AUGUST 7, 2000
David Hunt poised for Prost bid
As things stand, Prost faces a bleak future, short on money and lacking an engine supply deal for the 2001 season. Peugeot, his current partners, are withdrawing from direct involvement in the Grand Prix business and Renault has hinted that it will not sanction the supply of customer Supertec engines as long as Prost is involved.
The four-times World Champion recently called in Credit Suisse First Boston, the investment bank, to canvass for buyers prepared to pay in the region of $70 million (dollars) for the team.
Hunt, who made a fortune in the early 1990s selling Amway water filters, may find it extremely difficult to rename the Prost team as a reborn Lotus organization. There is speculation that, although Hunt is believed to have purchased the rights in the mid-1990s after Lotus went into receivership, there is some doubt as to precisely who owns the trademark of this famous company founded almost 50 years ago by the late Colin Chapman.
The dynamic British engineer died of a heart attack in December, 1982, after his company had become mired in the de Lorean scandal and his fellow Lotus director Fred Bushell later served a jail term for his part in the embezzlement of British government money in connection with de Lorean.
It is believed that a legal challenge could be mounted by Chapman's family who, many believe, are thought to have a claim on the Lotus name under the terms of a "first refusal" clause which may have been overlooked by the company's receivers.