A brief history of Bell & Colvill
Our company, the world’s longest-serving Lotus dealer in the world, was founded in 1970 by Bobby Bell and Martin Colvill. While the former began his career in architecture, abandoning it because “the course was too long”, Colvill was also involved in winter sports and held one of the world’s oldest collections of jazz records! But, in particular, he was fully immersed in all things Lotus for well over half a century. For his part, Bell drove his first car, an MG J2, into a milk float on its first outing the day he passed his test, but that didn’t put him off a career in luxury motors. As a young man, he would drive his Lotus 7 to work in sales at a Guildford Jaguar dealer and race it at weekends.
Colvill began selling models from the luxury marque back in 1966 across south-west London, with Bell joining him four years later as they became an official Lotus dealer and established their West Horsley base, which is the firm’s HQ to this day.
The pair first met while Bell was working at a Lotus dealership in Purley in the mid-1960s, and Colvill was an accountant as well as one of Colvill’s customers. Bell’s Piper was for sale, his future business partner knew of a buyer, and the rest is motoring history.
From here (and Caterham), they offered sales and servicing for more than four decades until they sold the firm in 2012 to Railsite Holdings.
Both stayed on as non-executive directors until they died, Bell in 2017 and Colvill in 2022, so it was an enduring partnership, throughout which they remained key parts of the Lotus community.
Inevitably, the business has seen changes since the 2012 sale, but the ethos of high-quality, personalised customer service and representation of the world’s most exciting brands is still undimmed.
Now synonymous with Lotus, Subaru, McLaren and Morgan, who appointed the firm as a main dealer in 2013, Bell & Colvill has supported various marques with sales and aftersales care over the years.
Some historic highlights
- The design and making of the first Esprit Turbo in 1978 (two years ahead of the factory edition), plus the modification of several other Lotus models.
- The development of several Alfa Romeo turbos.
- The modification of every Lotus type – the pair saw the tuning and track potential of the Elise and Exige models before anyone else and launched countless special editions and track upgrades.
- We were also the first to spot the tuning and track potential of the Elise and Exige models, and have devised many special editions and track upgrades.
- In 2020, the company became an official McLaren repairer, with McLaren Automotive appointing us as the first UK aftersales-only retailer in 2019. You’ll find McLaren Guildford at our aftersales facility in the town, developed there at around the same time as these appointments.
- The construction of our high-tech aftersales facility on the Slyfield Industrial Estate, which houses our servicing and parts departments for all our marques.
Key awards won
We’re lucky enough to have scooped several accolades over the years, including:
- 2020: Lotus Aftersales Retailer of the Year
- 2020: Top Lotus sales winner UK-wide
- 2021: Retailer of the Year, UK & Europe
- 2023: Best McLaren-approved aftersales centre – as voted for by members of the Drivers Union
In a few short years, Be