Lotus News is the official magazine of Club Lotus in the UK.
Club Lotus was founded in 1956 under the suggestion of Colin Chapman who became its first President. Early meetings took place in London with a glittering Annual Ball in Park Lane which was often attended by Team Lotus drivers and other ‘Lotus’ personalities, including of course Colin and Hazel. Although the Club declined in the late 1970’s, it was revived in the 1980’s by Graham Arnold, a former Sales and Marketing Director at Lotus Cars. Graham ran the Club until his unfortunate passing in 2003. Alan Morgan has been Chairman since taking over from Graham’s wife Margret in 2004.
Club Lotus is the largest and oldest independent Lotus club in the world with well over 5,000 members. Around 92% of these live in the UK but there are overseas members in Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA.
In the early days of the club the Sports Car & Lotus Owner magazine was effectively the club’s magazine before, in the mid-seventies, “Club Lotus News’ was born. In the late 1970’s Club Lotus News was an 8-page 12x17in ‘newspaper’ type affair before, in January 1984 we think (as we don’t have any issues from 1983), the publication was sent out to club members in a new 12x8in 16-page stapled format. Every edition of Club Lotus News from the elate 70s until the present day will eventually be accessible at the Lotus-Library, forming a unique reference archive as well as a real period ‘Lotus’ timeline.
