ABOVE: Customer’ s engine was ready to be re�tted into his ���� �otus ��cel. �lso seen in our lead pic, this was a standard rebuild but with the later Mahle pistons and an HTD cambelt conversion to replace the earlier flat toothed belt and semiautomatic tensioner assembly.
ABOVE: Mike has at his disposal a well-equipped workshop, with a selection of presses, drills and lathes, capable of all the routine machining requirements.
P... though, it subsequently needed a lot of remedial work and Mike soon found himself making regular visits to the Lotus dealer, and paying through the nose – he clearly remembers that almost every visit was costing £ 500 or more!
Then came the brainstorm that would eventually lead to a whole new business venture, when he bought a scrap Lotus Elite from a local breakers yard, Avon Autospares, to use for spares for his own car. Word of mouth spread and he soon found that he was getting calls for Elite parts that other owners couldn’ t obtain, so the entire car was broken and its parts sold, at �uite a use�ul profit.
Before long, he had over 15 cars in stock at the bottom of his garden, all making good money, but with the neighbours starting to grumble he looked around for proper premises to trade from. It was now July 2005 and for the same price being asked for a modern industrial unit, Mike seized the opportunity to buy the whole industrial
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estate alongside the abandoned railway line near Marton in Warwickshire and started running Lotusbits as a limited compan�, taking on his first �ull-time employee in July 2002.
The business has expanded rapidly ever since, and so has the industrial site, gradually redeveloped with new units and infrastructure. Contributing not just to the revenue but also providing some useful services, he has some prestigious tenants including Tolman Motorsport, Willie Poole Motorsport, Aviation Engineering Support, FJ-RS Engineering, Marton Bespoke and Creative Sign and Design.
With his own career as an employee now left far behind, Mike has continued to exercise his lifelong skills in engineering and marketing such that Lotusbits is now a thri�ing business, with fi�e �ull-time sta�� carrying out a wide range of upgrades from brakes and suspension to engines and drivetrain. The workshop has three ba�s and three certified ramps and there�s