Lotus ready to bloom

Lotus has had a more troubled financial history than most car companies. Never the biggest of brands, and certainly not what you would call mainstream, the British sports car maker first found itself in financial difficulty in 1980 after the collapse of its key US market. Two years later, Colin Chapman, the marque’s founder, died of a heart attack.

Since then, Lotus has bounced from one set of owners to another. It has ...