More of Phil's Day Job

More car porn, girls and boys.

This - as I'm sure you know by now - is my baby brother Phil.
He's worked at Lotus Sports Cars for twenty-one years now and has reached the rank of senior shouty person.
Carrying on from Sunday's Lotus porn-fest I'd like to fill you in on a bit of history. If you hit the "Cars and Girls" link in my sidebar you'll find that Phil and I like to dress up and watch vintage racing cars going apeshit.
A lot of the original cars (and - like Stirling Moss and Carol Shelby, the original drivers) still race, and it's a whole lot more exciting to watch than the modern stuff.
Cars like this …

Jim Clark's wonderful Grand Prix winning Lotus from when I was a little boy.

Those evolved during the sixties and seventies into these.

And then Lotus ruled the world.
This is one of Ayrton Senna's JPS Lotus formula one cars, in which the late, great Brazilian ace won multiple world championships.
With him came Emerson Fittipaldi, whose JPS can be seen screaming round Goodwood circuit in my last "Cars and Girls" post.

This is a later Senna car, also a multiple winner.

Alongside the formula one racing cars, Colin Chapman (the engineering genius behind Lotus and no mean racing driver himself) developed sports cars; primarily to raise money to go racing.
The yellow and silver open-top to the left is the classic Lotus 7. You can still buy and race these.
Way in the background is the Lotus Cortina, beloved of getaway drivers in the sixties and being driven like a maniac by Stirling Moss in my last "Cars and Girls" post.
In front is Colin's first real big seller, the Lotus Elan. Decked out in the racing colours of the time, this one is about to be let loose on the test track at the factory.
It set the standard for all the best Lotus's since: small, very light, VERY fast and with incredible handling.

This is the latest Elise to come with those famous racing colours.

Sticking with racing cars today, this is the original Motorsport version that took the sports car world by storm.
Incredible speed and agility with mind-buggering handling earned it the title of best drivers' car in the world many times over.

You can buy many versions of it now.
This Exige is particularly sweet; Phil re-created the classic 1960's Gulf Racing Blue for the Exige Club Racer.
I've got a serious Jones for one of these babies.

This is one of Phil's favourite stripe-jobs; the current Motorsport Exige.

And the same from another angle because it's beautiful.
Sparkly black and nasty yellow like the wasps from your worst nightmare.
Several police forces use Lotus's as pursuit cars. Yikes!

The next generation of curcuit cars, the superb 211.
Buy one and race it.
Go on … You know you want to.

This is the monstrous GT3 Le Mans Racer in yummy banana custard yellow.

And I'll finish today with the prototype for the road going version of the GT3.

This is one of Phil's hand-painted jobs. That's him in the stripy shirt in the doorway.
More porn tomorrow, including a little candy apple red one for Rich to play with.