Team Lotus made the mid-engine layout popular for IndyCars. They developed the first monocoque Formula One chassis. They also made the engine and transaxle a part of the chassis. A transaxle is a combination of the transmission and rear axle. Lotus was also among the first in Formula One to add wings and shaping the bottom of the car. This created aerodynamic downforce. They were the first to move radiators to the sides of the car. This improved the aerodynamic performance of the car. Team Lotus is also considered as the pioneer of the active suspension.
After Chapman's death, until the late 1980s, Lotus was still to be a major player in Formula One. Ayrton Senna drove for the team from 1985 to 1987. Senna won twice in each year and earned 17 pole positions. By the company's last Formula One race in 1994, the cars were not competitive. At the end of the 1994 season, Lotus left Formula One racing. Team Lotus won a total of 79 Grand Prix races. Team Lotus was the first team to achieve 50 Grand Prix victories.
Formula One Constructors' Championships (Drivers' Championship winner for Lotus)
In 1992, Team Lotus started Classic Team Lotus for the Works historic motorsport activity. Classic Team Lotus repairs and keeps Lotus F1 cars in running condition. They race them in the FIA Historic Formula One Championship. It keeps the Team Lotus archive and the Works Collection of cars. It is managed by Clive Chapman, son of company founder Colin Chapman.
The Lotus name returned to Formula One for the 2010 season. A new team in Malaysia was started called Lotus Racing. They used the Lotus name with license from Group Lotus. The new team was unrelated to the old Team Lotus. The new team was funded by a Malaysian Consortium (group of companies) including Proton, the former owner of Lotus.
After the 2010 season, Proton ended the license for Lotus Racing to use the Lotus name. Proton believed the team broke the license rules. Lotus Racing then bought Team Lotus Ventures Ltd. This company owned the rights to use the name "Team Lotus". The Lotus Racing team announced they would be known as Team Lotus starting in 2011.
In December 2010 Group Lotus (Proton) purchased part of the Renault F1 team. They announced the team would be now be known as Lotus Renault GP. Lotus Renault GP will compete in Formula One starting in 2011.
Lotus also unsuccessfully participated in the 24 Hours of LeMans and in the Indianapolis 500 in 2011 and 2012.
At the 2010 Paris Motorshow, Lotus announced five new models. These were to be introduced over the next five years.
Out of the five models introduced, only the Elise reached the production stage with Lotus cancelling the rest of the models to focus on making lightweight sports cars.
Lotus Engineering Limited, is an offshoot of Lotus Cars. They consult with other companies that build cars and car equipment. In addition to the United Kingdom, Lotus Engineering has offices in China, Malaysia and United States.
The APX (also known as the "Aluminum Performance Crossover") is a concept car made from aluminum presented at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show. It is built on Lotus Engineering's Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA).
The VVA design was to be used on a mid-engine sports car. The APX is a high performance 7 seat Multi Purpose Vehicle. It is four-wheel drive and has a front mounted V6 engine.
Cars produced using VVA:
Examples of work done by Lotus Engineering include:
Lotus Engineering has established a group dedicated to hybrid and electric vehicles.
Lotus joined Jaguar Cars, MIRA Ltd and Caparo on a luxury hybrid executive sedan project called "Limo-Green"—funded by the UK Government Technology Strategy Board. The vehicle was a series plug-in hybrid.
Lotus unveiled their first series production electric sports car called the Evija in July 2019. The car is undergoing development under the codename Type 130. Production would be limited to 130 units and is scheduled to begin in Summer 2020. The Evija makes use of a 70 kWh battery pack developed in conjunction with Williams Advanced Engineering. There are 4 electric motors placed on each wheel supported by an Integral powertrain. The powertrain is rated at a total output of and of torque. The Evija has a range of .
Lotus Cars were awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise for contribution to International Trade, one of 85 companies receiving the recognition in that category in 2002. Lotus cars wore the badge of the award for a number of years.
Lotus cars have appeared in several movies and TV shows. The most popular appearance of Lotus cars was in two James Bond movies namely "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) and "For Your Eyes Only" (1981). The amphibious Lotus Esprit appearing in the 1977 movie was more popular of the two appearances.
Genetic counselling
Genetic counselling, or "counseling", is the process by which clients are advised about genetic disorders. Genetic disorders, by definition, can be passed on in heredity. Example: many descendents of Queen Victoria carried one or both alleles for haemophilia. It was a hereditary disease in European royal families.
Clients with a disorder may be interested in the probability of developing or transmitting a genetic disorder to their children. They may ask what the options are to prevent, avoid or improve it.
Facilities and rules vary in different countries. In the United States the National Society of Genetic Counselors defines genetic counselling as:
A genetic counsellor is an expert with a Master of Science degree in genetic counseling. In the United States they are certified by the American Board of Genetic Counseling. Most enter the field from biology, genetics, nursing, psychology, public health and social work. Genetic counsellors need to be expert educators, skilled in translating ideas into terms that are easy to understand.
Families may choose to attend counselling or undergo prenatal testing for a number of reasons.
Within about ten years, the cost of complete genome analysis will have come down so far that individual people will be able to have their own genome analysed. In fact there are claims that the day has already arrived.
Pacific Biosciences stated they may not release their second-generation machine capable of a US$1,000 genome until 2013. Complete Genomics, however, stated that they will be able to provide a US$5,000 full genome sequencing service by the summer of 2009. Complete Genomics demonstrated in a peer-reviewed paper that was published online in "Science" in Nov. 2009 that it could sequence a human genome for a consumables cost of approximately US$1700. The accuracy and completeness of these systems is a critical issue.
It is obvious that the demand for genetic counselling will increase hugely once accurate and complete genome analyses are widely available. The problem then will be to interpret what the analysis shows. At present there are many genes whose functions are not yet known, and many alleles whose effect is not known.
Already it is possible to identify the sex of a foetus in the womb, and to identify some of the most common disorders. This may, depending on legal and religious constraints, influence abortion of the foetus in some cases. In some cases, the effects of a defect can be anticipated and prevented or cured. These issues do not affect most people today, but as genomic analysis advances, genetic counselling will become of much greater significance.
Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins is a Senator of the United States from Maine. She is a moderate in the Republican Party. Collins was elected to the Senate in 1996. The Senator was born December 7, 1952.
On February 13, 2021 Collins voted that no longer Republican President Donald Trump was guilty of starting the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. She and six other Republican senators also voted that Trump was guilty. This was after the House of Representatives Second impeachment of Donald Trump.
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