Lotus
Lotus is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars. The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd by engineer Colin Chapman in 1952. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. They design and produce automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics. It also owns the engineering consultancy Lotus Engineering, which has facilities in the United Kingdom, United States, Malaysia and China.
The company encouraged its customers to race its cars, and entered Formula One through its sister company Team Lotus in 1958. A Lotus Formula One car driven by Stirling Moss won the marque's first Grand Prix in 1960 at Monaco in a Lotus 18 entered by privateer Rob Walker.
Lotus is credited with making the mid-engined layout popular for Indy Cars, developing the first monocoque Formula One chassis, and the integration of the engine and transaxle as chassis components.
Lotus won a total of 79 Grand Prix races. During his lifetime Chapman saw Lotus beat Ferrari as the first team to achieve 50 Grand Prix victories, despite Ferrari having won their first nine years sooner.
Over more than 60 years in the making, Lotus has become both a class-leading manufacturer of sports cars and a globally respected automotive engineering consultancy, working with many of the world’s most prestigious car manufacturers.