Photo opportunity with a unique display of 30 classic Lotus cars, including four Fomula One championship-winning designs from 1965, 1968, 1973 and 1978.

LOCATION: Main UCL (University College London) quadrangle, Gower Street, Bloomsbury, WC1E 6BT.

The cars will be displayed in front of the university's celebrated Wilkins Building, a spectacular 1820's Neoclassical structure.

DETAILS: This unique display will include early models of the Lotus Elite, Lotus Elan and Lotus Esprit, in addition to the racing models driven by Formula One world champions Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti. There will also be an exhibition of original Lotus drawings and some previously unseen photographs and designs from The Ron Hickman Collection.

The cars are being gathered from museums and private collections around the country to mark the 25^th anniversary of the death of British motorsport legend Colin Chapman. The event is a celebration of his achievements as co-founder of Lotus, iconic designer and alumnus and fellow of UCL.

Picture opportunities on Monday 29^th October include:

· From 10am: Opportunity to obtain 'action' shots as several cars arrive and are arranged in the quad. UCL students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering will be on hand, polishing the vehicles.

· By 12:30pm the cars will be displayed in their final positions in UCL's main quad, around the front of the Wilkins Building.

· 4pm (allowing set-up time prior to the sun setting at 4:40pm.) The cars will be illuminated with floodlights and there will be green up-lighting to the Wilkins Building, providing the opportunity to obtain a dramatic night shot.

INTERVIEWS:

Professor Bernard Buxton, Dean of UCL's Faculty of Engineering Sciences, will be available for interview, along with other senior engineers. They will be able to outline the research that UCL is conducting into a number of high profile issues such as increasing fuel efficiency, effectively harnessing solar power, increasing the range of hydrogen-powered vehicles, monitoring atmospheric pollution, improving sustainability and helping to shape a more energy-efficient built environment.

Notes for Editors

To confirm attendance at the photoshoot or to request additional information please contact Dave Weston in the UCL Press Office on d.weston@ucl.ac.uk, +44 (0) 20 7679 7678 or 07733 307596.

If you are unable to send your own photographer, images will be made available from the UCL Press Office after the event.

About UCL

Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence.

UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lord Woolf, Alexander Graham Bell, and members of the band Coldplay.