RE: The New Era Of Lotus - Revealed

[Twincam16]

Not necessarily a bad thing - I didn't think the Elite and Eterne were ever going to be runners.

However, the other three - new Elise, Elan and Esprit - are still possible, if not in that form.

Elise - take a '911' approach and continue to develop it. Looking at the Exige V6S and realising that it stems from the original Elise of 1996 is no different in spirit to comparing an '80s 911 Turbo Flatnose SE with an early 911 2.0 from the Sixties. This is the essence of Lotus in the same way the 911 is the essence of Porsche, and I see no reason why they shouldn't persevere with it in the same way.

Elan - all it ever was was a rebodied Evora with a mystery in-house engine. They could stick with this regardless.

Esprit - stick the Zimmerman V8 in an Evora chassis. Rebody for maximum visual drama. Job done.

[shirt]

i hope at least the elan concept makes production as the revised evora. The best looking out of the 5 by some margin imo and for 50-60k they will sell in volume.

[Scuffers]

He may well be, but they got the V8 from a canned DTM project and the so called figures were always going to be hard to meet in EU5 road legal form.

Lotus are nothing like big/rich enough to design a new engine from scratch, let alone a world beeting one.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Twincam16 said:

Elan - all it ever was was a rebodied Evora.... They could stick with this regardless.

^^^^ IMO the only realistic short term game in town.

Insofar as the announcement says "different platform" I'm amazed. Unless the current one is so expensive to build they've decided to try something much cheaper, which ramps the risk up to max' again!

They're talking about 2015/16 but there must be a real risk any remaining brand value will have evaporated by that time. Funding another three very expensive Formula 1 seasons (if that's what they try) guarantees nothing.

[Twincam16]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Twincam16 said:

Elan - all it ever was was a rebodied Evora.... They could stick with this regardless.

^^^^ IMO the only realistic short term game in town.

Insofar as the announcement says "different platform" I'm amazed. Unless the current one is so expensive to build they've decided to try something much cheaper, which ramps the risk up to max' again!

They're talking about 2015/16 but there must be a real risk any remaining brand value will have evaporated by that time. Funding another three very expensive Formula 1 seasons (if that's what they try) guarantees nothing.

I don't think the Evora is quite that expensive to build given that it basically involves taking an Exige chassis and just bonding various bits of it in slightly different places, then sticking a different body on top. I reckon it's the interior and NVH that makes it pricey - it's very high-quality stuff that must have taken ages to develop and get right. Mechanically the Exige and Evora are pretty identical, and yet the Exige is £20k cheaper.

I see the future Evora as a kind of junior Esprit, the Merak to the Esprit's Bora. The Esprit will probably have a longitudinally-mounted V8 in the place of the Evora's transverse V6. The platform is one of the best-handling in the business, and no-one really cares about the rear seats. The VVA platform is ideal for developing cars like this, and if they've already sorted the engine the rest of the car should be a doddle.

Having said that, looking at the delivery numbers it seems that Lotus customers are more interested in the Exige than any other model. Maybe this has made Lotus sit up and take note.

As for F1 - I think it's a necessary expense for Lotus. Customers in the Middle East, India, Brazil, Russia, China and the Far East see Lotus on track, beating Ferrari, and want one. If they're no longer in F1, that's their main advert gone, and they're no longer seen as 'special' - they're just expected to be A.N. Other car company churning out luxobarges to undemanding buyers.

F1 may be expensive, but without it selling Lotuses in new markets would be even more expensive. Tony Fernandes knows this - look at the exciting way in which Caterham is expanding. Would the 'sell' be quite so compelling if it wasn't for F1, even if they are toddling around at the back of the grid?

[marshalla]

Ozzie Osmond said:

They're talking about 2015/16 but there must be a real risk any remaining brand value will have evaporated by that time. Funding another three very expensive Formula 1 seasons (if that's what they try) guarantees nothing.

Group Lotus have no involvement in the F1 team that currently carries the Lotus name ( http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/04/new-twist-in... )

[Twincam16]

marshalla said:

Ozzie Osmond said:

They're talking about 2015/16 but there must be a real risk any remaining brand value will have evaporated by that time. Funding another three very expensive Formula 1 seasons (if that's what they try) guarantees nothing.

Group Lotus have no involvement in the F1 team that currently carries the Lotus name ( http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/04/new-twist-in... )

Would they really run under any other name though?

[marshalla]

Twincam16 said:

Would they really run under any other name though?

They tend to refer to themselves as "Enstone", and remember what rules in F1 - £££££ $$$$

My point, though, was more that F1 isn't actually costing Group Lotus anything at all at the moment - free advertising. Chapman would probably have approved of that.

[Twincam16]

marshalla said:

Twincam16 said:

Would they really run under any other name though?

They tend to refer to themselves as "Enstone", and remember what rules in F1 - £££££ $$$$

My point, though, was more that F1 isn't actually costing Group Lotus anything at all at the moment - free advertising. Chapman would probably have approved of that.

Precisely.

Anyway, the F1 team was separated from the road car operation around the time of Chapman's death, so the situation is roughly similar to the one that existed in the Eighties - and that didn't stop Lotus selling loads of Esprits off the back of its F1 connections.

As far as Joe Public is concerned, if your name's on the car, you're 'in F1'. Sebastian Vettel has little to do with the lumpen Infinitis that bear his name, but you can bet they'll sell more as a result. If you're into cars, the cache of F1 is irresistable and you're better off in it in any way whatsoever than you are out of it.

The Scuderia Ferrari, funnily enough, has been separated from the road car operation since 1969. The last car Enzo himself had anything to do with personally was the 365 GTC/4. Does this stop Ferrari claiming their road cars are basically F1 cars in disguise? No.