I Witnessed: Lotus launch five cars at once

For the then tiny, perpetually financially imperilled yet much-loved Lotus to launch one new car at a motor show would be big news. For a major car maker to launch five at once would be the defining moment of the automotive year.

But the notion of Lotus pulling the covers from five new cars on the first day of the Paris Motor Show seemed beyond credible: the kind of thing those attending would see only in dreams if they’d hit the brie too hard the night before.

And yet it happened, on 30 September, 2010, and I was there. It was easily the most extraordinary moment I’ve witnessed at a motor show, and will remain so as motor shows wither and die.