Lotus Track Calendar

by

Alistair Florence, Lotus PR, has written:

The Lotus Track Calendar (now to end of December 2026) with key events extra to our day-to-day activities.

After such a hot and dry Summer, the arrival of the occasional rain shower has returned the grass lawns around the Lotus factory from brown to a welcome green. This is just in time for us to welcome around 300 former Lotus employees and colleagues to the factory on this Saturday (12 September 2026) for the fifth annual “Lotus Remembered Reunion”. Accompanying the reunion, will be a selection of around 60 Lotus cars that were built at Hethel since we moved here from Cheshunt in Hertfordshire in 1966. These cars will be on static display during the day.

This is the second event at Hethel celebrating the 60th Anniversary – the first one being the Lotus Staff Family Day which was on Saturday 18th of July. It was lovely to meet so many of you who joined us for the day and thank you coming!

The final event celebrating 60 years at Hethel is being organised by Classic Team Lotus (2026 – Classic Team Lotus) on Saturday 24th of October. This will be a lovely event featuring Lotus F1 cars through the decades, on-track action and special displays with all admission ticket proceeds going to the Priscilla Bacon Hospice.

On Sunday 13th of September and we have a Motorsport UK sanctioned Sprint event which is run by an organisation called “Borough 19” and our own “Lotus Motor Club” – Hethel Sprint – B19MC.

The following Saturday – 19th of September we have the another Motorsport UK sanctioned Sprint event run by “Lotus OnTrack” – Hethel – Lotus Test Track | Saturday 19 September 2026 – Lotus on Track.  We have hosted both these events at Hethel for many years. Motorsport UK is the Government approved body for all four-wheel motorsport in the United Kingdom and this event is being run at “Club” level which includes the lowest levels of noise permitted in motorsport. All competing cars have to pass strict scrutineering and noise level tests. These events will run from 0900 to 1700 but normally the Sprints finish at around 1615 to 1630. There will also be a lunch break for one hour between 1200 and 1400.

On Sunday 20th of September we are hosting the East Anglian heat of the Greenpower Education Trust electric vehicle championships: Dudgeon Community Fund East Anglia Heat | Greenpower. The Greenpower Education Trust is a UK based charity which gets young people enthusiastic about science and engineering by challenging them to design, build and race an electric car.

Local Residents Calendar September to December 2026 10-09-2026Download

Lotus Track Days – calendar

by

We have received the following information from Alastair Florance of Lotus about their track days.

On Saturday 16th May, a Motorsport UK sanctioned Sprint event which is run by an organisation called “Lotus OnTrack”. Motorsport UK is the Government approved body for all four-wheel motorsport in the United Kingdom and this event is being run at “Club” level which includes the lowest levels of noise permitted in motorsport. All competing cars have to pass strict scrutineering and noise level tests. The event will run from 0900 to 1700 but normally the Sprint is finishes at around 1615 to 1630. There will also be a lunch break for one hour between 1200 and 1400.

Every Tuesday from 12th May until 11th July the “Lotus Cycle Racing League” (Lotus Cars Cycle Racing League) is a series of cycle races under British Cycling rules around the Lotus Test Track. Last year, upwards of 200 cyclists of varying abilities and ages took part in the races.

On the evening of Friday 12th June athletes of all levels will compete in a 5 km (Total Race Timing Lotus 5K and HarlingAC Lotus 5k) organised by Harling Athletics Club. An event that Lotus have held for a number of years and it has always proved popular across the running community.

Saturday 18th of July the Lotus Staff Family Day from 10:00 until 15:00. Some 2500 staff and their families will be on site and there will be driving demonstrations and other activities during the day.

Also supplied is the calendar for the track days:

Lotus Community Track Calendar May to September 2026Download

Lotus Track Calendar (to December 2024)

by

We recently (19 September) received an email from Lotus:

Dear local resident,

I hope that you are keeping well and that you have had a good summer.

Attached is the last quarter of the year track calendar – and you will see that Lotus Driving Academy finishes next month. Other activities on the track after that, and to the end of the year, will be Lotus business activities – testing and development, customer and media visits.

This coming weekend we have two events, on Saturday 21 September, we have our annual “Lotus On Track” track day which is for only Lotus cars. The cars have to be road legal including sound and tyre squealing is not allowed.

The following day we are holding our annual “GreenPower EV” event. GreenPower is an educational trust that encourages students of school and university age into STEAM subjects and careers and involves designing and developing and driving small electric vehicles, with a competitive element on a pre-determined closed course, in our case at Hethel. Therefore the site will be slightly busier than usual for a Sunday and we are expecting a couple of hundred of people to support the event.

Then the following weekend, on Saturday 28 September, the Facebook Group “Lotus Remembered” which is made up of former and current members of Lotus staff and their families are having their annual reunion – it was first held two years ago at Classic Team Lotus and then last year at Group Lotus. We are expecting a few hundred people will attend and again, the site will be busier that usual for a Saturday, but there will be no track activity.

Finally, this week we unveiled a new concept car Lotus Theory 1 in our Lotus London store, on 73, Piccadilly. You can read more about it here. Should you be in London between now and the end of September 2024, do pop-in and have look.

As always, all other the news can be found on our media website here:

Home – Lotus Cars Media Site

And updates via our social media:

Lotus Cars | Facebook

Lotus Cars (@lotuscars) / X (twitter.com)

Lotus Cars (@lotuscars) Official | TikTok

Group Lotus | LinkedIn

Lotus Cars – YouTube

Lotus Cars Instagram

Until the next update from Hethel, kind regards,

Alastair Florance, PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER

alastair.florance@eu.lotuscar.com & aflorance@lotuscars.com

T: +44 (0) 1953 608462 M: +44 (0) 7802 918662

Residents calendar September to Dec 2024 240916Download

The Lotus Theory – General Invite – ShowroomDownload

Lotus Track Calendar 2021

by

Alastair Florance writes from Lotus: “I will send an update email about the exciting developments at Lotus’ HQ but in the meantime, here is the Hethel Track Calendar 2021:

Lotus-Track-Calendar-20-April-2021Download

As you can see, activities such as the Lotus Driving Academy (LDA) and the Customer Driving Experiences are not planned to restart until July 2021. We are also hosting the GreenPower event at Hethel (https://www.greenpower.co.uk/) where young people are encouraged, through science, technology, engineering and maths to design, build and race an electric car.

This Sunday (25 April 2021), the Lotus Motor Club (LMC) will be hosting one of its twice yearly “Sprints” on the Track from 09:00 to 17:30 and the same noise limits and testing will be in force as in previous events. However, in previous years the LMC has invited spectators to watch the competition, but due to strict Covid 19 compliance procedures, this unfortunately will not be possible this year.

As always, should you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.”

ALASTAIR FLORANCE, GROUP PR MANAGER

aflorance@lotuscars.com / 01953 608462 / Hethel, Norwich, Norfolk, NR14 8EZ, England

Lotus – SNC contact

by

Adrian Nicholas,  Specialist Technical Advisor at SNC (01508 533722; anicholas@s-norfolk.gov.uk ) has written of contact with Group Lotus and discussions about their Hethel track use and related noise/inconvenience to neighbours.

When we posted about this in February 2019, we had hoped to hear that Group Lotus were reinstating their periodic email updates sent to residents living near their site. These would provide information about the company’s activities, including planned use of the Hethel test track.  We have heard nothing about this, but have received a copy of their 2019 calendar for track use – see here

However residents have heard noise from cars on the Hethel track. Some find this untenable. If this is you, then please let Adrian Nicholas know. Write to him at anicholas@s-norfolk.gov.uk providing details of your complaint.

Lotus Track Activity Calendar for 2017

by

Lotus have written about the Track calendar 2017. They have new internal procedures intended to reduce their impact on the community:

  • No Lotus Driving Academy at Hethel – LDA is now a global activity with Academies in Asia, North America and Europe
  • No more Mitsubishi Lancer Club Sprint (exceptionally noisy vehicles)
  • No more formula type race car testing by 3rd parties
  • No vehicle running in evenings unless critical to Lotus business
  • No back to back events over the same or consecutive weekends
  • Weekend Events classed “potentially noisy” spaced out at no more than 1 per month with more than 4 weeks interval on average
  • Updates for the local community.

Potentially noisy users in 2017 currently limited to:

Lotus on Track:

  • No more than 6 Saturday events per year.
  • Comprises Lotus product owners Track Day events.
  • All vehicles noise tested to comply with regulation limits and records kept.
  • Has been running for over 10 years at Hethel.

Lotus Motor Club Sprint:

  • 2 fixed date Sunday events per year – 2nd April and 6th August 2017
  • Comprises Lotus staff club members, Lotus owners, other varied vehicles from associated clubs.
  • All vehicles noise tested to comply with  MSA regulation limits and records kept.
  • Has been running for 20 years at Hethel.

Classic Team Lotus:

  • 2 hours allocated per week during office hours for testing. Generally used once or twice per month)
  • Comprises classic and vintage Lotus racing cars.

Lotus Cars Engineering:

  • Week days and possibly week ends during core hours.
  • Vehicle engineering activities for Lotus products and 3rd party clients.
  • Comprises road going type vehicles.

Any comments to Alastair Florance, Group PR Manager, GROUP LOTUS PLC, Hethel, NR14 8EZ

T: 01953-608462 or E: aflorance@lotuscars.com

Lotus Group and Residents Meeting

by

An occasional meeting is held between Lotus Group plc and local residents to discuss matters arising from use of the track at Hethel by Lotus and their Driving Academy. You may be interested that Lotus Group are offering a 10% discount for residents’ family members. Contact Danny Hartgrove (dhartgrove@lotuscars.com) for more details.

Meeting notes: Local Residents Meeting 26 Feb 2015

2015 schedule for Lotus events: LDA CALENDAR 2015

The key to the codes in the schedule is:

FT = Factory Tour
HFT = Heritage Factory Tour (Includes CTL)
SYS = Scare yourself Sensible (1/2 Day Track Event)
L1,2,3 = Lotus Driving Academy Track Events
LOT = Lotus on Track (Lotus Owners Track Event)
LMC = Lotus Motor Club (Annual Sprint track Event)