Thousands Attend Lotus Open Weekend

A Lotus hand-out reads:

“Well over 7,000 visitors attended the Lotus factory at Hethel last weekend when, for the first time, the complete car manufacturing plant was opened to the public. On Sunday afternoon, several hundred cars overspilled on to the Lotus test track when the car park had reached its capacity.

Speaking at the presentation of prizes yesterday (Sunday), Mr. F. R. Bushell, a Director of the Lotus Group of Companies, said ‘We have been completely overwhelmed by the local interest in our Organisation. The Open Day was partly a result of demand from Lotus owners in the U.K., partly a result of local demand, but we never thought that so many people would be sufficiently interested to visit a new factory situated in the heart of the countryside. Obviously, the Open Day will now have to become a regular event on our diary.’

Among the attractions for the large crowd were driving tests, concours d’elegance, and a race around the 2½-mile test track—on foot! Mr. Bushell presented trophies to Dr. E. Watson from Birmingham for his Elan +2 entry in the concours d’elegance and to Billy Lyons, an employee of the factory, for winning the track race in a time of 12.05 sec.”

[Which, on the face of it, sounds as if even F.1 Lotuses are fearfully slow!— Ed.]