Upcoming AACA Museum exhibit celebrates Lotus: The Art of Lightness

1956 Lotus Mark VI, owned by guest curator Kyle Kaulback. Photos by Michael Furman, courtesy of the AACA Museum.

Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, whose four initials are integrated into the iconic Lotus Cars logo, never wanted to be an automaker or race car builder. Instead, Chapman would have preferred to remain a racer, but the costs associated with the sport forced his hand, and Lotus Engineering Limited was founded in 1952 to produce lightweight racing and sports cars. Next January, a new exhibit at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, will honor the storied British automaker and engineering firm with a new exhibit entitled Lotus: The Art of Lightness.

The guiding principle behind Lotus has always been this: Simplify, then add lightness. Chapman was obsessed with using the minimal amount of parts necessary to arrive at a particular engineering solution, and a favorite quote was said to be, “adding power makes you faster on the straights, subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere.” Every Lotus vehicle built, from the company’s earliest days, has embraced this philosophy, leading to an impressive list of accomplishments in the racing world. Lotus-built cars have captured seven Formula 1 championships, a British Saloon Car Championship (with the Type 28 Lotus Cortina), and a WRC championship (with the Lotus-developed Talbot Sunbeam, in 1981). Lotus cars have also produced victories at Indianapolis (with the Type 38, in 1965) and at Le Mans (in 1956, when a Lotus 11 scored a S1.1 Class victory, finishing seventh overall).

1971 Lotus Type 69, owned by guest curator Kyle Kaulback.

In addition to building automobiles of its own, Lotus has contributed engineering services to numerous vehicles over the years, including the DeLorean DMC-12 (for which Lotus Engineering developed the chassis, based upon its design for the Lotus Esprit) and the 1990-’95 Corvette ZR-1 (for which Lotus designed, developed and tested the overhead camshaft LT5 V-8, later built by Mercury Marine).

Its talents didn’t end with motorized vehicles, either; in the early 1990s, the company developed the Type 108 bicycle, a carbon-fiber-framed wonder that allowed rider Chris Boardman to set a new world record in the 4000 Meter Pursuit. Later, this bicycle would see limited production, and would spawn a commercial variant known as the Type 110 Sport bicycle.

Telling the six-plus decade story of Lotus won’t be easy, and the AACA Museum will be devoting a considerable amount of floorspace to the upcoming exhibit. The list of expected vehicles includes a 1956 Mark VI, a 1959 Elite, a 1962 Seven S2, a 1964 Elan S1, a 1966 Lotus Cortina, a 1967 Europa S1B, a 1970 Type 61 Formula Ford, a 1970 Type 69 Formula Ford, an Elan rolling chassis, a 1972 Europa TC, a 1973 Elan Sprint, a 1979 Eprit S2, a 1987 Esprit Turbo, a 1991 M100 Elan, a 1996 Type 110, a 2001 Esprit V8, a 1996 Lotus Sport 110 bicycle, a 2009 Exige S260 and a 2014 Evora S. Other displays will include a DeLorean DMC-12 and a C4 Corvette ZR-1, and Lotus-themed artwork from artists Gary Dausch and Gale Heimbach will be shown. The guest curator for the exhibit will be Lotus racer and collector Kyle Kaulback, and five of his own Lotus vehicles will be included in the display.

Lotus: The Art of Lightness is scheduled to open on Saturday, January 24. For additional details, visit AACAMuseum.org.