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Blizzards in Norfolk |
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With a return of wintry weather promised for East Anglia later this week, Lotus are ahead of the game as usual for they are already experiencing a blizzard of their own, but not of the snowy variety, for there is a veritable storm of activity happening around the Lotus brand.
Firstly, the eagerly awaited new Grand Prix contender – the first to bear the Lotus name for many years – is set to take to the track for the first time on Tuesday. The Hingham-based Lotus F1 squad fired-up their new Cosworth V8 for the first time on Saturday, ahead of Tuesday’s shake-down at Silverstone. They are then due to return to the home of the British Grand Prix on Saturday following the official unveiling of the car and team to the world’s press on Friday night at London’s Royal Horticultural Hall.
“We’ll be shaking the car down on Tuesday, just getting the fire-up is one more thing, there’s still a lot of parts to put on” a cautious Mike Gascoyne told Radio Norfolk.
Of the teams’ two drivers, Finn Heikki Kovalainen should have no problem adapting to British circuits in mid-winter – he in any case raced here in junior single-seater formulae – but for Italian Jarno Trulli there will be yet another culture shock when he spends two days (Wednesday & Thursday) at Snetterton, working with Lotus Motorsport on the development of the Evora Cup racer. If there’s any consolation, the Evora does at least have a roof; Trulli’s career has seen him exclusively in single-seaters to date!
As if all that was not enough, the race is back on at the Hethel factory to ready the S3 Elise in time for launch at Geneva Motor Show three weeks for now.
February might be the shortest month of the year but Lotus is certainly packing a lot into it!
John Elwin
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