experience a huge improvement over summer tyres. Continental even go so far as to say that if you can only fit one set of tyres to your car, fit winter tyres as the benefits outweigh the disadvantages over the summer months although as mentioned above, this doesn’t really apply to a performance car but I can see the sense in it.

*As an aside, if you do take your Evora out in the snow ensure that all grills are cleared, even the bonnet grills as the radiators will need to shift a significant amount of hot air out of there and also the roof otherwise that snow will want to fall off at some point and you don’t want it dumped on the windscreen of your or another car!

From Club Lotus: We’ve got some not so good news and some very good news. As many of you will know, following the British GP fiasco in 2009/10 (which was nothing to do with the circuit themselves), we were unable to hold our annual show at Donington in 2010. We returned there last year in August which was the earliest date we could due to ongoing renovation work on the Exhibition Centre.

However, whilst the 2011 Show was very successful, the overwhelming feedback from both exhibitors and many visitors was that it should move back to its original April date. Unfortunately for several reasons beyond our control, it became clear very late last year that it would not be possible to hold the Show at Donington this coming April.

We know that everyone feels Donington is the best venue for our Show and therefore we’ve taken the difficult decision not to hold a Club Lotus Show in 2012. The good news is that the Show will be back at Donington in April 2013 and we’ll let you know the date as soon as possible. We know this will disappoint many traders and visitors and it’s not a decision we took lightly. However we hope everyone will understand and look forward with us to a great Show back at Donington in April 2013.

However, that doesn’t mean there will be no Club Lotus events this year. At our Castle Combe Club Lotus trackday on May 26th we’ll be selling trade stands and there will be free autojumble spaces for members. We really want to re-establish this day as a great Club Lotus day out as well as a good value and safe Lotus trackday. Moving away from Bank Holiday weekend will remove the problem of the paddock being taken over by race transporters and motorhomes so we’ll have a completely empty paddock solely for our use. There’ll be plenty of room for all our individual model groups to park together, get the picnic out and enjoy a great day’s entertainment.

Next is the Silverstone Classic on July 20/21/22 where we’ll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Elan with special displays including a track parade for all Elans attending the event. There will also be some very special guests and we’ll be selling trade stands within our big Club Lotus area. We’re also planning to run two Elan races over the weekend – we currently have 47 provisional entries and a further 16 drivers have indicated they might also be entering so it looks as though we’ll have a full grid which will make for an unforgettable spectacle.

Then over the weekend August 18/19 we have events at both Shelsley Walsh and Brands Hatch. The Classic Lotus Shelsley Festival will see the 50^th anniversary of the Lotus Elan celebrated with two exciting Lotus sprint competitions at Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb organised by Paul Matty Sportscars and Club Lotus. The weekend will include rounds of Paul’s own Lotus Championship and the major British, Midland and Leaders Hillclimb Championship plus an open event for rare and special Lotus competition cars. Entries already include several Grand Prix cars, historic Lotus sports racing cars and entries are still invited. If you have a suitable car and want to enter please contact either Paul Matty or Club Lotus. There will also be Lotus trade stands and a Lotus autojumble.

The Brands Hatch Lotus Festival on August 18/19 features rounds of the Elise Trophy and Lotus Cup UKplus a full race programme on both days. Historic Lotus F1 demonstrations courtesy of Classic Team Lotus will provide plenty of action and there is another very exciting demo at the planning stage which will be confirmed later in the year. There will be a display of rare Lotus cars and as to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Elan there will be an Elan track parade on the full GP circuit on Saturday and reserved Elan parking all weekend. Trade stands at very reasonable rates are available from Club Lotus.

Club Lotus members will be able to buy heavily discounted tickets for all of these events apart from Castle Combe which is free for spectators. More information on all of the above is in the January edition of Club Lotus News and all previous Donington exhibitors will receive details regarding trade stands at these events in February. To buy tickets or for more information please contact us at Club HQ on 01362 694459/691144 or email annemarie@clublotus.co.uk

With kind regards,

Alan, Jane and AnneMarie

Club Lotus

Lotus F1 Team concluded the first pre-season test of 2012 with Romain Grosjean completing 95 laps of the Jerez circuit today.

Fast facts:

Track: Jerez, Spain, 4.4km
Chassis: E20-01
Weather: Sunny, air 0-15°C, track 0-26°C
Programme: System checks, temperature monitoring, data correlation, evaluation of the performance of the car with its initial aerodynamic package.
Laps Completed: 95
Classification: 5th, 1’19″729.
Interruptions: Minor water leaks.
What’s next? The E20 will head back to Enstone before returning to Spain for the second pre-season test at Barcelona on 21-24 February.

Romain Grosjean, Lotus F1 Team Race Driver: “Everything is feeling good. This morning we tried a number of different things on the car, including my first run on the soft tyre. In the afternoon we tried longer runs. Once it warmed up, the track temperature was hotter than yesterday which helps our understanding of the E20 in different conditions. It’s strange to think that we are already a third of the way through pre-season testing. We are pushing to get as much achieved as possible. I’m really enjoying being in the car even though it is hard work. So far my fitness has been good, my neck’s not too bad, but we’ll see how it feels tomorrow! I think everyone will benefit from next week away from the circuit so we can reflect on the data then go to Barcelona with some new parts for the car. I can’t wait.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “Our main focus for this week has been orientated around accumulating mileage and testing reliability. The E20 has proved to be reliable, meaning we’ve been able to include some performance work too. Our general programme has been to conduct performance work in the morning, when the track is a little cooler and there’s less wind. In the afternoons, when the temperatures and winds are higher, we have conducted longer runs with heavier fuel loads. Overall during this test we’ve completed almost 1800 km with the car. We did have a few minor radiator leaks over the course of this test but they were easily identified and we have a solution for Barcelona.”

James Allison, Technical Director: “The most encouraging aspect from this week is the feedback from the drivers. Their comments have been full of encouraging statements, including praise for a very secure rear end, good traction and good balance. We haven’t heard positive comments like those during the past couple of seasons. Even ignoring the lap times, the driver comments give us a warm feeling and the best sense of whether we’ve done an okay job.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “This was a very positive test for us. Kimi and Romain both did great jobs in the car. The E20 has been reliable straight out of the box. We were not in Jerez to chase fast lap times, but of course it’s always good to show strong pace. Of course, it is very early days; Melbourne is one month away and that is when we will see where we are. The E20 looks good out on track, it’s a nice shape and it’s very well finished which is a credit to everyone at Enstone.”