Best Of British: Lotus (Duke Video)

[HeavySoul]

Am looking into boning up a bit on my Lotus history and have seen
Duke Videos Best Of British, Lotus DVD which looks fairly interesting from the description.

Just wondering if anyone here has this and can recommend it? It's fairly pricey at the moment but if the content is good then I will go ahead and make the purchase.

Also any other recommendations for general history on the company and models would be warmly appreciated.

Cheers

[hedgerley]

I've had it a while and although there is the odd cheesy moment its pretty good.

[LotusNova]

If you're into reading, you could get 'Colin Chapman: Wayward Genius' by Mike Lawrence (has a prime spot in my collection). It gives a pretty objective overview of the early years and I'd recommend it.

[hedgerley]

Forgot to mention, I have just bought Jabby Crombac's biography of Colin Chapman. He was a lifelong admirer of Lotus, from Day 1 almost and one of Chapmans closest friends. He actually raced some of Chapmans earliest creations before settling down as a journalist. The book has a tremendous amount of detail and anecdotes about the man, the company, the cars, just about everything to do with Lotus. I can throughly recommend it.

[HeavySoul]

Superb

I am a bit of a reader so will put those on the list, plus the few recommended by Classic and Sports Car mag in their Elise feature this month.

I will have an Elise before long and think Lotus one of the most interesting sport car companies out there.

Might wait to pick up the DVD a bit cheaper.

Thanks for the tips, if there are any more please feel free to update me

[peter450]

its ok but could be a bit more in depth

[red_lotus]

I've also seen a 4 DVD set around anyone see that? Any good?

[dodgey_rog]

hedgerley said:

Forgot to mention, I have just bought Jabby Crombac's biography of Colin Chapman. He was a lifelong admirer of Lotus, from Day 1 almost and one of Chapmans closest friends. He actually raced some of Chapmans earliest creations before settling down as a journalist. The book has a tremendous amount of detail and anecdotes about the man, the company, the cars, just about everything to do with Lotus. I can throughly recommend it.

Would agree, i finished reading it last week, once i started reading it i just couldn't put it down. Fascinating and very inspiring by the way its written.

[HeavySoul]

hedgerley said:

Forgot to mention, I have just bought Jabby Crombac's biography of Colin Chapman....I can throughly recommend it.

Just put Jabby Crombac into Amazon and got this :
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0850597331/202-5885207-9179068?v=glance&n=266239&v=glance

Had to double take at the author for a minute, can't quite see Enzo writing a book on Colin Chapman! Is this the book in question?

[B16 RFF]

HeavySoul said:

hedgerley said:

Forgot to mention, I have just bought Jabby Crombac's biography of Colin Chapman....I can throughly recommend it.

Just put Jabby Crombac into Amazon and got this :
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0850597331/202-5885207-9179068?v=glance&n=266239&v=glance

Had to double take at the author for a minute, can't quite see Enzo writing a book on Colin Chapman! Is this the book in question?

Yes, it is the book. Old man Ferrari wrote the Foreword.

Paul.

Edited by B16 RFF on Tuesday 22 August 19:29

[HeavySoul]

B16 RFF said:

Yes, it is the book. Old man Ferrari wrote the Foreword.

Paul.

Superb! I didn't quite think Mr Ferrari had written the whole book. Shall order this up tonight

[hedgerley]

Perhaps you should point out the error to Amazon.

BTW, if you are interested in the Elise, Discovery Channel filmed the whole development programme, from first sketches to first customer. It was out on double video not long after and is a superb record of this innovative engineering programme, a unique insight. I think its now available on DVD and again, I can thoroughly recommend it.

[HeavySoul]

hedgerley said:

Perhaps you should point out the error to Amazon.

BTW, if you are interested in the Elise, Discovery Channel filmed the whole development programme, from first sketches to first customer. It was out on double video not long after and is a superb record of this innovative engineering programme, a unique insight. I think its now available on DVD and again, I can thoroughly recommend it.

Really? I am going to buy an Elise in a few years and am very interested in anything Elise so will try and root that out. Thanks Hedgerley

[B16 RFF]

hedgerley said:

Perhaps you should point out the error to Amazon.

BTW, if you are interested in the Elise, Discovery Channel filmed the whole development programme, from first sketches to first customer. It was out on double video not long after and is a superb record of this innovative engineering programme, a unique insight. I think its now available on DVD and again, I can thoroughly recommend it.

Its particularly good for a car documentary. I've watched it several times, and I'm not an Elise fan especially.

Paul

[999]

Any of you guys got an idea where i might get a hold of a copy of this Discovery Channel DVD ?

[B16 RFF]

999 said:

Any of you guys got an idea where i might get a hold of a copy of this Discovery Channel DVD ?

Ebay, item 130020055144 Its called 'Elise the inside story'.

Paul

Edited by B16 RFF on Wednesday 23 August 13:51

[999]

Nice one mate. I've had a peek at the item number on ebay and it looks as though it'll be pretty good viewing. £14.99 - a bit steep ? not sure, although I'll probably buy.

[B16 RFF]

999 said:

Nice one mate. I've had a peek at the item number on ebay and it looks as though it'll be pretty good viewing. £14.99 - a bit steep ? not sure, although I'll probably buy.

£14.99 is not bad if its the genuine article. But it looks like it may be a pirate copy of the video.
Depends how badly you want it I suppose.

Paul.

[M100]

B16 RFF said:

£14.99 is not bad if its the genuine article. But it looks like it may be a pirate copy of the video.

It's as genuine as the Colin Chapman signature on the DVD sleeve.

Edited by M100 on Friday 25th August 18:01

[B16 RFF]

M100 said:

B16 RFF said:

£14.99 is not bad if its the genuine article. But it looks like it may be a pirate copy of the video.

It's as genuine as the Colin Chapman signature on the DVD sleeve.

Edited by M100 on Friday 25th August 18:01

Hehe, its probably Chapman selling it to make a few quid.