New Lotus design boss announced
Back with the old guard as Bahar-hired Donato Coco leaves and Russell Carr takes his place
Coco's previous work was varied to say the least. Prior to Lotus he had worked on the Ferrari California, 458 Italia, 599 XX and the, er, Citroen C3 Pluriel. Plus the ZX Paris Dakar. Coco said of his departure, "My five years at Lotus have been one of the strongest experiences in my career so far and I will look back with great fondness and affection for this iconic company." Coco will perhaps be known most famously for the six Paris 2010 concepts. It seems like there aren't any hard feelings anyway, but the Italian's departure appears further proof of Lotus doing everything possible to remove evidence of the Bahar years.
Russell Carr has been with Lotus since 1990 and so has been involved with 'many of the designs produced by Lotus'. His most recent work was the Evora, still a pretty design five years after its launch. He's understandably very pleased at taking the top job again. "It is an honour to take on the role of Head of Design," he says. "Design is extremely important to Lotus as it conveys the pure, competitive and unconventional values of Lotus."
So what would be first objective for Carr back in his old role? Well given the Evora was his last big job and is probably due a facelift (plus a roadster too in fact), that would seem like the ideal place to start.
Not sure whether it's a good or a bad thing really. The Evora looks decidedly dumpy in pictures but I rather like it when seen amongst other traffic - it looks quite exotic and surprisingly well proportioned. The Exige V6 also looks pretty good, especially compared to the rather fussy S2 Elise and Exige.
Something Lotus seem poor at doing is each year eeking out performance improvements (even 5-10hp) over a product life, since the Evora S came out (what 3 or 4 years ago) the power output has remained unchanged.
Personally if I was to buy a MY14 Evora, I would like it to have something more than the MY13 or MY12. I appreciate these are not mass produced so changes take longer to re-coup.
Their current range just seems so effete, limp wristed and aimed at stick thin short arses who think wearing driving shoes doesn't make you look like a knob. If they had any sense they should in the short term make something that fills the gap left by TVR.
I recall writing a snotty letter (predating internet forums) to EVO mag at the time he became "Head of Styling and Design". I suggested that anyone who placed styling before design had no place at Lotus. I don't recall if it was published.
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