Lotus Cars
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50 free Lotus Cars trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Lotus has spent more than seventy years proving that a light car can beat a powerful one. A small British firm that began with one home-built car went on to win world championships, star on screen and quietly engineer other companies' cars, which makes its history unusually rich in good stories. This quiz turns those fun facts about Lotus cars into questions with answers and short explanations. It covers the famous road models, the origins of the badge and the model names, the factory in Norfolk, the changes of ownership, the Grand Prix team and its drivers, and the surprising things the engineers built on the side. It is written for car fans, motorsport followers and pub quiz setters alike. Most questions can be reasoned out with a little background knowledge, and a few are there to test the real enthusiasts.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which James Bond film does a Lotus Esprit drive off a pier and become a submarine?
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Spy Who Loved Me used six Esprits and one working submarine, nicknamed Wet Nellie. A former US Navy SEAL piloted it underwater wearing scuba gear.
Q 02The Lotus Elise of 1996 was named after Elisa, which relative of company chairman Romano Artioli?
His granddaughter
His granddaughter Elisa Artioli got more than a namesake: Lotus delivered the very last Elise ever built, a gold Sport 240, to her.
Q 03Which pioneering electric sports car was based on the Lotus Elise and built at the Hethel factory?
Tesla Roadster
Tesla Roadster body panels arrived at Hethel from France, and Lotus supplied some 2,500 cars without powertrains. In the end only about 7% of the parts were shared with the Elise.
Q 04The Lotus Type 108 that won Olympic gold at Barcelona in 1992 was what kind of machine?
A pursuit bicycle
A pursuit bicycle with a one-piece carbon frame, it carried Chris Boardman to gold on the Barcelona velodrome. It was Britain's first Olympic cycling gold in 72 years.
Q 05Which sports car built in Northern Ireland did Lotus re-engineer around an Esprit-style chassis?
DMC DeLorean
DMC DeLorean engineering was handed to Lotus after the first design proved to need an almost complete rethink. Under the stainless-steel skin sits a Lotus-style steel backbone.
Q 06Almost every Lotus road car launched since the late 1950s has a name beginning with which letter?
E
E names became a Lotus tradition with the Eleven, reportedly to avoid confusion with Roman numerals such as IX and XI. The Seven is one of the few exceptions.
Q 07Which entrepreneur bought the Lotus submarine car from a James Bond film at a 2013 London auction?
Elon Musk
Elon Musk bought the prop after it had sat for years in a New York storage unit, whose contents a buyer had picked up blind for under $100.
Q 08Why did a newspaper and police chiefs campaign to ban the Vauxhall-based Lotus Carlton saloon?
It was too fast
It was too fast, topping 176 mph while carrying four adults in comfort. One stolen Carlton was used in ram raids for months because police cars could not get near it.
Q 09The letters ACBC woven into the Lotus badge are the initials of which motor racing figure?
Colin Chapman
Colin Chapman was christened Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman and founded Lotus in 1952. His first partners, the Allen brothers, were reportedly told the letters stood for all of them.
Q 10Which 1990 film featured a Lotus Esprit after Ferrari and Porsche turned down the product placement?
Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman went to Lotus by default: the two better-known makers did not want their cars associated with soliciting prostitutes.
Q 11Which British company bought the rights to the Lotus Seven in 1973 and has built the car ever since?
Caterham
Caterham had been a leading dealer for the Seven, and its founder bought the design when Lotus decided to shed its kit-car image.
Q 12The Lotus factory and test track at Hethel in Norfolk were built on what kind of former site?
A wartime airfield
A wartime airfield, RAF Hethel was built in 1942 for American aircrews. Lotus moved in during 1966, and its test track still uses stretches of the old runway.
Q 13Which Chinese carmaking group took a controlling 51% stake in Lotus in 2017?
Geely
Geely and its co-owner later put £2 billion behind a plan to turn Lotus electric and lift output from about 1,500 cars a year to tens of thousands.
Q 21The first Lotus, built by a London student in 1948, was a trials car based on which model?
Austin 7
Austin 7 chassis and running gear sat under a body of thin aluminium bonded to plywood. The original car was sold in 1950 and has never been traced.
Q 22Where did Lotus set up its first factory, behind a north London hotel run by the founder's father?
In old stables
In old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey, the young company built its early cars. It moved to a purpose-built factory at Cheshunt in 1959.
Q 23Which car giant bought Lotus in 1986 and sold it to an Italian businessman seven years later?
General Motors
Q 14Early Lotus cars such as the Seven were sold as kits so British buyers could avoid which charge?
Purchase tax
Purchase tax applied to finished cars but not to kits of parts, so owners bolted their Lotus together at home. The advantage vanished in 1973, when VAT replaced the old system.
Q 15In which 1960s British TV series did Diana Rigg, as Emma Peel, drive a Lotus Elan?
The Avengers
The Avengers gave the Elan its most famous driver. Under the body sat a steel backbone chassis, the first on a Lotus road car and a layout the company kept for years.
Q 16Which Japanese sports car launched in 1989 used the 1960s Lotus Elan as its design benchmark?
Mazda MX-5
Mazda MX-5 designers borrowed Elan cues such as the door handles and tail lamps, and the first version even echoed the Lotus's pop-up headlights.
Q 17Which driver took his first Grand Prix victory in a Lotus in heavy rain in Portugal in 1985?
Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna lapped every car but one in the downpour. He took 16 pole positions in three seasons with Lotus before leaving for McLaren.
Q 18Jim Clark's Lotus 38 became the first rear-engined car to win which famous race in 1965?
Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis 500 tradition was overturned that day: the old front-engined roadsters were finished, and only six of the 33 starters still had the engine up front.
Q 19Which carmaker teamed up with Lotus in 1963 to create a twin-cam Cortina sports saloon for racing?
Ford
Ford needed 1,000 cars built before the saloon was allowed to race, and Lotus agreed to fit its twin-cam engine. The factory cars were painted white with a green stripe.
Q 20Ron Hickman, designer of the 1962 Lotus Elan, later made his fortune by inventing which DIY product?
The Workmate workbench
The Workmate workbench was born when he sawed the leg off an expensive chair he was using as a trestle. Black & Decker's version earned him a 3% royalty on every sale.
General Motors paid £22.7 million for a 91% stake and put Lotus engineers to work on its own products, including the Ecotec four-cylinder engine.
Q 24Which Asian carmaker bought a majority share in Lotus in 1996 and owned it for two decades?
Proton
Proton, a Malaysian carmaker, put Lotus know-how into its own models: Lotus tuned their handling and helped develop the Campro engine.
Q 25Romano Artioli, who bought Lotus in 1993, was at the time also the owner of which revived marque?
Bugatti
Bugatti had been revived by Artioli to build the EB 110 supercar, but it went bankrupt in 1995, and he sold a majority of Lotus the next year to cover his losses.
Q 26Which 1960s TV series opens with Patrick McGoohan driving a Lotus Seven with the plate KAR 120C?
The Prisoner
The Prisoner starred McGoohan as a secret agent held in a mysterious village. By then the Seven was a decade old; Lotus built it from 1957 to 1973.
Q 27The 1966 Lotus Europa took its engine and gearbox from a hatchback made by which French carmaker?
Renault
Renault designed the unit to drive the front wheels, so turning it round for a mid-engined car would have given four reverse gears. Lotus flipped the final drive to fix it.
Q 28The 1957 Lotus Elite had no separate chassis: its entire load-bearing shell was made of what?
Fibreglass
Fibreglass formed the entire structure, where other makers used it only for outer panels. It was light, but the rear mounting points were known to pull out of the plastic.
Q 29Which Formula One world champion received the first customer Lotus Evija electric hypercar in 2023?
Jenson Button
Jenson Button got a car with four motors, one at each wheel, making about 2,000 horsepower in all. Lotus limited production to 130 cars, matching its type number.
Q 30The Lotus Eletre SUV takes its name from a word meaning 'coming to life' in which language?
Hungarian
Hungarian supplied the word életre for the first Lotus SUV, which was also the first Lotus built in China. The Evija hypercar's name, by contrast, comes from Eve.