Lotus Central is a non profit-making website set up to promote Lotus related news to the whole Lotus community; wherever they may live or whatever Lotus they are interested in.

Lotus Central's key areas:-

1. Lotus News - Our aim is to bring you all Lotus Motorsport news but we also aim to bring as much general Lotus news as possible. We will bring you news directly from Hethel but also from the dealer networks, including independent garages and the many parts suppliers that support the Lotus market. If you have any news you think might be of interest to the Lotus community please send us details.

2. Lotus Features - Indepth news items, dealer reviews or historical items will be written as full length features by John Elwin. John is a freelance motorsport journalist who is a life-long Lotus fan. In the 70's John worked for Lotus for a number of years before moving on to Team Lotus; duly starting work the morning after Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson scored the first of several 1-2 finishes that season, culminating in Mario taking the World Championship.

3. Lotus Motorsport - The main drive behind Lotus Central is a desire to bring news and information about the Lotus on Track Elise Trophy and Lotus Cup Europe race series to a much wider audience than is currently available. Lotus Central will keep you up to date with everything from qualifying times, to news on new drivers and cars as well as whats going on at Hethel and with Lotus F1 Racing.

4. Classifieds - Lotus enthusiasts advertise their cars and parts for sale on many different sites. Although we expect this to remain the case, we do expect that Lotus Central will, over time become one of the main places to visit, to purchase cars and second hand parts.

5. Events - Anyone wishing to promote an event to the Lotus community is invited to add their event to Lotus Central. If you have a special event that you would like promoted more prominently than within the general events section, let us know and we will consider it for our news section and maybe write a feature on it.

6. Competitions - We will be bringing you regular competitions that will suit all tastes and backgrounds.

7. Information - A list of clubs and dealers, including independents, has been compiled.

Do you have a News item or Feature? If you have any item that you think may make a good News item or even more in depth feature please email it us This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Who are we? We hope that many Lotus enthusiasts will submit news and information to Lotus Central.

The initial site has been set up by the team who run the UK's most active Lotus Club, (Lotus on Track) and whom also run the Elise Trophy and Lotus Cup Europe race series.

The initial idea for the site was to find a way to promote the Elise Trophy and Lotus Cup Europe race series to a wider Lotus audience than was previously available. However, it then became apparent talking to other regional and marque specific clubs that there was a lack of somewhere to promote Lotus News  with the larger Lotus sites doing these areas very little justice. It's hoped that by having one central site with much more information than is currently available this will help the Lotus community to grow and become more active.

Although Lotus Central is run by a growing team of volunteers the main driving forces have been Paul Golding, Claude Gonzales and John Elwin.

Paul earns his living from his data consultancy, but has devoted most of the last nine years to organising events for the Lotus Community throughout the UK and Europe. Paul started organising a number of Lotus runs and meets in 2001 before launching 'SELOC' in 2002. In 2004, Paul set up another non profit club: Lotus on Track. 'LoT' is now the World's largest track day club, with over 2,500 members and it runs over 90 events each year in the UK, France and Belgium. In April 2004, Paul was instrumental in setting up and running the SELOC Production BMW race series which was aimed at taking Lotus owners into Motorsport. This series is still going strong and although Paul is no longer involved, he still keeps a keen eye on its progress, for the 2008 season Paul created a new website for the series and found it a main sponsor. In the summer of 2006 Paul, with a number of other prominent Lotus enthusiasts, decided to set up the Lotus on Track Elise Trophy. The new race series was a huge hit, breaking many records in Year One. Now, with the series having just finished its 3rd season, it is becoming increasingly respected as the UK's Number One National club race series. The vast majority of Paul’s time is spent organising the Elise Trophy and in 2008 he was approached by Lotus Cars with a view to taking over the organisation of Lotus Cup Europe in 2009. In it's first season under Paul, and his team of volunteers LCE has put on a calendar at the best circuits in Europe and increased interest so much that grid sizes have been more than double previous years.

John on the other hand has spent his life in the motoring World. Jim Clark was a boyhood hero, and when Lotus re-located to his native Norfolk John resolved that was where he would work upon leaving school. In October 1970 John started his first job in the purchasing department at Lotus. The Elan was just entering it's final phase as the Elan Sprint and Mike Kimberley was busy turning the Europa into something a six-footer could actually get into. However, the emphasis was turning to the next big step in company history - the arrival of the Elite, Eclat and Esprit.The oil crisis rather dented both that and John's career, being made redundant late in 1974, only to return less than a year later. After another three years an opportunity to move to Team Lotus presented itself in 1978, John duly started work the morning after Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson scored the first of several 1-2 finishes that season, culminating in Mario taking the World Championship title. John made the mistake (long story!) of leaving and went on to work for various motorsport teams, the final one being Group C outfit Brun Motorsport. With the recession in full swing - the 1991 version - the decision was taken to pursue a freelance career in motorsport journalism, having been a 'weekend warrior' for a few seasons. Since then he covered the Forumula 3 Championship, before concentrating on the BTCC from 1992 thru' the Super Touring years. He also dipped into sportscar racing, including working for Audi at Le Mans a couple of times, and the ever-expanding historic scene.

Translation into French has been carried out by Claude & Anna Gonzalès. Claude is a car fan who has been lucky to work in the automotive business for the last 15 years. As a young engineer at Jaguar, Claude discovered his sports car of the century the Lotus Elise and has used that car as both his everyday car and track car ever since. He worked successively for Porsche, TRW and Mecachrome, becoming a chassis and engine expert, moving from technical positions to Sales Director. Since 1999 Claude has been active in various Lotus clubs and created technical modules which he has presented for free to enthusiasts and professionals. He is also a key player in Lotus on Track where along side Jean-Philippe he has been building the French side of the club since 2005. Although Claude translates for Lotus Central at the moment we do expect him to write some features over coming months and know that one day he hopes to write his own book, no doubt Lotus or Technical related.

Everyone else involved in Lotus Central has a long history in the Lotus community; including such things as website design or software creation. The site's logo was created by a Lotus owner of many years' standing. Even this page was proof read by the UK's most prolific track day driver in 2008 and now a competitor in the Elise Trophy.

Advertising - Lotus Central wants to react to feedback and bring the Lotus community news, information and features that it wants. Although Paul will not be taking a wage or even expenses as he didn't with SELOC, LoT or the Elise Trophy the site will have costs. These include such things as writing the features, developing software, as well as promotion to ensure that Lotus Central is the Number One resource for the Lotus community.

Advertising during 2009 was FREE to any company offering a Lotus related product.

We have an advertising rate card in place - CLICK HERE TO VIEW RATE CARD.

If you would like more information about advertising please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it