About Club Lotus
Founded in 1956, Club Lotus is the world’s largest independent club for owners and enthusiasts of Lotus cars. Across seven decades we have grown from a small gathering of early Elite and Seven owners into an international community of around 5,200 members, united by a shared love of Colin Chapman’s enduring principle: simplify, then add lightness.
We are an independent, member-led organisation – not affiliated to Lotus Cars Limited – and we exist to serve our members, preserve the marque’s heritage, and keep the spirit of Hethel alive on the road, on the track, and in print.
Seventy Years of Lotus, in Print and in Person
From the earliest pre-SCALO newsletters of 1956 to today’s Club Lotus News magazine, our journey has been one of continuity through change. Members have raced at Brands Hatch, toured the Alps, restored barn-finds in cold garages, and traded knowledge in pubs and paddocks long before the internet made any of it easier. The cars have evolved – the Seven, Elite, Elan, Europa, Esprit, Elise, Exige, Evora, Emira and now the Eletre – but the club’s purpose has remained the same: to bring Lotus people together.
In 2026 we mark our 70th Anniversary, a milestone few independent marque clubs ever reach. We are celebrating it the way Club Lotus has always done – through a packed calendar of driving events, Club Lotus News, and the launch of an ambitious project to safeguard the next seventy years of our history.
What We Do
Membership of Club Lotus opens the door to a wide and varied programme of activities:
Club Lotus News, our member magazine, published throughout the year and dispatched in print and digital editions.
Track days and driving events, including our flagship visit to Hethel and partnerships with circuits across the UK and Europe.
Area meetings in 28 regions covering the UK and beyond, run by volunteer organisers who know their members and their local roads.
Hybrid events combining in-person gatherings with live-streamed driver talks, car spotlights and archive reveals for members who cannot travel. (Coming Soon)
The Club Shop, offering regalia, books and curated Lotus memorabilia.
Digital Authenticity and Valuations, a transferable certificate service for owners who need a recognised statement of a car’s identity and standing.
Technical advice and member-to-member support, drawn from one of the deepest pools of Lotus knowledge anywhere in the world.
The Lotus Heritage Digital Archive
Our anniversary year also marks the beginning of our most significant heritage project to date. Club Lotus holds one of the world’s most extensive private archives of Lotus material: the complete run of SCALO (1956–1961), every issue of Club Lotus News from 1970 to the present, alongside photographs, race programmes, technical bulletins, correspondence and printed ephemera spanning the full arc of the marque’s history.
Working in partnership with Coterie Press, Classic Team Lotus and others, we are digitising this material to professional preservation standards, with the long-term aim of becoming the first motoring heritage collection in the United Kingdom to achieve The National Archives accreditation. The archive will be searchable by Lotus model and type, by event and circuit, by people and era (and more) – a living reference for members, researchers, restorers and historians for generations to come.
The Heritage Digital Archive is, and will remain, a member benefit first. It is built by the club, for the club.
The Team
Alan – President
Alan is our Club President, having served the membership for many years, most recently as Chairman. He continues to play a leading role in the club’s strategic direction, representing Club Lotus at major events and acting as a bridge between the club’s history and its future.
Stuart – Chairman
Stuart leads the club’s day-to-day governance and its current programme of modernisation, including the rebuild of the Club Lotus website, the launch of the Heritage Digital Archive, and the development of the 70th Anniversary celebrations. He is the principal point of contact for partnerships and strategic projects.
Jane – Editor, Club Lotus News and Advertising
Jane edits Club Lotus News and oversees advertising sales, working with contributors across the club and with our commercial partners. She is also responsible for the club’s valuations service, drawing on years of experience with Lotus cars of every era.
Annemarie — Membership Secretary and Club Shop
Annemarie is the first voice many members hear and the steady hand behind the scenes. She manages memberships, renewals and enquiries, runs the Club Shop, and coordinates the Area network – the connective tissue that keeps Club Lotus a club, rather than simply a database.
Andy — Digital Archivist
Andy leads the digitisation programme, applying professional archive standards to the scanning, cataloguing and metadata work that underpins the Heritage Digital Archive. He also supports the Digital Authenticity and Valuations service, where archival evidence is so often the deciding factor in establishing a car’s provenance.