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Lotus Formula One Team acquires Caterham

By Brett Davis |

Team Lotus Formula One has announced it has just bought Caterham Cars from a team of Caterham share holders led by Corven Ventures. Team Lotus owner, Tony Fernandes, has said the new ownership will concentrate on maintaining Caterham’s heritage as well as develop new models and expand international market availability.

Caterham cars are extreme lightweight sports cars only available in the traditional Lotus Seven two-seat layout. Caterham actually bought the rights to the Lotus Seven layout back in 1973 and has since been honing and fine-tuning it to suit modern-day speed and technology.

Tony Fernandes has said that tradition will continue with the company but expresses hopes for showroom expansion, recently announcing,

“Caterham Cars has remained wholly faithful to Colin Chapman’s philosophy of ‘less is more’, and the DNA of the original Seven can still be traced to the newest additions to Caterham’s product offering. We both want to evolve, not revolutionise. The Seven will remain at the heart of everything.”

Under new ownership, Caterham has already released plans of a special limited edition Caterham Seven decorated in Lotus F1 livery. Only 50 units of the special will be made, 25 of which will be sold in the UK.

More details of the company’s plans, including the announcement of possible future products, will be revealed at the British Formula One Grand Prix in July later this year. We’ll keep you updated.


 

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  • http://CarAdvice Michael Todd

    Maybe we might see a special edition Proton? Like the R3.

  • Richo

    This purchase is largely political, the aim being to incrase Tony Fernandes’s claim to the name “Team Lotus” which is currently the subject of a legal fight between Fernandes and Lotus Cars who want to have sole use of the Lotus name in F1 for their sponsorship of the Renault F1 team, creating Lotus – Renault F1.

    Only problem for Lotus Cars is that they don’t own the name “Team Lotus”, Fernandes does, Lotus Cars can’t make a valid claim based solely on the word “Lotus” because the word “Lotus” is not a trademark, its a generic term.

  • Leyianart

    Lotus had to unite with Renault Sport to teach then how to develop engines.

    “Renault Sport 4 the Win”

  • dailydriver

    Well I just hope this means they will produce more and sell more to Aus.
    This is where real motoring enthusiasts are at!
    With peak oil, V8 supercars and F1 will become less and less relevant. Ecconomical racing is the future and bang-for-buck this cannot be beaten.