Lotus was a motorcar company founded in 1952 by Colin Chapman, who built his first racing car in 1948, and also developed high-powered production saloon and innovative sports cars, such as the Lotus-Cortina and Lotus Elan. Lotus has been one of the leading Grand Prix manufacturers since they entered Formula One 1960. Jim Clark, twice world champion, had all his Grand Prix wins in a Lotus. The last Lotus world champion was Mario Andretti in 1978. After Colin Chapman's death, the company won some Grand Prix with Ayrton Senna. Without Chapman's innovative direction, the team never regained its momentum, and after a series of management changes the directors Peter Collins and Peter Wright made heroic efforts to keep the team going until the end of the 1994 season, when underfunding and debts forced it into administratorship. David Hunt, brother of James Hunt, bought the company from the administrator and tried, unsuccessfully, to find sponsors to enable Lotus to continue and develop a new race car. In January 1995 a world famous name in motor racing ceased to exist. Research Lotus
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Research Lotus
