Screaming Hethel

Not long after making the ridiculous decision to start this magazine back in 1998, I made a trip over to the UK, to plant our first seeds in Great Britain. As I mentioned a couple of months back, I was a proud Lotus owner/racer at the time, so I jumped at the chance when I was invited by Colin Chapman’s son, Clive, to visit him and the old race shops at Hethel, in Norfolk.

Once on the Hethel industrial estate grounds, I was directed first to meet with Clive at his office in Ketteringham Hall, near the race shop. If that name is familiar, it is because Ketteringham Hall was the epicenter of Lotus operations during the later part of Colin Chapman’s life. Look at almost any press photo of a new Lotus launch in the late 1970s or 1980s and you’ll see the car—whether it be a black and gold Lotus 91 Formula One car or a second-generation Elite roadcar—staged on the front drive of Ketteringham Hall. Ketteringham Hall served as Chapman’s personal office and central command, so it made sense that press events would be held right outside his front door—plus the setting provided a regal air that I’m sure Chapman liked to have his creations viewed within.