Star of stage and screams

Mike Kimberley became boss of Lotus Cars in 1976, and was instrumental in the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. He still remembers the surprise phone call that started the project, has original test data comparing an Avenger mule (6.6sec 0-62mph) against the likes of the Escort RS1800 (8.5sec), and can now joke about the Sunbeam’s dynamics wrong-footing even some of his own development team, with its power, rear-drive layout and short wheelbase. ‘I was driving into work one icy morning and saw a Sunbeam Lotus, wheels in the air, with an engineer looking nervously out at me from the trees!’ he tells Octane. ‘Fortunately that one was repairable – though we did lose a few cars to overconfidence and the high power-to-weight ratio. It was a hell of a car, a very hot machine… still is.’

We’re taking a Sunbeam Lotus back to the Lotus test track in Hethel, close to where Lotus created the Sunbeam from bodyshells transported from Linwood, Scotland – and I’m certainly relieved it’s not icy, because this one’s significantly hotter than those