US LOT Sessions

We are back! For a new season of podcasts to get us through the UK lockdown 2.0 and today we celebrate the life of Oliver Winterbottom. Oliver was a brilliant designer at Lotus, he worked directly for Colin Chapman and designed not only cars but boats too! Oliver sadly passed away last week. To celebrate his life, in this podcast Rob speaks to Oliver's close friend and colleague Mike Kimberley, plus two well respected automotive  journalists who admired his designs so much, they have both owned one. 

Racing driver and automotive broadcasting legend, Tiff Needell joins Rob on todays podcast. Talking about his long histroy with Lotus, from being a huge fan of Jim Clark to winning his very own Lotus racing car and starting his career on track!

A very special car, previously registered to Colin Chapman. This week we celebrate a very special Turbo Esprit, now owned by Lotus Cars. Mr Lotus himself, Scott Walker talks Rob through the car and a few other of his favourite Esprit stories. 

We're back! We have been busy with our Lotus Unlocked event at the famous Caffeine & Machine. Now Rob catches up with Caffeine & Machine legend and honcho Phil McGovern. What a weekend we had, Phil and Rob discuss what went on, how we made it happen and a little of the history behind the UK's favourite desitantion for lovers of cars, coffee and every other machine under the sun! 

Richard Hill has worked at Lotus for nearly 34 years. In that time he has worked on various Esprits, the M100 Elan, the Elise and everything since. He also happened to design a world record breaking, Olympic gold medal winning bicycle in 7 months! 

Dave Minter has driven an Elise more than anyone else. An integral part of the car's development story, Dave shares his memories of Stelvio in the 90's and all the other exciting adventures he and the team got up to while developing the legendary car! 

Richard Rackham has been at the forefront of Lotus chassis design for 30 years. Leading the team of engineerins who were responsible for the legendary Elise chassis. On today's podcast we talk about how the legendary Elise chassis was designed and why it was such a jump forward for the industry. 

If you watch Petrolicious videos on YouTube and are a Lotus fan, you have probably watched a video about an Esprit nicknamed the 'Light Rider'. Spencer Canon totally restored that car from the ground up and he now races a Europa in the USA. In this week's podcast, Rob catches up on Spencer's road trip to multiple Lotus ownership and restoration.

In 1995 at the Frankfurt auto show the world was introduced to Elisa Artioli, and the car that was named after her. That car was the Lotus Elise. In this week's podcast., Rob catches up with Elisa to learn what it was like growing up with a sportscar named after you and to hear about her Elise based adventures today. 

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of a famous victory by Stirling Moss in a Lotus Type 18 in Monaco, Rob speaks to motorsport journalist Damien Smith. If you like F1, racing history, Lotus and Stirling Moss, this episode is for you!