Remembering Roger Becker
The news of Roger Beckers retirement has brought out fond remembrances of his time at Lotus. One of these comes from our very own Barry Spencer who used to work in the Engineering department at Group Lotus. In his own words:
The very first week ( Nov 1980 ) I was in the US, I spent it at the SF auto show with Loose imported cars. That week I meet Miss San Francisco and we dated for two and a half years. The first time I went back to England after moving to the US was in 1982. I took Lisa with me and had an appointment to show her the Lotus factory. Roger gave us the complete tour and then he asked Lisa if she would like to go for a ride in a Lotus. Lisa sat in the front and I was in the back of an Excel. On the test track we go and all I could hear was Lisa screaming. A great ride with an awesome driver.
A big thanks to Barry for sharing this story with us. Rogers influence on Lotus will certainly be missed by the entire Lotus community but we do hope to still keep seeing him at various Lotus events.
Roger Becker announces his retirement from Group Lotus
Roger Becker, Lotus’ Director of Vehicle Engineering is retiring from Group Lotus after a long career of 44 years.
Roger, 64, joined Lotus in 1966, working on the Elan assembly line at Cheshunt, but his natural driving and engineering skills came to the attention of Lotus founder Colin Chapman and Roger was quickly moved to the vehicle development team where he worked directly with Mike Kimberley (former Lotus CEO) on the Lotus Europa Twin Cam – his first Lotus car development project.
During his career at Lotus, Roger has been responsible for the development of every Lotus car, including the legendary Esprit, Excel, Elan, Elise, Exige and the new critically acclaimed Lotus Evora. Roger has helped to maintain the philosophies laid down by Colin Chapman and has ensured that the essence and purity of Lotus is instilled in all new Lotus cars. He also has imparted his chassis engineering knowledge and development skills to many of the world’s major automotive manufacturers in support of Lotus’ consultancy engineering business.
On his retirement, Roger Becker said, “I have had a dream career at Lotus, with the honour of not only working directly for Colin Chapman but also working with some of the finest people in the motor industry. With the Lotus Evora successfully entering the market with unprecedented global adulation, and at 64 years of age, I feel now is the natural time to retire. The Evora has given me my finest hour at Lotus and I leave knowing it will be the foundation of all our next generation cars. The product engineering team will build on this to develop many more award-winning products and I wish them every success for what promises to be a very exciting future for Lotus cars and the Lotus brand.”
Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus plc said, “On behalf of all the staff at Lotus, I would like to thank Roger for his contribution to Lotus over 44 years and we wish him well in his retirement.”
[press release from Lotus]