RE: New boss for Caterham Cars
Discussion
mickrick said:
Why am I not surprised.
The writing was on the wall for Caterham when the venture capitalists walked in.
All the talk of Passion.
yea, as soon as a nice profit can be made by selling "The brand" on.
They're still selling the same quantity of cars as the Nearns where.
So what when Tony gets fed up of throwing money at the karts, the 300R, the road car, and whatever next they can brand?
The only thing making money at Caterham right now is the 7. Same as it did when Chapman was selling them to fund his other hobbies.
Jut to clarify any ambiguity, Ansar came as part of the VC buyout of the Nearns...so he himself is a by product of the VCs. Afaik, Fernandes' acquisition did not involve any VC inputThe writing was on the wall for Caterham when the venture capitalists walked in.
All the talk of Passion.
yea, as soon as a nice profit can be made by selling "The brand" on.They're still selling the same quantity of cars as the Nearns where.
So what when Tony gets fed up of throwing money at the karts, the 300R, the road car, and whatever next they can brand?
The only thing making money at Caterham right now is the 7. Same as it did when Chapman was selling them to fund his other hobbies.
rubystone said:
Jut to clarify any ambiguity, Ansar came as part of the VC buyout of the Nearns...so he himself is a by product of the VCs. Afaik, Fernandes' acquisition did not involve any VC input
Presumably AA accomplished one of the many parts of his job...to get the business sold for his bosses (the evil VCs 
) And as part of any such deal it's natural to work out if any of the "old management" are going to take part in the new world with the new owner. It's a real shame he's not going to take part, but I bet he'll do a good job of fixing Lotus!rubystone said:
mickrick said:
Why am I not surprised.
The writing was on the wall for Caterham when the venture capitalists walked in.
All the talk of Passion. yea, as soon as a nice profit can be made by selling "The brand" on.
They're still selling the same quantity of cars as the Nearns where.
So what when Tony gets fed up of throwing money at the karts, the 300R, the road car, and whatever next they can brand?
The only thing making money at Caterham right now is the 7. Same as it did when Chapman was selling them to fund his other hobbies.
Jut to clarify any ambiguity, Ansar came as part of the VC buyout of the Nearns...so he himself is a by product of the VCs. Afaik, Fernandes' acquisition did not involve any VC inputThe writing was on the wall for Caterham when the venture capitalists walked in.
All the talk of Passion.
yea, as soon as a nice profit can be made by selling "The brand" on.They're still selling the same quantity of cars as the Nearns where.
So what when Tony gets fed up of throwing money at the karts, the 300R, the road car, and whatever next they can brand?
The only thing making money at Caterham right now is the 7. Same as it did when Chapman was selling them to fund his other hobbies.
In terms of "bloody accountants" I would usually agree, but in this case I don't. He has more pistonhead credentials than most of Pistonheads ! Owns an R400, even does big European Road Trips in it. A lot of people here think doing 85mph in their diesel on the M40 is soemthing fun
rubystone said:
mickrick said:
Why am I not surprised.
The writing was on the wall for Caterham when the venture capitalists walked in.
All the talk of Passion. yea, as soon as a nice profit can be made by selling "The brand" on.
They're still selling the same quantity of cars as the Nearns where.
So what when Tony gets fed up of throwing money at the karts, the 300R, the road car, and whatever next they can brand?
The only thing making money at Caterham right now is the 7. Same as it did when Chapman was selling them to fund his other hobbies.
Jut to clarify any ambiguity, Ansar came as part of the VC buyout of the Nearns...so he himself is a by product of the VCs. Afaik, Fernandes' acquisition did not involve any VC inputThe writing was on the wall for Caterham when the venture capitalists walked in.
All the talk of Passion.
yea, as soon as a nice profit can be made by selling "The brand" on.They're still selling the same quantity of cars as the Nearns where.
So what when Tony gets fed up of throwing money at the karts, the 300R, the road car, and whatever next they can brand?
The only thing making money at Caterham right now is the 7. Same as it did when Chapman was selling them to fund his other hobbies.
I met Ansar Ali back in 2002 when he was thinking of buying the kit car company Toniq that I was running at the time with Colin Williams. Ansar was still at Lotus and seemed like a nice guy - he spent a long time with us rather than selling the cars on his own Lotus stand during the motorshow! He certainly has an admirable mix of passion and integrity about him. Wish him luck.
Noger said:
In terms of "bloody accountants" I would usually agree, but in this case I don't. He has more pistonhead credentials than most of Pistonheads ! Owns an R400, even does big European Road Trips in it. A lot of people here think doing 85mph in their diesel on the M40 is soemthing fun
Good luck to him and to AA in whatever he does next (Lotus would be good though...).BertBert said:
Presumably AA accomplished one of the many parts of his job...to get the business sold for his bosses (the evil VCs ) And as part of any such deal it's natural to work out if any of the "old management" are going to take part in the new world with the new owner. It's a real shame he's not going to take part, but I bet he'll do a good job of fixing Lotus!
Except that he wont. He was MD at Lotus for a number of years, moved the company on not a jot and made a significant loss every year he was there. Then he worked for Tony Fernandes, friend to Lotus and all round champion of the pistonheads masses. Mr Ali has fallen foul of Fernandes and been fired, Fernandes has put Mike Gascoigne in the box seat at Caterham group. Oh, and by the way gentleman Tony is closing teh factory, firing the staff and moving it across the country. Not Ansars vision when he talked up the Fernandes buy out. ) And as part of any such deal it's natural to work out if any of the "old management" are going to take part in the new world with the new owner. It's a real shame he's not going to take part, but I bet he'll do a good job of fixing Lotus!Fernandes is a shyster, he has Caterham cars (which he is effectively closing) an insignificant engineering arm he talks up to make his group sound like Lotus and an F1 team that achieved none of its goals. Forget Caterham or Lotus of whoever he wants to shaft next, what he would really like to do is just call everything "Tony Fernandes".
Ansar never did any wrong by me. When the Nearns' sold the company and he took over, he even honoured the agreement to provide spares to our USA2005 event that Simon Nearn had already committed. This was a great indication of a true petrol head who got his customer base.
Sad to see him leave, ESPECIALLY if the Bean Co*NTerS are taking over I don't see that as a harbinger of anything good.
Sad to see him leave, ESPECIALLY if the Bean Co*NTerS are taking over I don't see that as a harbinger of anything good.
cathalm said:
Except that he wont. He was MD at Lotus for a number of years, moved the company on not a jot and made a significant loss every year he was there. Then he worked for Tony Fernandes, friend to Lotus and all round champion of the pistonheads masses. Mr Ali has fallen foul of Fernandes and been fired, Fernandes has put Mike Gascoigne in the box seat at Caterham group. Oh, and by the way gentleman Tony is closing teh factory, firing the staff and moving it across the country. Not Ansars vision when he talked up the Fernandes buy out.
Fernandes is a shyster, he has Caterham cars (which he is effectively closing) an insignificant engineering arm he talks up to make his group sound like Lotus and an F1 team that achieved none of its goals. Forget Caterham or Lotus of whoever he wants to shaft next, what he would really like to do is just call everything "Tony Fernandes".
I've not heard that take on things before. Source?Fernandes is a shyster, he has Caterham cars (which he is effectively closing) an insignificant engineering arm he talks up to make his group sound like Lotus and an F1 team that achieved none of its goals. Forget Caterham or Lotus of whoever he wants to shaft next, what he would really like to do is just call everything "Tony Fernandes".
cathalm said:
Except that he wont. He was MD at Lotus for a number of years, moved the company on not a jot and made a significant loss every year he was there. Then he worked for Tony Fernandes, friend to Lotus and all round champion of the pistonheads masses. Mr Ali has fallen foul of Fernandes and been fired, Fernandes has put Mike Gascoigne in the box seat at Caterham group. Oh, and by the way gentleman Tony is closing teh factory, firing the staff and moving it across the country. Not Ansars vision when he talked up the Fernandes buy out.
Fernandes is a shyster, he has Caterham cars (which he is effectively closing) an insignificant engineering arm he talks up to make his group sound like Lotus and an F1 team that achieved none of its goals. Forget Caterham or Lotus of whoever he wants to shaft next, what he would really like to do is just call everything "Tony Fernandes".
Except Ansar has never been MD of Lotus (he was general manager) and you've left out the 6 year period where he bought Caterham Cars with VC backing and rescued it from the twin threats of Rover's demise (they lost their engine supplier overnight) and safety legislation as well as producing great (and profitable) stuff like the new R500. Fernandes is a shyster, he has Caterham cars (which he is effectively closing) an insignificant engineering arm he talks up to make his group sound like Lotus and an F1 team that achieved none of its goals. Forget Caterham or Lotus of whoever he wants to shaft next, what he would really like to do is just call everything "Tony Fernandes".
Don't know the latest situation with the TF buy-out, what you suggest or why he's quit, but i'd say the guy's not done a bad job. Having met him he's also a decent, down-to-earth car guy with no delusions of grandeur...a kind of anti-Bahar if you will.
crofty1984 said:
cathalm said:
Oh, and by the way gentleman Tony is closing teh factory, firing the staff and moving it across the country.
Really? I've not heard that.Didn't believe a word of it, but I had at least heard it. Makes no sense to me, but then I'm not a business weasel.
BertBert said:
mickrick said:
Why am I not surprised.
The writing was on the wall for Caterham when the venture capitalists walked in.
All the talk of Passion. yea, as soon as a nice profit can be made by selling "The brand" on.
They're still selling the same quantity of cars as the Nearns where.
So what when Tony gets fed up of throwing money at the karts, the 300R, the road car, and whatever next they can brand?
The only thing making money at Caterham right now is the 7. Same as it did when Chapman was selling them to fund his other hobbies.
As positive as ever then?The writing was on the wall for Caterham when the venture capitalists walked in.
All the talk of Passion.
yea, as soon as a nice profit can be made by selling "The brand" on.They're still selling the same quantity of cars as the Nearns where.
So what when Tony gets fed up of throwing money at the karts, the 300R, the road car, and whatever next they can brand?
The only thing making money at Caterham right now is the 7. Same as it did when Chapman was selling them to fund his other hobbies.
I have never forgiven them for dropping Arch.Whoever said CC where in the deep and smelly with the demise of Rover, the Nearns had already sourced the Duratec engine for the CSR.
Cathalm : factually wrong again, AA was never MD of Lotus, you were the great "insider knowledge man" in the spectacular Bahar fiasco, constantly telling us that we were too ignorant to see the great works he was performing at Lotus, now your rewriting AA's history ! Wonder where your insightful knowledge comes from ?
darth_pies said:
Except Ansar has never been MD of Lotus (he was general manager) and you've left out the 6 year period where he bought Caterham Cars with VC backing and rescued it from the twin threats of Rover's demise (they lost their engine supplier overnight) and safety legislation as well as producing great (and profitable) stuff like the new R500.
Was he really backed by the Viet Cong ?Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff