Next week Lotus takes a new twist on the old cult classic film, The Italian Job, in the run up to the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

In a stroke of genius the organisers of the prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed decided on a theme of ‘Viva Veloce’ or ‘The Passion for Speed’ for the event this year (2-4th July). Capitalising on the momentum of such a flash of inspiration (and quite frankly we’re always looking for any excuse to get out and about) Lotus jumped on the bandwagon and decided to put the press to work with a convoy of Evoras driving from Italy (Turin) to England (Goodwood) – the reverse journey to that of Charlie Croker and his cronies and hopefully without the added drama of bank robbery and literal cliff-hanger!

The Italian Job inspired roadtrip begins on Thursday 1st July 2010 and sees the specially liveried Lotus Evoras (red, white and green a la il tricolore naturally) arrive at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Saturday 3rd of July, where the plucky and lucky journalists (hopefully not too tired from their trip) will have the chance to take part in everything Lotus has on offer at the Festival including an exclusive interview with one of the Lotus Racing’s F1 drivers.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, the participants involved in the trip will be providing daily blog updates of their Evora based escapades. Lotus drivers in the countries that the roadtrip encounters (Italy, Switzerland, France and England) are invited to join in the striking procession.

Goodwood Festival of Speed founder the Earl of March said: “I am delighted that Lotus is taking this year’s Festival theme to heart and bringing it to life in such a fun and original way.”

Lotus fans planning on attending Goodwood and keen to get in on the action will be able to get a flavour of F1 with the classic Formula 1 Lotus Type 49 Grand Prix winning car raced by the legendary Jim Clark on the stand along with appearances from Lotus Racing F1 drivers and former F1 team mechanics.

F1 not your thing? No problem, Lotus has plenty more on offer including a range of road cars on display some of which fans won’t have seen since their preview in Geneva earlier this year including the aesthetically pleasing Carbon Evora and the Evora Hybrid Concept car.

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