RE: Is Lotus in proper bother this time?

[Ozzie Osmond]

Dave Hedgehog said:

you dont seam many people complaining about zonda using a merc engine

Agreed. Doesn't matter who makes the bits so long as you end up with a decent car.

TVR used to make almost everything and look what happened to them!

[Wills2]

Dave Hedgehog said:

you dont seam many people complaining about zonda using a merc engine

True, but an AMG tuned Mercedes V12 is hardly anything to complain about. If Lotus used the LFA V10 in the esprit I'm sure no one would complain either.

Same with the V8 engines in TVRs the engine had pedigree, not sure a Camrys V6 does? (I'm not saying it's not a good engine but its perceived image isn't what you want in a 60-70k sports car)

For the money they are asking the Evora really should have a better engine it's up against the 6.2 AMG, 4.0V8 M unit the 3.4/3.8 Porsche units.

At that price level lots of people buy into the "pride and perception" part of the ownership experience, whether that's right or wrong it's the market the Evora was/is addressing.

[RenesisEvo]

Wills2 said:

Same with the V8 engines in TVRs the engine had pedigree, not sure a Camrys V6 does? (I'm not saying it's not a good engine but its perceived image isn't what you want in a 60-70k sports car)

The Noble M12 V6 engine started life as in a Mondeo, that doesn't appear to have hurt Noble.

[Wills2]

RenesisEvo said:

Wills2 said:

Same with the V8 engines in TVRs the engine had pedigree, not sure a Camrys V6 does? (I'm not saying it's not a good engine but its perceived image isn't what you want in a 60-70k sports car)

The Noble M12 V6 engine started life as in a Mondeo, that doesn't appear to have hurt Noble.

I don't think the Lotus business plan is the same as Nobles, Lotus needs/wants to sell thousands of premium cars to the mainstream performance car market.

Just my opinion and what do I know.

Edited by Wills2 on Saturday 28th April 19:58

Edited by Wills2 on Sunday 29th April 00:03

[Jellinek]

I can't believe Lotus is designing a new V8 solely for its own cars, that just seems like financial suicide???? The company had a great reputation for taking other manufacturers engines and adapting them to suit. To try to develop its own supercar in the current climate would seem to be about the most stupid thing since that Darwin guy strapped a JATO pack to the roof of his car and pressed go.

[900T-R]

Wills2 said:

For the money they are asking the Evora really should have a better engine it's up against the 6.2 AMG, 4.0V8 M unit

So in short, at that price level you can have an off-the-peg engine in a bespoke sports car, or the other way round. Sounds about right to me.

[Twincam16]

Here's a thought.

Lotus's 'five year plan' could be done with a series of simple rebodies.

The Elise S and Exige V6S are being praised to the heavens by the motoring press and it sounds like Lotus has got it right. All they need to do is rebody them to look like the proposed new Elise (possibly adding some headroom in the process) - job done.

All the Elan appears to be is an aluminium-bodied Evora with a V6 version of the Esprit's V8. Although the Evora is getting criticised from all corners (the ones that initially praised it, oddly enough), it's developing into a brutal racer in the form of the GTE. Sort the GTE road car, treat the Evora as a test-bed, then rebody as the Elan.

So, the Esprit is the critical model that needs sorting out as it seems to be the only one that's being developed from scratch (even though it'll use a reworked Evora chassis).

I'd go so far to say that the Elise/Exige and Elan don't need to be aluminium-bodied, which would mean a minimum of production-line changes too.

Not sure about the Elite III and Eterne - they seem to be a stretch too far.

[ajprice]

http://tinyurl.com/782nvlq

Bahar has been suspended pending an investigation into his conduct.
It will be on the local 'Look East' news at 6.30pm.

Edited by ajprice on Friday 25th May 18:06

[10 Pence Short]

ajprice said:

http://tinyurl.com/782nvlq

Bahar has been suspended pending an investigation into his conduct.
It will be on the local 'Look East' news at 6.30pm.

Bahar has apparently announced a 5 year turnaround plan to clear his name. He is going to bring on board some of the biggest names in truth, including Mother Theresa, Bill Gates and God the Almighty. And he's going to buy SAAB.

[McClure]

10 Pence Short said:

Bahar has apparently announced a 5 year turnaround plan to clear his name. He is going to bring on board some of the biggest names in truth, including Mother Theresa, Bill Gates and God the Almighty. And he's going to buy SAAB.

And Swizz beatz

[DonkeyApple]

ajprice said:

http://tinyurl.com/782nvlq

Bahar has been suspended pending an investigation into his conduct.
It will be on the local 'Look East' news at 6.30pm.

Edited by ajprice on Friday 25th May 18:06

Surely if people in the east, 'look east' they see the Dutch?

[wormburner]

DonkeyApple said:

ajprice said:

http://tinyurl.com/782nvlq

Bahar has been suspended pending an investigation into his conduct.
It will be on the local 'Look East' news at 6.30pm.

Edited by ajprice on Friday 25th May 18:06

Surely if people in the east, 'look east' they see the Dutch?

Nah, they see the West, yesterday.

[McClure]

It's so that a complaint by DRB-Hicom about his conduct can be investigated apparently. That's pretty much all they said.

[DonkeyApple]

wormburner said:

Nah, they see the West, yesterday.

They see everything yesterday.

[andyps]

McClure said:

It's so that a complaint by DRB-Hicom about his conduct can be investigated apparently. That's pretty much all they said.

Has someone realised that he was spending too much money on pipe dreams which were off brand and complained about it?

[DonkeyApple]

I'll tell you what: someone has updated his Wikipedia entry pretty bloody fast.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dany_Bahar#section_...

Personal life

Bahar moved to Switzerland after his family emigrated to the town of Silvaplana in the mid-1970s. His father was an electrician and his mother worked part-time in a hotel.[1]

on the 25th May 2012 Group Lotus boss Dany Bahar was suspended from his post today while an investigation is carried out into a complaint about his conduct.[4] A statement from Group Lotus read: "As a result of a number of media inquiries, Group Lotus plc (“Lotus”) can today confirm that, following an operational review, chief executive Dany Bahar has been temporarily suspended from his role to facilitate an investigation into a complaint about his conduct made by Lotus’ penultimate parent company, DRB-HICOM Berhad."

[Baron Von Alders]

He's made a statement on Sniffpetrol:

http://sniffpetrol.com/2012/05/25/bahahamessage120...

[Lowtimer]

DonkeyApple said:

Surely if people in the east, 'look east' they see the Dutch?

This is true. The sea is flat, and although Holland is pretty low-lying, have you seen the height that yer average Dutch chap reaches? Chapesses tend to be tremendousy tall, too.

[americancrx]

The sooner the Gordon Murray/Shawn Lide era begins at Lotus, the better their chance of survival.

They need a real Series 3 Elise. Move it maybe $5000 upmarket - spend that money accommodating a smaller, lighter turbocharged engine and on lighter parts. A good target would be 750kg and 200 horsepower for the initial top-of-the-line car. People will pay extra for leather, A/C, stereo, but the base price shouldn't grow more than five grand.

They need to continue development on the Evora - keep up with the Camry engine as Toyota updates it. If they can get the 302-hp direct-injected version from the Lexus IS350, they should replace the base engine. It can last a while, so long as it gets retrimmed and restyled every few years.

The Exige V6 should continue on a separate path from Elise development. 8 seconds to 100 MPH makes it a real supercar; they can continue down that road.

[MX7]

Classic. Lotus give out a vote of confidence, and a few weeks later....

Any football supporter has seen this dozens of times.