Arnie Johnson

CEO of Lotus Cars, USA

Arnie Johnson, former Chief Executive Officer of Lotus Cars, USA. The following is from Bob Patterson:

Arnie started with Lotus East in Millerton, NY in 1971, one of the five Lotus distributors. He did dealer tech training, warranty, worked on a lot of Europas, and prepped race cars - 51's, 61's, etc. Lime Rock was a very few miles away.

In 1979 the factory bought out the distributors. Arnie moved tooLotus North America in Costa Mesa, CA in March . In November Rolls Royce signed to distribute Lotus in the US.

Arnie moved again to RR headquarters in Lyndhurst, NJ, where he met his wife, Cathy, who was distribution manager for Rolls Royce.

In 1983 he was with Lotus Performance Cars, the limited partnership that then became the US distributor. This became Lotus Cars USA, was bought again by the factory, then was sold to General Motors after they bought Lotus in 1986. Arnie moved again in 1988 when headquarters moved from New Jersey to Atlanta, Georga.

He was Vice President of LCU until Chris Knight made him CEO in 1997.

The enclosed photo is of Arnie and his son, Brian. Brian won two championships in this little car at Peach State Speedway.

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