Lotus D.N.A x DNA at London Design Festival 2025 in Mayfair
Lotus announces D.N.A x DNA, an immersive exhibition opening at the Lotus Mayfair showroom as part of London Design Festival 2025, where Lotus serves as the festival’s official automotive partner. The showcase explores how the brand’s pioneering design and engineering philosophy, Digital, Natural, Analogue, has shaped generations of groundbreaking innovations and continues to define the future of performance and automotive design.
Digital represents an immersive, intelligent and intuitive experience; Natural brings to life emotional, connected, human-centric design; Analogue signals Lotus advancing performance engineering with precision. By blending these core principles with the latest design and engineering innovations and cutting-edge technologies, Lotus simplifies and elevates the driving experience and performance, making the car feel like an extension of you.
“This is an important moment for Lotus today. It’s a powerful reminder to everyone of our rich heritage—the design and engineering breakthroughs that have shaped the automotive world and beyond. And it’s proof that we remain the same pioneering brand. Lotus will always innovate, always push boundaries, and always lead the way,” said Ben Payne, Chief Creative Officer, Lotus Group.
The activation opens a dialogue between heritage and possibility, bringing together experimental materials, prototypes and projects from the Lotus archives that embody relentless innovation, and culminating in a raw encounter with the award-winning Lotus Theory 1 concept.
Visitors can see four landmark projects on display. The Lotus Eleven, a lightweight icon of motorsport, revolutionised racing in 1956 with advanced aerodynamics and a lightweight aluminium body, achieving record-breaking success at Monza and multiple Le Mans class wins that cemented Lotus’ performance through engineering ingenuity. The Lotus Type 88B, a radical Formula 1 car introduced in 1981, featured a carbon fibre monocoque chassis and the twin-chassis concept, which separated aerodynamic downforce from suspension. Although racing authorities banned it after rival teams refused to compete against it, the 88B still symbolises the brand’s fearless pursuit of disruptive ideas in performance engineering, safety and handling. The Lotus Structure Isolation and Dynamics Prototype advances research by combining active and passive suspension to explore vehicle dynamics, featuring an advanced suspension system, active rear steering, comprehensive data acquisition, and modular mounting. Engineers could, for the first time, understand, measure and develop the relationship between driver feel and objective data for dynamics and handling, with methods that went on to influence subsequent Lotus models and wider automotive engineering. The award-winning Lotus Theory 1 design study embodies the Lotus ethos for the future by combining digital intelligence, natural human-centric design, and analogue performance precision to deliver an experience that feels immersive, intuitive, and emotionally engaging.
Through Lotus Engineering, the brand’s world-class innovation hub and consultancy, supporting Lotus and global clients, the exhibition showcases how the Lotus design philosophy extends beyond the automotive industry and highlights its broader impact.
This story includes the iconic Lotus Type 108 bicycle from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Ridden by Chris Boardman to world records and a gold medal, the Type 108 applied motorsport expertise in aerodynamics, composites and advanced manufacturing. Lotus Engineering developed an aerofoil frame that could generate a forward force in a crosswind or on an oval velodrome, reducing drag and increasing speed, marking a significant leap in bicycle design and setting the stage for future aerodynamic innovation in the sport.
D.N.A x DNA runs at Lotus Mayfair, 73 Piccadilly, London W1J 8HS, from 13 September to 20, 2025, with free admission. This event invites London Design Festival visitors to experience high-performance design in the heart of Mayfair.
Further information on the Lotus Eleven highlights its Monza records set in 1956 by Mac Fraser in the 1100 cc class, including a 50 km record at 135 mph, a fastest lap at 143 mph, and a one-hour record at 137.5 mph. These achievements reinforced the car’s lightweight, aerodynamic philosophy.
Further background on the Structure Isolation and Dynamics Prototype shows how the project served as a platform for technologies that continue to shape modern performance vehicles. Engineers used a lightweight glass fibre and Nomex honeycomb chassis to create a stiff yet featherweight structure, deployed computer-controlled active suspension with electro-hydraulic actuators that adjusted in microseconds to balance high-speed stability with low-speed manoeuvrability by controlling roll stiffness in real time, and built a research hub for emerging systems such as drive-by-wire steering, four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering and experimental tyre designs. Teams could modify suspension parameters directly from a laptop, a remarkable capability at the time.
Further background on Lotus Engineering confirms how the company has consistently challenged convention and redefined what is possible in design and technology. From Mitsits Motorsports to today’s digital tools and innovative manufacturing processes, Lotus Engineering has evolved into a global leader whose expertise extends far beyond the automotive industry, applying products and techniques in materials, sustainability, aerodynamics, and digital engineering worldwide.
