Lotus Looking At Indy Car, GT and Le Mans Racing
New chief exec reveals wide-ranging motorsport ambitions beyond F1
Lotus at Le Mans in '57...
According to the new broom, the company’s motorsport ambitions extend well beyond the F1 arena, to include Indy Cars, GT racing and Le Mans. We weren’t there to hear this exciting message for ourselves, so here’s the press release ‘verbatim’.
PS. Call us cynics, but we can’t help thinking the ‘employee’ quoted in the press release might just have been the same one who wrote it...
...and F1 back in '69
Just 2 weeks into the job, new Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar made his first address to Lotus staff to introduce himself and commence regular staff communications, the next of which will be in December when he will formally share his plans for the next 7 years with Lotus employees.
Mr Bahar’s address was an inspirational invitation to join Lotus as it goes through the inevitable change that new leadership brings, “My vision is simple; Lotus will be profitable by producing beautiful, environmentally relevant, credible sportscars that are honest and authentic. By doing this, we will return the brand to where it was in the past, and where it rightfully belongs.”
The detailed plans for the product line-up will not be revealed to staff until Christmas, but what was clear was the commitment to investment, growth and realignment of the business. “Our future lies in aligning ourselves to what the market wants, rather than what we think the market wants; we must concentrate on our customers.” he said.
New broom - Dany Bahar
The ownership of the 1Malaysia F1 Team is through a Malaysian-led consortium and therefore Group Lotus has no direct equity stake in the venture. Operationally, Lotus F1 Racing will be run separately from Group Lotus and the two parties will liaise.
Commenting on his plans for Lotus Engineering, Mr Bahar relayed his ambitions for the engineering consultancy, “I have strong commitment to both growing and strengthening the Engineering sector of our business and part of that lies in making it more commercial and client centric.”
It seems Mr Bahar has made a strong first impression amongst staff and reaction to his address has been positive. “There was a lot of common sense in what he said.” commented one employee, “He has delivered clarity of purpose which is welcome at this early stage. I think he has rallied support well, and I have no doubt staff will give him the support he needs to realise his plans for the company. We’re all very excited!”
Is he saying they don't now??
IMHO if they build great cars people will buy them, simple as that. The Evora is superb and the Elise legendary. Just keep doing the same Lotus.
Is he saying they don't now??
Whenever Lotus (or Porsche or Ford RS, it seems) launch a new car, there is a lot of traffic on here about what they *should* have built, and how. He is talking about feeding that back in at the beginning.
Joins Red Bull, gets Red Bull into F1;
Joins Ferrari, aligns Ferrari road cars much more closely with F1;
Joins Lotus....
One trick pony?
The heart and soul of Lotus is in racing, taking part and achieving good results in many different forms of motorsport through innovation. They make fantastic road/track cars but there is so much more than that to the Lotus name. I'm aware it could stretch them thin and even badly damage them, but IMO Lotus should always be aiming to get back into winning in motorsport and keeping the legend going.
Joins Red Bull, gets Red Bull into F1;
Joins Ferrari, aligns Ferrari road cars much more closely with F1;
Joins Lotus....
One trick pony?
i.e Motoring/Racing Heritage always sells.
I think Lotus lost sight of that a while back, it'll be refreshing to see them back, it'll be very tough though.
Joins Red Bull, gets Red Bull into F1;
Joins Ferrari, aligns Ferrari road cars much more closely with F1;
Joins Lotus....
One trick pony?
i.e Motoring/Racing Heritage always sells.
I think Lotus lost sight of that a while back, it'll be refreshing to see them back, it'll be very tough though.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/lo...
clarity of purpose...
rallied support...
realise his plans....
we're all very excited!
They got a politician working at Loti on the side?
Wonder which corner Autocar (ie Lotus Weekly) will try to hide that £14million loss story?
No wonder Kimberley left!
Remember his leaving statement?
"Sadly, it is on doctor's orders that I am stepping down but I will leave confident that Lotus is in great shape with a strong management team fully supported by our shareholder in Malaysia,"
Was that a slip of the tongue 'our shareholder' ('our Owner')?
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