Page 19 - Sample pages "Paolo Martin: Visions in Design" by Gautam Sen

LOTUS 2000 SEDAN (1979)
In 1979, a journalist friend asked me if I could work on a project with utmost confidentiality and discretion for a client who was notoriously pragmatic and demanding. Intrigued, I accepted. Soon, the owner of Lotus Cars Limited, as well as the owner of the F1 racing team of the same name, was at my door. Here was Colin Chapman, with several of his colleagues.
His request was to build a sports car that would be powered by a 2-liter, 8-cylinder unit, and would have four seats and four doors. It had to use the construction techniques typical of Lotus of the period: a central tubular trellis with fiberglass superstructure. It also had to put Lotus in the high-performance luxury car segment.
Having had previous experiences on this type of product, I set to work, and the only problem was to conceive the object not in sheet metal, but in fiberglass, a material with different thicknesses, and therefore, difficult to combine with profiles, extrusions and accessories not designed for these needs. I realized, in no time, that although Colin Chapman was very demanding, he also left one with relative freedom, so that the final result was as international as possible.
I presented the first sketches to him at the beginning of 1980, with a set of front and rear perspectives. A few more renderings followed, until the final version was chosen. In the month of April 1980, I made the drawing in 1: 4 scale and I started the construction of the model in the same scale. Colin Chapman personally corrected the model and wanted some small changes made,
and the scale model was presented. This design was presented in the Norwich office in June 1980.
Unfortunately, fate did not agree, and Colin Chapman left us soon after. This dream remained in the drawer, and it is one of my great regrets. This little secret remained hidden for more than 25 years. I still have the satisfaction of having participated in such a daring project, even if it will remain forever in the drawer of dreams.
OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT: Left to right: Mike Kimberley, unknown, Colin Chapman and Paolo Martin.
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PAOLO MARTIN
VISIONS IN DESIGN
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