RE: Pic Of The Week: Lotus Elan
Discussion
I had one of the front wheel drive Isusu powered ones from the 1990's and it was a great little car.
Only a couple of problems with it.
1. The roof leaked in such away that it dripped onto my right thigh every time it rained so when you got out the car it looked like you'd pissed yourself.
2. The suspension arms were beautiful and delicate, but made of steel , so rusted a lot
Only a couple of problems with it.
1. The roof leaked in such away that it dripped onto my right thigh every time it rained so when you got out the car it looked like you'd pissed yourself.
2. The suspension arms were beautiful and delicate, but made of steel , so rusted a lot
cathalm said:
Deranged Granny said:
dandarez said:
Deranged Granny said:
But will it sell?
Jumping the gun a tad. First, it has to be made!!
1) It's unlikely to be made/stay faithful to anything like the concept
2) It's unlikely to sell whatever it looks like
chickensoup said:
Twincam16 said:
A Scotsman said:
The original Elan was a peoples' sportcar. The latest is a very rich peoples' sportscar. I doubt they will sell many in the UK.
Not so sure. The original Elan was getting on for the price of an E-Type. OK, so the E-Type was extraordinarily cheap for what it was, but it was still a second car for the middle classes rather than some everyman performance hero. The true 'cheap' Lotus (still several times the price of a Ford Anglia) of the era was the Seven - a mantle it could be argued has been passed to the Elise.Lotus have never been cheap, although the Esprit now looks more and more like it was a bargain at 2x Elise price
I also think it's best to disregard the connotations of the names being used. This new Elan is more in the spirit of the Evora and, in some ways, the old Esprit. The new Elise seems to be in the spirit of a number of cars - Elise, Exige, VX220, Europa S - and I wouldn't be surprised if it was built in such a fashion to allow this one car to be offered as plush or as spartan as you like, so one car ends up covering several bases.
As regards the new Esprit, it's nothing like any car Lotus have built before, more in the mould of the stillborn 1984 Etna concept (a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 monster intended to be the Lotus riposte to the Ferrari Testarossa), to go head-to-head with Lamborghini than the old Esprit's market, which as I've said seems to be the Elan's realm now.
Another poster asked where the 4-litre V6 will come from - according to a Lotus PR man I spoke to at Goodwood, they were working on a 4-litre version of the V6 for the Evora Cup. No doubt it'll be based on that, presumably with some hybrid technology.
As for the new Elite - well the Elite of 1974 was a big four-seater GT that bore no resemblance to the Elite of 1958, a small, beautiful 2-seater fibreglass-monococque ultra-lightweight sports car. 'Elite' seems to be the name Lotus have always given to cars that take them into new territory and break new design cues, so in that sense it is appropriate.
And the Eterne - well I have a feeling they've always wanted to build it, and have finally decided to latch onto the vogue for super-saloons. They were going to do one in the '80s called the Eminence, which got canned as soon as GM took over, and the Carlton was I suppose the first of the genuine 'saloon with supercar performance' genre anyway.
I wished they used new names, Esprit aside as thats a continuation, i dont get the constant re-using of old names, unless it's a direct continuation of that car the name should not be re-used IMO, therere plenty of decent E names out there without re-using Elite/Elan etc it's not original and is a step backwards IMO
Looks suspiciously like a product from AUDI to me. I would welcome the use of a tin opener or whatever you do when cutting the plastic top off a car body. Maybe all that power and an option for fresh air don't mix. But what about the AUDI R8 with open top ?
I guess I should own up and say I have an AUDI Coupe (1993) in the UK and an A4 in Berlin.
This is my first Gas - and I would therefor welcome comment - good bad or ugly.
Cheers.
I guess I should own up and say I have an AUDI Coupe (1993) in the UK and an A4 in Berlin.
This is my first Gas - and I would therefor welcome comment - good bad or ugly.
Cheers.
Well .... I have always been a Lotus fan .... and I have an S1 Elise ....
... but none of the new designs does anything for me I'm afraid.
Can't really say why .... they just leave me strangely unmoved.
The other thing is .... if you put all the new cars in a room without any identifiers (badges etc) ...... I wonder how many people would guess they were from the Lotus stable.
I certainly wouldn't.
Watch this space I guess.
... but none of the new designs does anything for me I'm afraid.
Can't really say why .... they just leave me strangely unmoved.
The other thing is .... if you put all the new cars in a room without any identifiers (badges etc) ...... I wonder how many people would guess they were from the Lotus stable.
I certainly wouldn't.
Watch this space I guess.
The 250? from 1998? was a much better looking Lotus. These new models look like generic modern Lexus/Aston(four door) designs. Not something I could get excited about. I think the Italians they are paying fortunes for don't have a clue personally. Even the F1 crowd don't add any credibility as they appear to be at war with each other. Lotus have done well to survive on past credentials but I recon that they are knackered now.
The problem I have with a lot of new designs is the size of the damn things. You could probably fit an original Elan in the passenger "cell" of the new one. This, for me, makes them less desirable not more. I love the look of the new Lotus design proposals (let's not call them cars until they exist beyond a computer generated rendering) and I can't see why people are saying they cannot be produced (especially given the other criticism that they look like Audi/Lambos)
My ideal car would be the size of an original 911 (before it got fat) with similar performance levels. My guess is that modern crash testing precludes anyone from creating anything quite as svelte?
My ideal car would be the size of an original 911 (before it got fat) with similar performance levels. My guess is that modern crash testing precludes anyone from creating anything quite as svelte?
Rumblestripe said:
My ideal car would be the size of an original 911 (before it got fat) with similar performance levels. My guess is that modern crash testing precludes anyone from creating anything quite as svelte?
The Elise isn't hugely bigger (although it is probably wider). Edited by kambites on Monday 18th October 11:42
kambites said:
The Elise isn't hugely bigger (although it is probably wider).
Width is one of major problems I have with modern car design (that and enormous great fat A pillars) and I guess both are a corollary of passive safety led design. (And the Elise is due for the chop is it not?)Edited by kambites on Monday 18th October 11:42
Rumblestripe said:
Width is one of major problems I have with modern car design (that and enormous great fat A pillars) and I guess both are a corollary of passive safety led design. (And the Elise is due for the chop is it not?)
Well according to the announcement it's due to be replaced, but the dimensions of the new car haven't been published as far as I know. As the owner of a '72 Elan Sprint drophead, I don't understand why Dany Bahar is abandoning Chapman's basic principle of adding lightness. These new Lotus (For those who think Loti is the plural, I say think again - back in the 80's Lotus themselves issued a press release confirming the correct plural is Lotus.) are too big and the company appear to be trying to break into a new more expensive market for higher powered vehicles. The previous attempt was the '74 Elite and, although hailed by the motoring press, it failed to generate the anticipated sales (and profits), possibly because of reported quality problems with the early examples. I believe the company needs to stay with what it does best, i.e. building relatively cheap, comparatively volume (I can't see them selling Porsche-like - or even Aston Martin-style quantities of these proposed cars.) good value sportscars like the Elise. Surely it would be better to build a slightly more luxurious, slightly softer, slightly faster sportscar on the Elise platform, but something that looks completely different from the Elise, unlike the Europa (Has anyone seen more than three of these on the road, other than in central Norfolk?)
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