Dan Wakeham had largely retired from competitive snowboarding by the time this ad came out. But somehow his work for Head Snowboards led him to link up with Lotus, who made this uber-cheesy commercial with a car that was driven to Chamonix “from the set of the new James Bond film”.
The car never made the cut in the movie, but it did get to race Dan down the mountain and skid round corners in suuuuuper slo-mo. So that’s something eh? Quite what the car’s connection with snowboarding was we’re not entirely sure.
But Lotus are far from the only motoring brand to have signed up riders, crews or brands involved in the sport. Back in the mid-2000s the British-based all-girl video crew ChunkyKnit managed to negotiate a sponsorship deal with Volvo, Chevrolet and Jeep help fund the US Grand Prix and X Games respectively and of course Burton’s Open Series is currently sponsored by Mini. Meanwhile over in Italy, Fiat has an entire team of riders…