Team Lotus Factory

[Mark H]

The Team Lotus production and race team base is in Hingham, Norfolk in the UK, a 50,000 square foot facility that is fully equipped to enable the team to face the challenges of an aggressive car build programme.

The factory is close to the original Team Lotus base and currently employs approximately 220 people.

The team is also in the early stages of building a dedicated wind tunnel on the Hingham site, giving it complete control of its design, testing and development programmes in-house.

In the initial stages of car development in 2009 / 2010, the team established technical partnerships with Cosworth (engines), aerodynamics specialists Fondtech as well as gearbox / hydraulics specialists Xtrac.

These have now been updated for 2011, with Renault supplying engines and Red Bull Technology the gearboxes and hydraulic systems while Fondtech continues to provide wind tunnel facilities.

The team also collaborates with two Malaysian universities – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) for engineering and composites support.

An open plan design office housing 70 designers exists on the first floor with conference facilities adjacent.

This floor also houses the offices for management, marketing and the support functions of Information Technology, the team’s engineers and all the other administration functions.

On the ground floor further offices for operational departments lie next to the machine shop which comprises CNC mills and lathes as well as manual machining centres and support equipment.

A composites function boasts two modern autoclaves, one big enough for the largest of F1™ carbon components and both a large pattern shop (including 5-axis router) and an impressive clean room for laminating key car parts.

A fully equipped quality and inspection department is also on site which opens onto the race shop where the cars are built, re-built and prepared for racing.

The other race team support functions of sub-assembly, gearbox, hydraulics and electronics are also housed within this facility.

 

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