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A team from Lotus descended on some garages behind Alexandra Park Road yesterday with a little modified Austin 7, which turned out to be a replica of the original Lotus Mark 1. They were celebrating 75 years since it was built by Colin Chapman in one of these same garages, owned by his girlfriend's parents. Their son and daughter are pictured, about to set off on a repeat of its maiden trip to Dunstable Downs in Bedfordshire. Quite a long way, given a maximum speed of 25-30mph! They got down the hill from the garages with no problem, hope the rest of the trip went ok ...

Below that is a photo of Colin's wife Hazel in the original Lotus Mark 1, in front of the same garages, in 1948. She apparently took over the building of Marks1 and 2 (also in these garages) when Colin was away at work in the Air Force, and was also a racing driver herself and an astute businesswoman.

Here is another APN post back in 2017 on the early history of Lotus in Haringey.

 Credit: Classic Team Lotus

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Dunstable Downs