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Dynamics legend Roger Becker retires from Lotus

Legendary chassis engineer Roger Becker has retired from Lotus. Becker, 64, joined the company 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 Becker 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. The latest Evora was vehicle engineering director Becker's most recent responsibility.

Becker is credited with influencing generations of talented automotive engineers. On his retirement he said: “I have had a dream career at Lotus, with the honor 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.”

There have been several other personnel changes at the Norfolk firm in recent months. Prominent among them has been the appointment of Paul Newsome, formerly managing director of Lotus Engineering, to become Lotus’s director of product engineering.

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