You've probably heard of Lotus.
It made championship winning racing cars.
ARCHIVE VOICEOVER: Jim Clark crosses the finish line to win
the 500 with a comfortable lead of more than...
It made iconic lightweight sports cars.
Last year the company increased its car production by 48%
- the Lotus has become a success story for Britain.
They even made cars for the stars.
Orders are already pouring in from America for the same colour
scheme as Bond's car.
It's still around today,
even though the one thing it's never been good at in recent years
is making money.
There's been money issues.
Lots of changes of management.
Things have got to change...
Phwoff! It's been a baptism of fire.
I've slept better in Afghanistan than I have working here.
Lotus has to become a proper, profitable carmaker
or admit defeat and shut up shop.
It's a commercial business and we can't just produce one,
we've got to produce thousands.
To give it one last shot, there's a new boss...
I don't want to just keep it going.
I want to lay the foundation so that Lotus is going to be secure.
..and soon their first new car in over a decade.
This car is make or break for Lotus, basically.
They can't afford to get this wrong.
This is step one of the Lotus revival plan -
an all-new all-electric 200mph hyper car
called the Evija.
And its power comes from four electric motors
making a total of 2,000 horse power.
As a result, this is nothing less than the most powerful
production car in the world.
It costs £2 million.
The second step of the revival plan is another model -
the Emira.
This is the more affordable sports car on which Lotus' future rests.
Senior engineer John Sharp is part of the crack team
responsible for getting this vital new car into production.
So, here we have one of the most confidential places on site.
We're completely locked down.
We don't want anything to do with this getting out.
Until we reveal to the world exactly what we're doing,
we need to keep this under wraps.
These cars look like a current Lotus model but they're not.
Under the familiar skin, it has been remodelled to fit a brand-new
chassis and engine.
Sometimes on forums you, you might see a picture of one of these cars
and lots of speculation as to what's going on and you can
just chuckle away to yourself as to what everybody's speculating about.
One way to make a new sports car exciting is with the sound.
LOW HUM
It sounds really good.
It sounds a bit jet fighter, to be honest.
To power its first new car in ten years, Lotus has done a deal
with German engine wizards AMG
so that it goes as well as it sounds.
Old Lotuses were bought by hard-core enthusiasts.
This new one needs to lure people away
from other luxury car manufacturers.
To do that, Lotus has to get the car right,
but it also has to remind people of its rich history.
Colin Chapman, ex RAF, ex aircraft engineer
and racing driver turned car designer.
The company was founded in 1947 by Colin Chapman,
an engineer and innovator every bit as brilliant as Enzo Ferrari
or Ferdinand Porsche.
One car usually sold as a kit of parts can be noted here - the Lotus.
Chapman's racing cars soon started winning
and led the way to British dominance in F1.
Today, many of these machines live at the heritage centre
just across the road from the main factory...
ANSWERS PHONE: Classic Team Lotus.
..cared for by Colin Chapman's son Clive.
I could look at this all day.
It's just the most fantastic car.
It's the only 72 with its original specification.
The chassis is all original.
Emmerson won five Grand Prix in this car.
The black and gold winning the British Grand Prix,
and my dad throwing his hat in the air whenever it won a race.
Emerson Fittipaldi wins!
Colin Chapman's cap is in the air.
The list of Lotus' F1 innovations was endless.
The first monocoque chassis ever...
Engines that were part of the chassis...
Lightweight cars that painted themselves to the road,
and active suspension.
And Emmerson's was no different.
The type 72 revolutionised F1 by putting the radiators on each side
of the driver, allowing it to be a wedge.
So, the 72 is a wedge shape which, it's obvious to everybody
is gonna reduce the drag and improve the airflow.
In particular, it's gonna improve the airflow to the rear wing
so you're gonna get more down force.
Recently voted the greatest ever Formula 1 car
and we're not gonna argue with that!
Chapman's streamlined racers had a profound effect on another member
of the Lotus team, the appropriately named chief designer Russell Carr.
This is a really important car for me,
because when I was a kid
the type 72 was the racing car.
The famous black and gold colours.
I had no interest in things like football and other sports.
Formula 1 was my thing.
And this amazing looking car that was just wedge shaped
and looked so modern.
Of the 40 plus cars that Russell has worked on,
this one was his first big hit.
This was a very early sketch I did as part of the Elise programme.
These are just like little gull wing panels
so it's like getting into a light aircraft.
So, a combination between a racing car and a light aircraft.
Russell always knew he wanted to design cars
but getting there wasn't easy.
I was probably 16 years old.
I went to the careers officer at school and then they said,
"There's no such job as a car designer.
"Cars are designed by engineers
"and you're not clever enough to be an engineer.
"But have you thought about working at the local water treatment plant?"
Russell bypassed a career in sewage and for the last 26 years
he's built an impressive career designing sports cars.
We'll probably make the lower edge of the car quite dark
just so that it lightens the vehicle as well.
This line running through the car's really important
and this line rises and it mimics the way the air flows into the car.
The all new Emira is Russell's latest work.
I think it makes a connection with the Evija hyper car,
so anybody buying this is getting a little bit of that action
from that car, as well.
Starting with a simple sketch in Russell's notebook,
the new car's design was then finessed and refined in 3D.
So, this is part of the design process.
This blue car isn't a car at all.
It's carefully painted clay.
Clay modellers are incredibly skilled craftsmen
and they have to have an artisan skill
to model the surfaces with extreme accuracy.
And this is what we use to get the theme approved.
They need to interpret what the designer wants and turn it into 3D.
When it's heated, it goes soft, we can spread it onto the model,
and then when it cools we can work it.
And we use that because it allows us to adapt the model as things change
so it's a very flexible tool.
The curves and sinews of the new car's skin try to reflect
the DNA of Colin Chapman's racing cars.
There's a very well known phrase in aviation,
"If it looks right, it flies right,"
and certainly we think the same with sports car design.
Creating a brand-new car is a complicated business
and once the design is signed off
then you've got another challenge - how to make it.
There's no soulless mass production here.
Each Lotus is built by hand
and always has been.
That's it, all done. Looks good. Yeah.
The customer will be really, really happy.
Lovely, thank you.
Team leader Tracy Cushing makes the seats.
In a year, we do 1,200, 1,300 cars,
so that's twice as many seats, but, yeah,
super proud of what we make in the trim.
This is all handmade.
The seat is probably the hardest thing to learn.
It's a fantastic product that the team make day in, day out.
A lot of them have been here a long, long time.
So, I'll start off with the arms.
These are the bits that run down the side of the seat
where you actually have your seat belt fixing.
The Norfolk-born seamstress is entering her third decade
for the company.
When I was 16, left school, got offered a job in a factory
that made jackets and suits,
so it was all the big heavy woollen fabrics, materials.
And now, sewing leather, making seats for sports cars,
it's the total opposite.
It's really calming,
it's kind of like my happy place
where I don't have to worry about anything, I can just sit and sew,
and just enjoy.
Long serving employees like Tracy have seen a lot of ups
and downs for the company.
There's been money issues.
Lotus do have a bit of a reputation
of having lots of different management,
lots of changes of management and it does prove unsettling.
Lotus wants to treble the number of cars it makes which means
a major rethink for every single department,
but Tracy remains upbeat.
The company who are looking after us
have poured a lot of investment into the business.
Staff are really excited about the future and, yeah,
everybody's really, really positive again, you know.
Amid the fields of rural Norfolk
lies an enclave of engineering ingenuity
and cutting-edge technology.
Max Ryan is the prototype vehicle workshop manager
for the car company's new flagship, the Evija.
As you can see, it's quite a beast.
This is our halo car, in terms of the design, the technology,
the power outputs, everything.
This is Britain's first pure electric hyper car.
Its body is made entirely from carbon fibre
and it houses the most potent car battery in the world.
This allows us to run at a maximum capacity of 2,000 horse power.
We have a lot of the latest technology inside this battery cell.
I'm not gonna dive into it because we don't wanna give too much away.
But the Evija isn't going into full production until later this year
and for new MD Matt Windle, his focus is on the all-petrol Emira.
So this is my uh, soon to be man shed.
We've recently moved in so I'm just starting to, as you can see,
get sorted out with the stuff we have here.
Having worked at Lotus for over 20 years,
he was appointed MD just last year.
To be MD of Lotus is, uh, incredible, really.
I feel responsible for the people and the history that's gone before.
Matt's rise to the top has been far from easy.
I came from a single parent family.
Unusually, I grew up with my dad
so that was where my passion of cars came from because we used to spend
hours and hours and hours going up to my grandparents in Hartlepool
and all the way up there, I was, I was quizzing my dad about cars
and I could tell any make of car by its headlight or its tail light.
And that was just from the amount of time we spent on the A1
driving up and down in the dark.
I didn't do very well at school and, yeah, I've just worked hard.
My dad instilled that into me.
Like many at Lotus, Matt has worked his way up.
He began his career as an apprentice coach builder.
This is where it all started for me.
So these were public service vehicles.
So, as you can see,
they're drawn 10th scale.
Drawn by myself in,
in July 1993, so I was 22!
It's been a really difficult time for Lotus.
Digby, get off my draw...
Ah, no!
I've carried that round for 30 years,
it's now got dog prints on it.
Over the last couple of decades, it's been a really difficult time.
Some of the staff have been there a long time
and have shown real loyalty to the company and we need to repay that
now by looking after them and developing the facilities.
The company's first new car in 12 years will more than treble
production from 1,500 to over 5,000 cars a year.
This production hall is brand-new.
This is where we can build the new Emira.
The all new assembly hall is the size of 1.5 football pitches.
But for Matt, it's the little things that count.
I don't have OCD.
But uh, I've asked the production director how,
how they're gonna align the cars down here
and he's promised they'll be within three millimetres
so when we look down you'll see a nice clean line of cars
going down there.
Hi, Phil, how's it going?
Yeah, not too bad. Yeah, come and show us where we're at.
Although mass production hasn't begun,
several prototypes are being worked on
to finesse the production process.
So, this might look like a strange car
but these here are literally the first parts that we've received
for Emira, so we're getting them all checked through this queue.
What that allows us to do is cycle panels through very quickly.
If we've got a quality issue, we can see where the problem is,
we'll know if they're good enough to go to the production line.
So you can see here, the left-hand fender.
As first-off parts, these look very good, very, very good.
We talk about the step up in quality that we want to make.
This is the investment we're making
to get that quality we want on vehicles going forward
so that we get a precision car that goes together right every time.
But quality isn't the only thing on Matt's mind.
In four weeks' time, the Emira will be announced to the world at
legendary motor sport event the Goodwood Festival Of Speed.
To ensure survival, Lotus is sticking to Chapman's mantra -
add only lightness and simplicity.
Nothing seems to damage this amazing material.
You can hammer it, you can let the kids jump on it,
and it still keeps its shape.
In pursuit of this, Chapman pioneered the use of the composite
materials that have now become the norm.
We think that it's only a matter of time before the vast
majority of cars are built out of plastic rather than steel,
and therefore this is vital to our business.
The type 12 chassis frame weighs just 17kg.
You can pick it up with one hand.
Um, this is the original car, the prototype,
the very first one, and we couldn't believe it
when we stripped it down and, and found it was that light.
A real mantra of this Lotus and Lotuses after then.
"Never mind the hat," says Graham Hill,
"I can only just wear the car!"
I think the 12 really captures the ethos of Lotus today
because it's brave and it's bold.
Exactly what you want as the foundations of a race car or
a brand-new road car.
Five miles from the main Hethel plant,
they're building another factory.
My name's Claire Moxon, I'm the manufacturing supervisor
here at Lotus Advanced Structures, and I have a team of 34 general
operatives where we are training them to build the new Emira model.
So, this is our chassis assembly area.
As Lotus embarks on a plan to build more cars, it's had to
bring in more people.
I've been steadily recruiting personnel and training them up
to build cars. A lot of them have never built a chassis before.
Even supervisor Claire is new.
I am very new to the automotive industry.
Um, I was in the RAF as an aircraft technician prior to that
for 22 years. I left the RAF last July and came to Lotus.
It's been a baptism of fire.
I've slept better in Afghanistan than I have working for Lotus!
Robots are used to bond the outer subframe together.
But the more intricate parts of the chassis are built by hand.
How's it going, guys? Temperature all right for the glue?
Yeah. Yeah.
So a lot of people don't realise that we actually glue these
cars - it's lighter than welding,
and actually the adhesive is even stronger than a welded join.
This strength is achieved by baking the glue at a high temperature.
OK, guys, let's get the car in the oven.
When the factory is complete, the process of putting the chassis
in the oven will be automated, but for now it will be done manually.
Claire's 20 years of military experience is clearly paying off.
Does that one need to come in a little bit there?
It looks as if it's going off to the right there.
What my training from the military gives me
is a hard stance on certain things.
Whoa.
But also that we have to nurture people and we have be supportive.
Like the Incredible Hulk going in there.
I don't think people realise how difficult it is to assemble
a car, and the length of time it takes to train the people to
be able to build that car.
Now the Emira is in the oven cycle,
so we're going to put that on to 180 degrees
for an hour and a half, much like a chicken.
With everyone focused on ironing out any problems to get the new
model onto the production line...
As you can see, there's a bit of work to be done on this.
..MD Matt Windle has come to inspect another one of three prototypes.
This is just the body shell.
We use the time now to prepare us when we're at volume.
Because if you hit an issue when you're trying to build
at volume, you've got major issues on your hands.
But even before production flaws are ironed out, Lotus is
planning on announcing the car to the world.
In just three weeks' time, this Emira will
make its debut at Britain's most famous celebration of motor sport.
It's really important for us that we're at Goodwood
and we will hit those dates.
The problem we've got here at the moment is we're still
building our current range, so it's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to try
and build a new factory around our current production.
If you think about everything that we got to achieve, it'd send
you slightly mad.
When it comes to selling high-end sports cars, it's not just
looks that will persuade customers to part with their cash.
They also have to be sold on the sound.
Noise and vibration engineer Kirsty Aaron is using an older
model as a benchmark for the new car.
So this room is a vehicle semi-anechoic chamber
for noise measurement.
Basically the cones on the walls stop the noises that we're measuring
being reflected back, which makes for a more accurate measurement.
People judge the car on what it looks like to begin with, and
then obviously what it sounds like - and it's the same
with people, right? You judge someone and as soon as you see them.
If they're wearing something like bright or colourful, you're like,
"Oh, they look a bit funky!" and the same with your sound as well.
But today it's not the engine noise that Kirsty's measuring -
it's the indicators.
This is one of the things that we want to focus on to show that
we're improving on quality.
I'm going to take a few different measurements
so that we can take an average, and then we use the objective
and subjective data to decide where we want
to place our product in terms of perceived quality.
So Kirsty picks the best sounds and gets the engineers to copy them.
We basically have a rating scale of like how we subjectively
assess vehicles,
and it goes from sort of being like - no-one's going to pick it up
to, like, SOME people might,
REALLY fussy people will, EVERYONE will, kind of thing.
This one, I'd say is quite a pleasant noise for an indicator.
But equally, you've got to make it loud enough that people know
that it's there, just in case they have to click it off again.
However you don't want it to be too loud so that it's offensive.
We've got to up our game from a quality standard.
If we want to sell cars, we've got to
be, like, going for the big guns.
To do that, Lotus needs to broaden it's appeal.
We've been making road cars in the last 25 years.
But most people associate them with being very enthusiast-driven,
very track-focused.
Lotus has never been known for luxurious interiors,
but it's hoping the new car will change all that.
So this is really a car that, you know, you can use every day.
We have some really strong competitors in this market
and so this car is a car without apologies, without compromise.
It's the most complete Lotus ever made, I think.
The huge new investment in Lotus' bid to improve output
from 1,500 to over 5,000 cars a year
is not without consequence.
As the firm aims to treble the number of cars it builds,
some of the in-house ways of making things can't keep pace.
So the work will be outsourced and those departments shut down.
Hello. Hi, Trace, how are you? I'm good, thank you.
So we'll go up and have a look in the engine build first.
OK lovely, thank you.
One of those departments is the trim shop,
which means workers like Tracy Cushing will need to find
new roles within the company.
For me personally it is an end of an era, quite sad.
But for engine supervisor Mike Antoniades...
OK, if you can run those volts in please, Tracy.
..this could be the perfect opportunity to recruit from within.
Is there a set order to do these or, is it?
No, you can do them in any order because we're not tightening
them up at the moment.
Mike's got lots of new roles to fill
and staff from other departments bring transferrable skills.
It's a ratchet spanner, which I know you're familiar with
from working in trim.
And just do them up hand tight please. What, like a torque?
Yeah, that's what you're doing, exactly.
Are you sure? Yeah.
Really? Yeah.
Yep, that's it, cool.
Tracy has spent 20 years in the trim shop
but, like many, she will have to adapt
if the company is to move forward.
Yep, that's good.
I bet it could be more fun than the sewing machine.
It could be my new love, eh?!
That's it, well done.
What do you think of all that, then?
Well, I'll be looking for a job in here, it's good fun.
It's really good fun. Good.
So, it's important to do this to show others in the teams
the challenges that we've all got in front of us
and the opportunities we can all take.
And it's not such a scary world out there
after we finish in the interiors.
We can all do new things, we can all learn new things.
Carefully prepared engines in lightweight chassis
have always allowed Lotus cars to punch above their weight.
And that was especially true on the track.
By 1967, Lotus had two F1 world titles to its name
and was poised to make another leap into the future...
COMMENTATOR: A shout of victory from Colin Chapman.
..as the car company's founder unleashed the Lotus 49.
My father knew how to identify the people who could build good engines
and he was always on the lookout for the best source of power.
The Lotus 49 realised the biggest ever step in performance
year on year in Formula One and it's never been beaten.
The 49 was designed in conjunction with the Ford Cosworth DFV
engine, which would go on to dominate F1
for the next 15 years.
Today, the long term plan for Lotus is to become an all-electric
carmaker, which means the new Emira will be the last
internal combustion engine car they ever make.
In the new factory, another milestone is approaching.
There you go mate hold on. Ten?
No, it's a nine, we haven't got a ten at the moment.
30 year Lotus veteran Simon King will be mating the 400 horsepower
Emira engine to its chassis on the shop floor for the first time.
Exciting but nervous, you never know,
but, yeah, fingers crossed it's going to go in.
Helping Simon will be Andy, arguably the best man for the job.
Yeah, yeah best friends, yeah.
Best...best man at his wed...at my wedding.
Take your T-bar off Andy. Yeah.
Yeah, we've been working together 20 years so, yeah,
good fun, good fun.
It demands a pair of highly experienced technicians
to go through this delicate fitting of engine to chassis.
So, down, Si. Down a little bit? Yep.
Little bit more. So, what, go down a little bit more, Andy?
Hang on, one sec.
Need to go towards you a bit.
OK, hold on, mate. How we looking?
Eventually, this fiddly task will take under 20 minutes.
There you go, Andy, I'm loose now.
Are you in, Andy?
It went in but it ain't coming out!
But for the moment, it's a steep learning curve.
It's quite a fiddly job and cos it's so much weight,
it's a lot to jiggle about and, uh,
just to get the bolts in straight away.
But we'll get there. We'll get there.
How we doing under there?
Ah, this is a bugger.
There's just no clearance at all.
This trial run will help iron out the kinks...
Here we go.
..before the factory is at full chat, making 5,000 cars every year.
Green is good.
Where's me hat?
Today, it took two and a half hours.
Good, gents? Yeah, all good thank you.
Lovely, thank you very much.
So, yeah, first one, very happy with and let's move onto the second.
Do you want me to take this wheel off. Simon?
Yeah, do you want to jack, just jack her up? Yeah.
But for many at Lotus, like Kevin and Simon,
the last combustion engine car is met with mixed feelings.
Don't know where the string lines are, do you know where they are?
Um, on the top of my tool box. Ah, that's all right.
This is, unfortunately, the last combustion engine car
that we're going to develop here at Lotus
and it's a shame, really, cos we're all, uh,
petrol heads through and through here.
Go right, I've got that zero point there Simon.
Bang on 600.
It's the same as the other car, so... Excellent.
So, we're spot on with that.
It is the future and you have to go with it.
It's going to be pretty sad when the last petrol engine car
comes off the line.
I'll probably be here for the last of the petrol cars and then
I can slide into retirement and play with my own petrol cars.
The Emira will be shown off to the world in just two weeks' time
and everyone at Lotus is beginning to feel the pressure.
Commercially, for the company this is such an important product.
So there is a certain trepidation that you just don't
know how the car's going to be judged.
For Russell Carr, who led the Emira's design,
revealing the car at Goodwood has an added personal resonance.
So, this is the picture at Goodwood in 1960.
In the picture here you got Jack Brabham,
who was then the reigning Formula One world champion.
Donald Campbell.
Uh, Donald Campbell's wife Tonya in the background
and there's...there's my father.
So, he worked with Donald Campbell, who's a very successful
water speed record holder.
And then in 1960, he decided he was going to go for
the land speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats.
Russell's father was the project manager for Campbell's Bluebird -
a land speed record breaking car that was first shown off
in 1960 at Goodwood.
In front of the car, you can see Campbell and my father again,
with the famous stand behind there.
I guess a little bit like we're going to be doing
with Emira fairly shortly.
Vehicles, for both of us, were important
and I was surrounded by that sort of passion for vehicles
and thought they were important.
Yeah, it was quite sort of touching, my dad was quite proud, I think so.
With the assembly line kinks ironed out,
this new facility will now produce more cars than ever -
creating hundreds of new jobs.
It's a bit mad, really.
Ten years, this structure's stood here waiting for this
production facility to be built.
This is our future here.
But for the moment, all hands are on prototype number one,
as Lotus prepare to reveal their new car to the world's press.
ENGINE REVS
CHEERS AND APPLAUSE
But it won't be the journalists who will determine
if this car is a success or not...
And it's absolutely beautiful.
..it'll be their fans...
I really like it, actually.
It's something a little bit different from Lotus.
..at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The legendary motor sport event has arrived.
First stand you see coming to Goodwood is Lotus.
Big presence and we got a big crowd here as well.
For Russell, it's almost 61 years to the day
that his father revealed Bluebird for the first time.
I think he would be proud that I'm doing something that I'm passionate
about and he was a Lotus fan as well,
so I'm sure he'd be really excited.
For years, Lotus have struggled to make money
but they hope this car marks a change.
I've had Lotuses for years and it just looks like
the next generation should do.
And it's not just the die-hard fans who are impressed.
Ooh, oh, oh!
It just holds the road so well.
We're taking orders as we speak.
It's a fantastic piece of kit.
For Matt Windle and the team,
Goodwood could not have gone any better.
Brimming order books and renewed confidence.
It's where we are as a business, it shows our progress.
It's the last combustion engine car we're doing,
so we wanted to make it best in breed.
It's the most accomplished Lotus that's ever come out
the gates of the factory.
Buy whether this new car marks the bright new beginning
everyone craves, only time will tell.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media