lotus

One of the many (or few) "guy" things I can lay claim to is my fascination with fast automobiles. I first became acquainted with the Lotus marque in high school as I devotedly watched "The Prisoner" television series. In the title sequence, Patrick McGoohan, the protagonist of the show, drives a Lotus Super Seven into the tunnel entrance that leads into British Secret Services headquarters. I immediately fell in love with that automobile and still dream of someday possessing one. Although the genuine Lotus Super Seven is officially out of production by Lotus, several manufacturers continue to produce very accurate reproductions of the vehicle. Colin Chapman founded Lotus and is a legendary figure in racing and sports car circles. I even know a gentleman who named his son, Colin, in honor of Colin Chapman. But I digress.

Colin Chapman's main philosophy of building fast cars dealt with a high power to weight ratio. He would employ any means possible to reduce the weight of each model to generate the fastest acceleration and top speeds possible for a given engine output. Some of his powerplants were quite modest, but because the automobiles they were installed in were so light, the resulting vehicles performance numbers were incredible.

Last week at the Paris Auto Show, Lotus unveiled its new product line. Amazingly, they introduced 5 new models; the Elite, Esprit,

Elan,

Elise,and Eterne.
All are beautifully designed automobiles. I share them with you here as another testimony to the spirit of Colin Chapman.