Remember the Lotus Olympic bike?

[Cyprus]

In a previous life ( ) I used to be heavily involved with scale modelling. Shortly after Chris Boardman won Olympic Gold on the Lotus bike, I got aquainted with with Rudy Thomann who helped develop the bike at Lotus (before anybody says anything, I know Mike Burrows came up with the concept). Long story short .... Rudy would sometimes drop round after cycling home after working at Lotus (I lived not too far from the factory at Hethel) and I was eventually asked to build a 1:9 scale model of the Lotus Olympic bike. Not sure what happened to the model after it was delivered to Lotus, somebody told me that it was put on display somewhere in the offices.

I did build one more identical to the commisioned model, for my own collection, which I still have.

Below are pics of the model in component form before assembly and finishing, and one of the completed 1:9 model. You cannot see it too clearly, but I also applied a very fine carbon-fibre effect on the final finish.

I know that Rudy eventually left Lotus, and I think he went back to France and worked for Mavic I believe. (Or so I was told). Wonder where he is now.

 

[zizou]

nice piece of work

i know someone who has one of the lotus bikes - i think it is the 110 model rather than the 108 although i dont what the difference is between the two

 

[Saluki]

Lovely model.
Mike Burrows was royally stiffed over that one though.

 

[Easytigers]

Very cool!

 

[gds58]

Wow! absolutely beautiful, you are clearly a very talented man. With nothing in the image to give it scale it is virtually impossible to distinguish it from the real full size version!
A great piece of history to own.

Graham

 

[Tonirudolfvlaic]

Very cool!
Toni Rudolf Vlaic

 

[Lotus110Club]

In a previous life ( ) I used to be heavily involved with scale modelling. Shortly after Chris Boardman won Olympic Gold on the Lotus bike, I got aquainted with with Rudy Thomann who helped develop the bike at Lotus (before anybody says anything, I know Mike Burrows came up with the concept). Long story short .... Rudy would sometimes drop round after cycling home after working at Lotus (I lived not too far from the factory at Hethel) and I was eventually asked to build a 1:9 scale model of the Lotus Olympic bike. Not sure what happened to the model after it was delivered to Lotus, somebody told me that it was put on display somewhere in the offices.

I did build one more identical to the commisioned model, for my own collection, which I still have.

Below are pics of the model in component form before assembly and finishing, and one of the completed 1:9 model. You cannot see it too clearly, but I also applied a very fine carbon-fibre effect on the final finish.

I know that Rudy eventually left Lotus, and I think he went back to France and worked for Mavic I believe. (Or so I was told). Wonder where he is now.


View attachment 49416


View attachment 49417


View attachment 49418


View attachment 49419


View attachment 49420

Hello. I was only speaking to Rudy about this yesterday.

I know where the model is. Please email me at ...... and I’ll give you an update.
Mod Note:
Hi @Lotus110Club, welcome to CC.
I have edited out your email address as it shows your surname.name for all to see.
You can private message @Cyprus: after you make a few posts on the forum, the "start conversation" on the member's profile will be enabled.
The tread is quite old, you might not get an answer.
Enjoy the forum!
Pat.