According to Lennon, the inspiration for the first two verses was the death of Tara Browne, the 21-year-old heir to the Guinness fortune who had crashed his Lotus Elan on 18 December 1966 in Redcliffe Gardens, Earls Court.

A Lotus Formula One car driven by Stirling Moss won the marque's first Grand Prix in 1960 at Monaco in a Lotus 18 entered by privateer Rob Walker.

* On 18 August 2011 Lotus fired up an all new in-house designed V8 destined for the new era range of cars.

In the 1960 Formula One season, Moss took the top step of the podium at Monaco, winning in Rob Walker's Coventry-Climax-powered Lotus 18.

Two Formula 1 cars were also issued in 1 / 18 scale, the John Player Special Lotus 72 ( 190 ) in 1974 and the Marlboro McLaren ( 191 ) in 1975.

On 16 – 18 February 1996 the first Pro Tour, very briefly called The Black Lotus Pro Tour, was held in New York.

A 2. 5L FPF straight-4, installed in a Lotus 18 Formula One car.

On 18 December 1966, Browne was driving with his girlfriend, model Suki Potier, in his Lotus Elan through South Kensington at high speed ( some reports suggesting in excess of 106 mph / 170 km / h ).

Graham Hill, driver of Lotus Eleven no. 18 standing on left.

The Rob Walker Racing Lotus 18 which Stirling Moss drove to victory in the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix.

Stirling Moss in his LotusThe race was won by British driver Stirling Moss driving a Lotus 18 / 21 for privateer outfit the Rob Walker Racing Team.

An exceptional performance put the naturally aspirated March-Judds in 5th and 6th, in front of the turbo's of Lotus and Arrows while Mansell and Patrese qualifyed in 11th and 15th respectively with Patrese almost 18 seconds quicker in Saturday qualifying than he was on Friday.

Marsh competed in circuit racing in his earlier years, driving in four Grands Prix, the last being the 1961 German Grand Prix in which he drove the Lotus 18 he also campaigned in hillclimbs.

Lotus 18 with wishbone suspension

The successful mid-engined Lotus 18 of 1960 no longer had the high bodywork behind the driver's seat on which to mount the tops of the struts.

After a frustrating year in 1959 spent with his own Formula Two Cooper, he received an invitation to run his Lotus 18 as a second works car for 1960.

During the following years he spent much time developing the Lotus Grand Prix cars, most notably the front engined 16 and then the 18.

In 1961 he moved up to Formula One with a privately run Lotus 18, and scored a second place in the Naples Grand Prix after taking pole position.

He drove various cars under the banner of the ENB team, including a Cooper T51, a Lotus 18 and an Emeryson.

Unfortunately for Fairman, his RWR team mate Stirling Moss suffered brake failure in his Lotus 18 and took over the 4WD machine in Fairman's stead.

Starting out in Formula One with his Ford-engined Lotus 18 in 1961, he retired from the Rand Grand Prix and only managed 14th in the Cape Grand Prix in January 1962.

His racing career effectively ended when his steering column weld failed on his Lotus 18 in the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix at.

* Lotus 19 ( 1960 – 1962 ): Mid-engined sports racer —" Monte Carlo "

He competed in the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1959, 1960 and 1961, finishing second in class in 1959 driving a Lotus Elite, and finishing third overall in 1960, driving an Aston Martin DBR1.

New South Wales driver Leo Geoghegan won the 1960 Australian GT Championship at the wheel of a Lotus Elite.

In 1960, at the age of 26, Surtees switched from motorcycles to cars full time, making his Formula 1 debut racing for Lotus in the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo.

He also drove in the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours, sharing a Lotus Elite with John Wagstaff.

In 1960 he raced in Formula Junior, competing in a works Lotus at the British Grand Prix.

" Orders poured in for the Elva but when the 1960 season commenced Lotus and Cooper had things under control and disillusioned Elva owners watched the rear-engined car disappearing round corners, knowing they had backed the wrong horse.

It was replaced in 1960 by the Lotus 19.

The MX-5 was conceived as a small roadster – with light weight and minimal mechanical complexity limited only by legal and safety requirements ; technologically modern, but a philosophically direct descendant of small British and Italian roadsters of the 1960s such as the Triumph Spitfire, MG MGB, Fiat 124 Sport Spider, Alfa Romeo Spider and Lotus Elan.

* 1983 – Flying Lotus, American electronic music producer

* 1975 – Jamie Spaniolo, American rapper ( Twiztid, Dark Lotus, Psychopathic Rydas, and House of Krazees )

Steed's signature cars were vintage 1926 – 1928 Bentley racing or town cars, including Blower Bentleys and Bentley Speed Sixes ( although, uniquely, in " The Thirteenth Hole " he drives a Vauxhall 30 / 98 ), while Peel drove a sporty Lotus Elan convertible which, like her clothes, emphasized her independence and vitality.

* 1796 – 1804: The White Lotus Rebellion against the Manchu Dynasty in China.

* May 19 – Colin Chapman, Founder of Lotus Cars ( d. 1982 )

* End of the White Lotus Rebellion ( 1796 – 1804 ), an uprising against the Qing Dynasty in China.

* 1253 – April 28 – Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, declares his intention to preach the Lotus Sutra and Nam Myoho Renge Kyo as the true Buddhism, essentially founding the branch of Buddhism now known as Nichiren Buddhism.

* April 28 – Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, declares his intent to preach the Lotus Sutra and Nam Myoho Renge Kyo as the true Buddhism, thus founding Nichiren Buddhism.

A breed of powerful hybrids appeared in the 50s and 60s and raced on both sides of the Atlantic, featuring European chassis and large American engines – from the early Allard cars via hybrids such as Lotus 19s fitted with large engines through to the AC Cobra.

It is estimated that Medicago diverged from Glycine ( soybean ) 53 – 55 million years ago and from Lotus ( deervetch ) 49 – 51 million years ago

for this are as follows: Wilfred P. Deac, " Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970-1975 " ( Texas A & M University Press, 1997 ) pp. 61 – 2 ; Robert Dallek, " Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power ," ( Harper Collins, 2007 ), p. 191 ; Steve Heder " Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamse Model, Volume I: Imitation and Independence, 1930-1975 ," ( White Lotus Press, 2004 ), p. 156.: It seems likely that Lon Nol initially intended to strengthen his position against the North Vietnamese with the ultimate aim of preventing their troops ( and those of the Viet Cong ) from operating within Cambodian borders, and wished to apply pressure on Sihanouk to achieve this.

Lotus 1-2-3 –

IBM purchased the company in 1995 for $ 3. 5 billion, primarily to acquire Lotus Notes and to establish a presence in the increasingly important client – server computing segment, which was rapidly making host-based products like IBM's OfficeVision obsolete.

* Lotus 2-Eleven Weighing just and with the Lotus 2-Eleven can sprint from 0 – 60 in 3. 8 seconds and has a top speed of.

* Lotus Mark II ( 1949 – 1950 ): Ford-powered trials car

* Lotus Mark VI ( 1953 – 1955 ): The first " production " racer — about 100 built

* Lotus Seven ( 1957 – 1970 ): Classic open sports car, a minimalist machine designed to manoeuvre a racing circuit and nothing else.

* Lotus Eleven ( 1956 – 1957 ): sports racer

* Lotus 12 ( 1956 – 1957 ): Formula Two and Formula One racecar

* Lotus 14 ( 1957 – 1963 ): First production street car — the Elite

* Lotus 16 ( 1958 – 1959 ): F1 / F2 car based on the Twelve