Talks

I am available for talks and presentations to clubs, societies and organisations on a variety of Lotus-related topics, ranging from the early days of Lotus to the Lotus 19 sports car, Lotus 49, Lotus 56 and Lotus 72.

I have made several visits to the Avon branch of Club Lotus, which meets at The Bull in Hinton. Talks that I have given there have covered the Lotus 56 turbine, the Lotus 49 and the Lotus 72.

An interesting change was a visit to a branch of the Porsche Club of Great Britain, to compare and contrast the approaches to Formula 1 of Lotus and Porsche during the time they were competing against one another in the late 1950s/early 1960s.

I also visited the Earls Barton Historical Society in Northamptonshire, England, to talk to them about the history of Cosworth, still a major employer in the area. A curious connection with Earls Barton is that Ronnie Peterson’s long-time mechanic Keith Leighton was brought up in the village and his father had a garage there called Earls Barton Motors, out of which he ran stock cars and won the World Championship several times. Keith went on to join Cosworth as an apprentice and quickly moved up through the ranks to the point where he was involved in the build of the first Ford Cosworth DFV engine. It is a small world…

I’ve also travelled to the renowned International Motor Racing Research Center at Watkins Glen in the USA to be the featured speaker at their annual Open House, where I spoke about the design and development of the Lotus 49.