Oliver Winterbottom

[rjwooll 219]

For around the last 5 weeks, Oliver has been recovering from a heart op - initially at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge where the op was carried out, and latterly at Norwich Hospital. He has been quite poorly but is now sufficiently recovered to be bored and wanting to leave hospital (although he's not yet ready to do so!) As those who know him may understand, he is not a man who wants any kind of a fuss to be made and so hasn't wanted people to know of his condition, but now that he's feeling better I would like to propose that we send him a card, together with the lotusexcel.net folks.

If you would like your name to appear on the card, please let me know either on this thread or message me. If you want a different name to appear than the name you use here then include that also.

I'll aim to order a Moonpig card on Wednesday evening, which should get to him by the beginning of next week.

If you'd like to send him a personal card then email me for the hospital and ward details.

Good luck Oliver!

Cheers, Richard

PS I understand that he does not particularly like being called 'Ollie' so use Oliver if you need to!

[jep 1,036]

Well done Richard and best wishes to Mr W. 

I have been blasting in one of his wedges all week....special cars.

Justin 

 

[Angus553 34]

Great idea. Yes please. 

[USAndretti42 322]

I would like to thank him for giving us a design that looks even more exciting now than when it debuted 46 years ago and to hope he gets better soon, Trevor.

[rjwooll 219]

I gave up the struggle trying to customise a card from Moonpig or Thortful, so ended up printing out everyone's messages and sending it in a blank card we had in the house with this Ravilious picture:

Cheers, Richard

[jep 1,036]

Perfection. Love Ravilious. Well done.

Justin

[rjwooll 219]

After a long time, I'm pleased to be able to give a positive update on Oliver's progress. He is still in hospital, most recently having had to overcome some infections acquired post-operatively, and it looks like they will keep him in for another week or so to make sure he is 100% clear.

The poor chap went into hospital at the start of lockdown (yes - that long ago!) and of course hasn't been able to have visitors! He can talk to his daughters and sister by phone, but apart from that I think he must be climbing the walls.

So if anybody would like to send a card or drop him a line, he'd be delighted to hear from you. He sends his thanks to everyone who has already been in touch, and I think is quite touched!

His hospital address is:

Kilverston Ward
Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital
Colney Lane
Norwich NR4 7UY

Cheers

Richard

[Elite 4.9 47]

yes please include me for best recovery and thanks for all the work in the past done for our enjoyment. Bought my '74 Elite in 1984 and still own it.

 

ATB,

Richard

[rjwooll 219]

Good news - Oliver was finally discharged from the Norwich & Norfolk hospital today, and has now moved in for rehab to:

Ogden Court
60 Ogden Close
Wymondham  NR18 0PE

He is in good spirits and let's hope he gets back to something approaching normal soon. As always, he is tremendously grateful for any cards, messages etc and would like to thank everyone who's been in touch.

Cheers, Richard

[andydclements 818]

I'm glad he's there, fantastic nursing staff who looked after my father for his last few weeks and it seemed as though nothing was too much trouble. Very different to N&N where their attention is purposefully focused on getting people medically well (well enough to be discharged from N&N), so moving from one to the other is  a great sign of his stage of recovery.

[Mark Blanchard 1,687]

I understand Oliver has passed away today.  Very sorry to hear.  A brilliant designer and a really nice guy.

[Frickin_idiot 137]

1 minute ago, Mark Blanchard said:

I understand Oliver has passed away today.  Very sorry to hear.  A brilliant designer and a really nice guy.

Terrible news.

[ChrisJ 1,507]

Very sorry to read that.

[PedalSpeed 9]

I'm sorry to hear Oliver passed away.

His work has always had a big impact on my life and influenced what I thought was attractive.  Perhaps, not necessarily aerodynamic, but memorable and emotive. As a designer, he was always the anti-Luigi Colani. When the wedge designs became trendy, he took the trend to the pinnacle of what the wedge could ultimately become, and did so, on a shoe-string budget. I always thought his only rival was Jerry Wiegert, both sharing a similar design philosophy at the time, and both having to get their hands dirty with engineering work, too. They came from an era and a cottage-industry where one couldn't work in a silo or on a computer. 

With the Tesla Pick-up truck hitting the market with many pre-orders, I felt like many of his original designs with Lotus and TVR became much more relevant in his final years.

To me, his work will always be very special and created many hours of emotional searching, shopping, fixing - and selling. 

For all of those experience, I extend to Oliver a hat-tip. 

[USAndretti42 322]

Sad news, indeed.  Just as his Elite wedges were becoming cool and appreciated again.

[phoenix 99]

Sad news. Glad to have had the opportunity to have met the man. 
RIP Oliver. 

[rjwooll 219]

Here is a great tribute to Oliver from Mike Kimberley on the Lotus Cars blog:

https://media.lotuscars.com/en/blog/oliver-winterbottom-24-february-1944-to-6-november-2020.html