Lotus is feeling pretty racy these days. On the same weekend the green-and-yellow boys returned to Formula One racing, the company has announced it will contest the 2010 IndyCar series with KV Racing Technology (the team owned by Jimmy Vasser and Kevin Kalkhoven).
And just to make sure that this is a full-on international effort for the Malaysian-owned British brand, the driver of the car will be former Japanese Formula One driver, Takuma Sato.
Lotus points out that it won the Indianapolis 500 in 1965 with Jim Clark at the wheel of the green-and-yellow cigar pictured below. The company is probably somewhat less likely to mention its performance in last weekend's opening round of the Formula One championship in Bahrain, where its two cars were well off the pace of the front-runners. Although for a new team, finishing one car is something of an accomplishment. Some other proposed teams (cough: USF1) collapsed before the season began.
As for the IndyCar effort, our only suggestion is that the car needs more yellow exhaust pipes. Otherwise, it looks pretty hot.
blueprint1 says:
09:25 AM, 03/15/10
I dunno who produced the image, but seeing "Lotus-Cosworth" and "Honda" on the car means there's one extra engine supplier...
Cosworth supplies the mill of the Lotus F1 team.
flicmod says:
10:45 AM, 03/15/10
When it seems like everyone else is moving out of F1, Lotus moves in.
Maybe FIA actually have a chance of saving the series... maybe not.
throwback says:
10:45 AM, 03/15/10
"Lotus points out that it won the Indianapolis 500 in 1965 with Jim Clark at the wheel"
I'm all for heritage, but even a young Jim Clark would not be able to get that car off the end of the grid.
blueprint1 says:
09:10 AM, 03/16/10
Read elsewhere : Cosworth supplies "engineering services" to the Lotus Indycar team, but not the engine. That explains seeing the two engine supplier names on the car.
ianw2809 says:
04:49 AM, 08/ 6/10
this is lotus in name only and the name is only used with permission of colin chapmans family. its just a marketing gimmick amd has nothing to do with heritage.