Famous Lotus owners

[mayevora]

RIP 😥

[Dan E]

We done the electrical works at his fine dining restaurant W1 at The Cumberland Hotel about 10 years ago, he was a really, really nice chap. He even took us all out for a beer at the end of the job. 

RIP Mr Rhodes

[Steve Welly]

I heard in a radio interview that Chris Reading was the proud owner of a 7

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Who?

[Spinney]

Chris Rea maybe??? He is a long time 7 owner and owned a few, I believe. 

[Bazza 907]

Had one on his album cover

 

[tim_marra]

Caterham. Just sayin'

[Spinney]

8 hours ago, tim_marra said:

Caterham. Just sayin'

Yeah very true which is why I just called it a 7. 😁

When I was in to Caterhams, I was forever having to explain to people what they were. Very few had heard of Caterham, but most knew of Lotus, so I often used that to explain the link. 
My last 7 was a very highly developed car with a fearsome 275 bhp engine and when selling it, I was contacted by a chap in his late 60’s who was interested. He told me he’d passed his driving test in 1963 in a Series 2 Lotus 7 which had a Cosworth 1340cc engine and he wanted to revisit that by buying another. 
I was more than a little concerned that although my car looked very similar, it probably had around 200 bhp more than his first car and could he handle it? I put this as diplomatically as I could at which point he smiled and said well if I tell you I also own a Ferrari 360 CS and a 911 GT3 and have done many track days, would that ease your mind?

Still I was concerned as my car had no driver aids that his other cars did but he bought it anyway. Fast forward 9 months and I received a call from him, telling me he’d lost it on a bend on a frosty morning and had demolished the offside suspension! 🙈🤷‍♂️
Didn’t like to say “I told you so.”

[tim_marra]

Cool story 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Roger Daltrey trying out a T125 back in 2011.

[C8RKH]

He looks like a fat parrot!  So Roger, who ate all the Trill?

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Back in the late 1980s a family friend of ours owned a collection of exotic classics including an ex Roger Daltrey Ferrari 308GTS. Daltrey had had it custom resprayed when new. It faded from silver at the top to grey at the bottom with Ferrari written along each door. I know it sounds awful, but it actually looked quite good and this was the 80s after all. My brother and I spent a day cleaning it out for him. We always remember finding a set of matches from Stringfellow’s under the driver’s seat.
 

Sadly the paintwork literally met a sticky end when some disgruntled ex employee got into his garages one weekend when he was away and poured Nitromors paint stripper all over the Ferrari and two Maseratis (Khamsin & Kyalami). It was a few days before they discovered what had happened. They all had to be repainted and the 308 received a regular all silver paint job. I don’t think he kept them long after that. The culprit had taken away any enjoyment he got from owning them.