Kimi’s Lotus F1 Team have obtained a 90-second preview of the show, to whet your appetite, with Kimi at the wheel of the well-worn (but awesome) Suzuki Liana. The time to beat is 1.44.0 seconds set by Sebastian Vettel, but with the top 6 times spanning less than 0.7 seconds it’s by no means certain that the Iceman will grace the top half of the league table.

After being let loose in the front wheel drive family runabout, Kimi declared it ‘better than expected’, after he explored the Liana’s gut-renching levels of adhesion.

The full program will be on BBC TWO this Sunday at 20:00 UK time.

Photo credit: Lotus F1 Team

The ‘Lotus Licence’ is a tiered staircase programme that delivers a full programme of driver training and qualification leading up to a drive in the Evora GT4 at race standard. Level 1 covers heritage and an introduction to the Lotus brand, an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the production facilities and general vehicle handling training.

Subject to successfully passing Level 1, drivers will advance to Level 2 and eventually to Level 3 where they hone their skills learning everything from the theory of vehicle dynamics and tyre grip to trail breaking and powersliding.

The secret of becoming a great driver lies in plenty of track time and expert training, and after completing Level 3 drivers are awarded their ‘Lotus Licence’ and judged to be capable of handling the race-ready Evora GT4.

This is where the curriculum gets serious – all aspects of the circuit for racing are encompassed with special attention to race lines, analyses and a full debrief, after the serious bit it’s on to the fun stuff – extracting more performance from the Evora GT4 race car.

The Evora GT4 is a transverse mid-engined, rear wheel drive, sequential 6-speed transmission with paddle shift and twin plate sintered clutch. Shod in slick tyres, it delivers 349 bhp at 6500rpm and 328 lb/ft (400nm) at 5500rpm of torque – sounds good? The LDA allows you to find out what it’s like to drive on track and really unleash your talent.

What’s unique about the LDA is that drivers receive dedicated 1:1 tuition for the entire programme. Selected by Martin Donnelly, instructors are not only of the highest calibre, but they are completely focussed on their pupils so drivers can advance at the quickest possible rate and receive a truly bespoke experience. Current LDA instructors include:

Chief Instructor Martin Donnelly comments: “Lotus cars are real drivers’ cars. The Lotus Driving Academy is the perfect way to experience the special relationship between a car and the track and it’s a great opportunity for customers or aspiring customers to push themselves to the limit and experience everything Lotus has to offer. The syllabus we have put together is very technical so the training is comprehensive and challenging. There really is no better driver training out there!”

Managing Director Robert Lechner talks passionately about his plans for expansion: “We are really confident with the Lotus Driving Academy model, we have seen drivers progress and achieve their potential quickly so they keep coming back! Our success is down to creating the perfect learning experience with expert instructors in a world-class environment.

We are very happy to run our programmes at the re-launched Lotus track and are planning to open Lotus Driving Academies internationally, our first centre outside of the UK is at the Hungaroring in Budapest and we are looking at new locations at some of the greatest circuits around the world.“

The Circuits – Hethel

Situated beside Lotus headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk UK, the official Lotus test track is where the Lotus Driving Academy is located alongside Lotus Motorsport. With a length of 3.6 kilometres and width of 12 metres, it can be used additionally for GT racing and Formula 1 testing.

As a purpose-built test circuit, it combines a variety of technical aspects with a series of bends, hairpin, corners, straights and a turning circle designed to put Lotus’ high performance cars through their paces, and to train and develop driving skills.

The Circuits – Hungaroring

The LFA Budapest is based at the Hungarian Formula 1 track in a natural valley, surrounded by 50 hectares of rolling hillside. With this natural advantage, almost 80 percent of the racetrack is visible from any point. The smallest radius of a curve is 20 metres, while the largest is 400 metres.

The full length of the start-finish line is 788 metres and the track is at its widest point 15 metres, elsewhere the width varies between 10 and 11 metres – relative to the possible highest speed.

The Italian Police have a long history of exotic pursuit cars, however usually the task falls to Lamborghini, who have provided a succession of unique models to the State Police.

This time it was the choice of the Carabinieri and they chose not one, but two Lotus Evora for the task. With one car stationed in Milan and the other in Rome, the rapid transportation vehicles are equipped with a portable refrigerator (for carrying blood and organs in medical emergencies), but also some of the very latest voice recognition technology including the EVA (Enhanced Vehicle Automation) system.

The Arma dei Carabinieri, which is a seperate organisation to the Italian army, play a similar role in Italy to Scotland Yard in the UK and work with the civilian police to provide a crucial service to the public.

Commenting during the handover event at Carabinieri headquarters in Rome, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar said: “We are extremely proud to be working with such an iconic and professional organisation as the Carabinieri who play an integral role in Italian society.”

“Everyone knows that Italy has more than it’s fair share of high-profile sports car manufacturers so it is a real honour for a relatively small British brand to be in this position. The feedback from the driver training on the Evora S at our test track was very positive, it’s such a responsive car to drive, I think the teams in Rome and Milan are really going to feel the benefit of working with our product.”

The British-Police-edition Evora with its blues-and-twos just wouldn’t cut it on the stylish streets of Milan and Rome.

Carabinieri spokesperson, Colonel Marco Minicucci said: “Our special Lotus Evoras combine the very best of our technology with excellent British engineering from Lotus. Not just anyone can drive these cars, we carefully selected some of our team to attend a driver training session at the new test track at Lotus’ headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk where they learnt all about the very special characteristics and incredible potential of the cars.”

By carefully selected I suspect Colonel Minicucci means “..a few of us senior police officers visited Lotus’ Hethel HQ and had a blast around their new test track!” Don’t worry Marco, we don’t blame you..

Gallery

Spend the day learning the fastest way around the 2 mile circuit and how to get the maximum performance from the 370Z. And did we mention – all this takes place under the watchful visor of the man in white; the world’s fastest man-machine; Top Gear’s tame racing driver: The Stig?

Not bad eh?

There are 20 places available, so if you’re interested watch the video in the sidebar and then click through to enter yourself in the competition. (if for any reason the video does not play, then just refresh the page)

Earlier this year within Drivers Republic, we published a behind-the-scenes video of Matt Becker (Lotus’ principal vehicle dynamics engineer) driving a Lotus 2-Eleven around Hethel and now Lotus themselves have invited Google Street View to film normally hidden areas of the Lotus Headquarters.

Some interesting machinery was lined up for the day; a Lotus 2-Eleven that you can see being driven in a spirited manner, a research and development Exige 265E which is fuelled by environmentally friendly ethanol and a number of prototypes of the new Evora.

Nigel Marshall, Head of Facilities Management for Lotus said, “We decided to give Street View users an opportunity to look around part of the Lotus HQ and to virtually drive the Hethel Test Track. Only a select number of drivers have driven the Lotus circuit over the years, but now anyone can get a closer look at where some of the most iconic British sports and racing cars have been tested and developed. To see some dynamic track driving of the Lotus 2-Eleven just check out the North Hairpin!”

Matthew Prestopino, Google’s Head of Street View Operations in Europe said, “Being invited to come and drive alongside some of the UK’s coolest cars was a real treat. This is the first ever circuit in the UK to be photographed for Street View and car fans are going to love taking a virtual tour and locating their favourite Lotus cars in action on the track”.

The Street View of the Lotus Headquarters can be viewed here:

http://3.ly/LotusCarFactoryGoogleStreetView

Users can access street-level imagery of the Lotus site by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange “Pegman” icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted road such as the Lotus test track.

Bacardi decided to combine 7-times F1 champion Michael Schumacher together with Salvatore “The Maestro” Calabrese, one of the world’s greatest mixologist.

Schumacher puts Calabreses mixology skills to an extreme test as he drives at high speeds around the Dunsfold test track in a Maserati GranTurismo S whilst Calabrese tries to mix the perfect cocktail.

Cue much hilarity and Il Maestro getting soaked..

For more information on the Champions Drink Responsibly™ campaign go to www.championsdrinkresponsibly.com

The first is from Gavan Kershaw, executive engineer at Lotus in their chassis engineering department. Gavan is responsible for signing off the chassis of every Lotus car, and here he talks us around the Hethel test circuit explaining how to achieve the perfect lap.

Our second video features Gavan taking us on a hot-lap of the Hethel circuit.

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