I'm building a Lotus Supreme right now. My question is have anyone seen a rear brake bridge like this before? And what year do you think this is? Lastly, the rear tire is a 25mm and it doesn't look like to much room for it? Thank you, Mike

If it spins free then it's good to go. You don't need a whole lot of clearance. A lot of bikes from that 80's to 90' time frame were like that- some of them would max out on 23mm tires!

Looks like 1986/1987 Lotus design Cinelli record has that brake bridge - Cinelli Record
1987 Supreme seems to match paint color - Cinelli Supreme

The Supreme was a racing model, only fitting 25mm tires is not surprising.

IMHO thats pretty ridiculously small vertical clearance, even for that era. I wonder if that bike might have been originally specced with the Dia Compe AGC sidepulls ?

I ran with a similar clearance on my road bike for years. Don't ride in muddy conditions and you'll be fine

Also, hot bike, there's something fun about a full italian frame + build from a Japanese marquee. Would love to have something similar someday.

I've got a Lotus Supreme that's a whole 'nother animal. Mine's a 1982, so it's Tange Champion #2, brazed in Japan by Tsunoda, and equipped with full Dura Ace 7200 EX. A year or two later, Lotus, which was an American importing company rather than a bike builder, contracted with Cinelli Design to build their bikes. I think the first year still came with Dura Ace but after that it was Campy.

Here's mine...

That's beautiful.