The Royal Air Force (RAF) are themselves known to do some pretty awesome stuff but even their own work in the air would have been challenged for sheer transformation and amazing quality when Lotus changed their old wreck of a Sled in o something that could almost compete at the Olympics. Now Bob Sled and Lotus are not the images that go together with one another, but taking a wreck and making composite repairs to it and making it brand new is nothing unknown for Lotus. This reminds me of the movie in which a Jamaican Bob Sled team goes to winter games and does awesomely well with limited resources. Name anyone?
Royal Air Force (RAF) Bobsleigh Team Manager Flight Lieutenant Craig Dickie approached Lotus Engineering initially to discuss the possibility of them assessing a sled which had sustained significant damage and cracks to the body over the years. Now you might have expected them to say, ‘not our job’, but they just could not resist the challenge. Lotus Group Chief Executive, Mike Kimberley, accepted the deal very enthusiastically and after putting 70 hours of work in to it, you see what you do on the top of this article.
The advanced composites repairs have been done to an extremely high quality, keeping weight to a minimum and are another example of Lotus’ skills. The resulting Sled has been returned to the RAF as good as new. The color scheme was changed from its RAF blue to the traditional green and gold of Lotus and upon its first outing, at the Inter-Services Ice Championships for 2008 held at the 1200 meter Innsbruck/Igls Olympic Bobsleigh track in Austria, the team finished third overall! Well done Lotus indeed.
From This...
To This...
