THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY has no shortage of talented folk who live and breathe the job, but few embody that commitment quite like Gavan Kershaw at Lotus. A Hethel lifer since his apprenticeship in 1988, director of attributes and product integrity since 2017, he’s worked with Lotus legends, represented the brand at professional level on track, and weaves like a strand of DNA through Lotus dynamics from late Esprits and early Elises to today’s Emira and upcoming Eletre electric SUV – not to mention secret projects for other makers. There are even a couple of Lotus classics tucked away in his garage.
No silver-spooner, Kershaw grew up in a Norfolk council house, inheriting the car bug from his dad Dave, a civil engineer who built and raced his own stock cars in Norfolk’s quarter-mile oval-racing scene – even becoming British and European Champion in 1972 – before switching focus to his son’s racing.
‘I started in Junior Booster go-karts aged about nine. We’d race at Snetterton and Ellough twice a month against the likes of Darren Turner and Ralph Firman Jr, and from there I got into 125s on long circuits,’ recalls Kershaw. ‘Dad’s friend used to design and build spider chassis for us. He’d use different tube stiffness or strength and would constantly
