RE: Driven: Lotus Evora S IPS

[mikEsprit]

cardigankid said:

Lotus is not an upmarket brand. Look what Colin Chapman designed - the Seven the Elite the Elan. He used cheap and lightweight technology to produce real sports cars for those on a budget which made the big boys look stupid. He borrowed engines and made silk purses out of pigs ears.

That is what Lotus needs to do now. Mazda have made a fortune ripping off a sixties Chapman design. They need to get into bed with a big boy and produce a two seater for the mass market a few grand dearer than an MX5 which just drives it into the ground. That is what the Lotus badge is all about. They would sweep the decks.

You can take an exclusive brand downmarket but you absolutely cannot take a mass brand upmarket. All this competition with Porsche is just foolish. They are ignoring the larger money rich enthusiast market to chase customers who just don't get Lotus. It is nuts. Lotus customers want to slip into a brilliant lightweight chassis with a glassfibre body. The badge is emotive. They know about Clark Hill Rindt and Fittipaldi and the rest. Aston customers think those are makes of wristwatch. Porsche customers most of them don't want to know about cornering and agility they want exclusive metal in their parking spot.

Time to get a grip.

Edited by cardigankid on Friday 3rd February 20:59

What you describe is Lotus in the stone ages. Since the late 70's and into the 00's, Lotus' main car was an exotic sports car meant to compete with Ferrari's main car. The 90's Elan was an attempt to go in the direction you claim they should and it failed quickly. The Elise/Exige/Evora direction in the 00's is aiming for the substantial middle ground between the Esprit and the MX-5 type hairdresser stuff. But it is still upmarket, just not as high up. Nobody thinks of Lotuses as belonging in the cr*p level.

If anything, that's the niche that the engineering consulting has filled in the past and I wouldn't disagree that it could be done more often.

[1981linley]

.

Added to that, it is incredibly RARE. Less than 40 Evoras exist in all of Australia, so believe me, this car turns heads like nothing else on the road. In a Merc you are invisible. In a Lambo and Ferrari, noticed. In a Porsche you are a common sight.

In an Evora, you are a rock star.

I've never had so much attention, fun and pure delight as I'm having in this car, and I have owned 25 sportcars over the past 31 years.
[/quote]

Reckon what you say here about rarity and attention pretty much applies here in the UK too.

[Steve12NG]

koorby said:

Well the Evora is less than HALF THE PRICE of the base model 911 here in Australia.

I'll say that again. Here is Oz, we buy an Evora IPS at less than half the price of a 911 and the Evora is the better car.

Added to that, it is incredibly RARE. Less than 40 Evoras exist in all of Australia, so believe me, this car turns heads like nothing else on the road. In a Merc you are invisible. In a Lambo and Ferrari, noticed. In a Porsche you are a common sight.

In an Evora, you are a rock star.

I've never had so much attention, fun and pure delight as I'm having in this car, and I have owned 25 sportcars over the past 31 years.

What this really tells you is how shockingly ripped off we are in Oz when it comes to European cars.

Here the cheapest 911 is the equivalent of £180k. A 458 is £350k!
Even an M3 is at least £90k.

The Evora is priced a bit under the M3 here, which is probably fair enough.
You are right about their rarity. The only one I've ever seen was in the showroom.
I had a good look at one when they first came out. I quite like the styling actually, and didn't mind the interior either.
But I just couldn't get excited about the engine.

For mine the base model should have had about 350hp to generate the performance that the styling and chassis promises.

Edited by Steve12NG on Sunday 5th February 06:04

[cardigankid]

mikEsprit said:

cardigankid said:

You can take an exclusive brand downmarket but you absolutely cannot take a mass brand upmarket.

Since the late 70's and into the 00's, Lotus' main car was an exotic sports car meant to compete with Ferrari's main car.... Nobody thinks of Lotuses as belonging in the cr*p level.

I never said that they should not be quality, and I certainly never said they were crap. The operative words in your post are 'meant to'. The Esprit was an impressive car but it just never made it in prestige terms to the levels of Ferrari and the rest. The Mk.2 Elan was a plug, with gimmick technology, which attempted to cash in on fashion. Any enthusiast, in my opinion, could have told you that was going to fail. It was also fugly, which never helps.

Yes, BMW came from aero engines in WW1, like Bentley, and came from a low point after 1945. But the battle which the Germans undertook in the 50's and 60's to overcome a reputation for poor mass produced quality, and to overtake the British reputation for hand built quality (believe it or not) was long and hard, had many aspects, and will not easily be reversed. As I said, time has moved on, and with all the well established brands you now have, it is very much harder, or maybe impossible, to do what Jaguar, Aston Martin, Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari and others did in the post war era.

Colin Chapman may have wished to take Lotus upmarket, but let's face it, he was always a lot more interested in making money. Otherwise he might have tried what Ron Dennis, at the height of his F1 powers, is trying. Those are the kind of resources you need to deploy, and even then it may fail.

I am saying that Lotus should look at the essence of the brand, and play to its strengths. Carbon is after all the new glassfibre.

[kambites]

I don't know about taking an existing brand up-market, but it's certainly possible to introduce a new up-market brand - several of the major Japanese manufacturers have done it (Lexus, Infinity, etc.) and of course at the top end of the performance car spectrum you have companies like Pagani and Keonigsegg.

[cardigankid]

They have done it precisely because they could not take their existing brands upmarket.

Lotus could do the same, but why should they when there is a perfectly good market sector at £25-50k which is being serviced by the Porsche Boxster on its own as far as I can see. That is the affluent young business/professional who wants a cool, good looking, technically advanced, fuel efficient sports car with pedigree. Why did Honda sell so many S2000's.

I do think that they need to link up with a major player.