73 Factory tour video

[Longballa]

I'm sure this has been posted here before but this is so cool. When the video gets to the 12:15 mark and shows the way they would manipulate the body panels and doors is just great! Hand built with hammers and pry bars. Whatever it takes. The sound track is just so 70's. What a great time! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhqdptVysjE

[72targa]

Love the beginning. Reminds me of On Any Sunday.

[911MRP]

I have the notice published in a booklet giving showing and date of screening for folks to go and see it — one of the weekly showing of movies by Porsche Club GB. Dated 73. We've prviously discussed the likely date of filming at factory — concluded it was in springtime 73.

We know Daytona was early Feb 73 and car is back in Germany so evidently it’s after that win also details on the cars and even the shrubbery in Europe were used as clues.

There is a better quality copy held by “parabolica” archives in USA but it has a running timer along the bottom that rather intrudes. I emailed them to ask if possible to get a copy but they wouldn’t sell to me. Might there be an angle for the club or someone from the movie business to ask. Don’t understand their business model as they replied but turns weren’t interested. I would still like a copy of the higher quality one without the running clock. Can see RS being built

I have in my past had a job overseeing all group operations at Lotus Cars plc including setting-up a new-build factory at Hethel to replace the one Colin Chapman built when bought the old airfield and developed it — we used to give daily tours and offered driving tuition on the hallowed track (in fact some years back I arranged for a few pals several who occasionally post here to be my personal guests for a tour and have some fast laps of the test track with development drivers ) so it was interesting to watch the movie to compare things albeit different era and different construction methods

Little film from Evo magazine was taken after my time — I haven’t met him but from the caption looks like Michael Och was a successor taking over my former role.
https://youtu.be/eHjh6_vFgFQ

This is my old business card and lapel badge I found in my study drawer — the same job title as his on video caption:

When the factory shown was being commissioned I relocated my desk from the comfortable oak-lined director corridor to an open desk right the end of the production line to be on hand as things got bedded in.

https://youtu.be/HpY7t2SV2GE?si=4HW8tfvI3vTD6Chx This film (clearly targeted at USA market given pronunciation of aluminium, process), etc is how I remember.

This even older film of Lotus is from before my time in Hethel. It shows the factory that was wound down on my watch when we commissioned the new greenfield facility also at Hethel. https://youtu.be/PC7zPH4zcZ8 It all looks rather dated. Can see the step change although what was set up as the “new” factory on my watch has been recently replaced although the hand built ethos remained .

I know the Classic Team chaps better than the current Lotus plc management. Just saw Clive Chapman when he was in London before Christmas and received an invitation to drop in for a cuppa to see him and Chris when I’m next back in Norfolk.

Here are more recent couple of videos of Hethel after my time:
https://youtu.be/z-NFG4bUHgI
https://youtu.be/9aZMaJRfC-k

Nice to see how genuinely excited Harry seems to be making factory visits despite the many cars he has owned / driven — easy for those of us who have been based and worked in such factories to overlook how special OEM factory access is to genuine enthusiasts.

I’ve been fortunate having worked at automotive and motorsport places with history of winning F1 world championships: Lotus at Hethel & Ketteringham Hall in Norfolk UK; Williams GPE at Grove in Oxfordshire UK (and through that time at their engine technical partner such as Cosworth, BMW motorsport in Germany, Mercedes Eve HPP Brixworth HQ in UK), most recently worked McLaren’s very stylish MTC just up the road at Woking Surrey UK— there must be something in blood that draws us to automotive as my cousin is a machinist long employed by Scuderia Ferrari in Italy, he’s now doing the same role for a different F1 team but back in England.

Steve

[RSTarga]

Until Porsche learned from Toyota, profit margins were thin. The 70's factory was still a quaint operation.

[911MRP]

Folks move around and bring ideas from around the automotive industry. Also alliances.
Never met Michael Och who came later than me however I understand he came from Porsche to Lotus around 2011.

Thinking about moving between factories, I recall my job interview with Sir Frank vividly. He had long been someone I greatly admired. He asked me what I had done previously. When I told him I’d been one of the two directors of Lotus Engineering Ltd and also mentioned the group director role he gestured to a picture similar to this one in his office where we were sitting

Then said “ I think you’ll fit in very well here”. Imagine the excitement I felt thinking of the people who’d sat where I was and had hoped to hear those words from the great man Here is a young hopeful wearing a Porsche teeshirt who did not get the job at that time but did eventually end up there albeit with tragically sad end.


I became an advisor to Frank and team’s leadership for 15 years and then was invited to take a group director role that required me to have “access all areas” privileges facrosss the factory campus.

Nice to see the factory tour videos and photos. Surprised there aren’t more of Porsche. There are worse places to hang out than specialist automotive OEMs and F1 factories. My wife says she could always tell when I was going to Williams at Grove despite being not being a morning person — I’m certainly an owl not a lark— I always sprang out of bed those days awake for whatever lay ahead. More so than if visiting other places she said

Steve

* Ayron Senna’s wasn't an interview in Frank Williams’ office at the factory but he was in the “sort of office” the workplace where he did his best work and the paddock garages are just an extension of the factory;

https://youtu.be/-xwZCqHpX7Q