Friday 7th September 2012
PH Blog: "If you see SID..."
The 'Bahar car' isn't the only interesting old Esprit still at Lotus...
It would appear that leaving Lotus facing a future perilous even by the standards of its own roller coaster history isn't enough for
D Bahar Esq. He now requires compensation for what he perceives as the premature end to his stint at Hethel, and is now using the courts to pursue a £6.7 million claim.
Bahar wants £6.7m for unfair dismissal
Whether he gets what he wants is of course a matter for the them. Many of us can think of reasons why Mr Bahar shouldn't receive his payout but I would like to present evidence of an emotional nature. It's called SID.
Do you remember SID?
I do. It - or to acknowledge the anthropomorphic acronym - he, was one of the most famous cars from my early life. SID was the heavily modified Lotus Esprit test car from the early 1990s: a rolling test bed for technology that should have made it to market in the mid-1990s, but which never reached production.
SID's technology was ground breaking
SID - that's, Structures, Isolation and Dynamics - generated stories that had me completely transfixed. It was a four-wheel drive, four-wheel steer supercar with fully active suspension that left
contemporary commentators completely befuddled by its abilities to absorb bumps, but at the same time remain accurate, agile and without roll. It remains possibly the most advanced, and therefore the most significant, road car Lotus has ever produced. So where is this integral part of the company history?
Behind a shed in the pissing rain, that's where.
I spotted it earlier in the year when we shot the Exige V6 video, pushed up against a fence - looking about as sorry and dejected as a car could. Would Porsche leave a development 959 by the gent's bog at Weissach? Does Ferrari litter the place with its historical artifacts?
Search results for 'new' Esprit on Lotus site
Sometimes in the cacophony of press uproar and internet indignation you kind find real meaning in simple images and metaphors. Seeing SID like that just made the company, as it was then back in March, look completely doomed. Any management team that cared so little about its past achievements - was so ignorant of the importance of heritage in a sector dominated by the subject - didn't stand a chance. It's just incredible so much of the world's specialist motoring media seemed swept away by his hubris - they now look nearly as ridiculous.
And now he wants £6.7 million.
Chris
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Stew2000
Original Poster
2,512 posts
47 months
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How much is the car worth?
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Tooth Dr
7 posts
11 months
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CH - ask if you can borrow it and do a feature on it.......
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Crusoe
2,645 posts
100 months
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BibsTLF
678 posts
76 months
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150kg fibreglass and nomex chassis plus Metro 6R4 lump too!
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Small Car
555 posts
68 months
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Thats no worse than Aston - I recall pictures of various Vanqui being surrounded in weeds. Me want.
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Gizmoish
15,495 posts
78 months
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To be fair, I've read stories of Lamborghini leaving bits of disused prototypes around the back of the factory to rot at Sant'Agata.
But Lotus doesn't really help itself does it. That sort of thing should be donated to Gaydon, Sparkford, or Beaulieu and looked after.
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supermanraf
87 posts
50 months
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He wants a good boot up the backside chris!! I'd be happy to administer the start of 6.7 million of those!
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loudlashadjuster
487 posts
53 months
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I recall reading about SID at the time along with other Lotus tech that still eludes us - active noise suppression, anyone?
There must be something in that kind of technology that puts makers and buyers off - think Xantia Active - as manufacturers who surely could and would (Porsche springs to mind) have obviously assessed and dismissed the technology.
Would love to have a go in it though.
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monthefish
15,709 posts
100 months
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NotNormal
1,512 posts
83 months
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Bit of number plate geekery. H79/H81 and H82 RAH were on Lotus Carlton press cars.
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Oddball RS
1,191 posts
87 months
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There were plenty on here that believed his cobblers though.
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STiG911
631 posts
36 months
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I think I remember an Autocar on this at the time - was the same year the Lotus Carlton appeared as they had similar reg numbers.
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Goldmember1
275 posts
41 months
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Brilliant car .. Dont understand this ..  
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Meteor Madness
179 posts
71 months
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That Esprit has been languishing in that state around the Lotus site since long before Mr.Bahar arrived.
I believe it was back in the 1990's when the management decided to sell off their collection of historic Lotus cars, that used to be on display in the assembly factory.
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RichTBiscuit
398 posts
20 months
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To be fair to Bahar, If he was sacked unfairly (which is probably was, as the new management realized what a mess he'd made) then he should receive the 6m he's entitled to. No matter how well you think someone has done (or not) - a contract should be binding.
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cris9964
152 posts
49 months
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Small Car said: I recall pictures of various Vanqui You sound like a certain Mr A Partridge who happened to get given his second series.... Vanqui... Good call. The original... Michael: Nice Lexus. Dan: Yes. I love Lexi. Alan: Yeah, I always have a thing I say about Lexus, it's like the… Alan and Dan: Japanese Mercedes.
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Greg 172
174 posts
70 months
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RichTBiscuit said: To be fair to Bahar, If he was sacked unfairly (which is probably was, as the new management realized what a mess he'd made) then he should receive the 6m he's entitled to. No matter how well you think someone has done (or not) - a contract should be binding. Unless he's already broken the terms, or commited some kind of gross misconduct such as, for example, misappropriation of company funds.....
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Dave Hedgehog
5,320 posts
73 months
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RichTBiscuit said: To be fair to Bahar, If he was sacked unfairly (which is probably was, as the new management realized what a mess he'd made) then he should receive the 6m he's entitled to. No matter how well you think someone has done (or not) - a contract should be binding. This And I still don't understand why ppl hate him,I liked the new line up incl the esprit
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WillBrumBrum
581 posts
67 months
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I miss Bahar - at least he had vision and the balls to have a go at making it happen. Jobs got it wrong with NeXT computer after the success of the Apple II, and then went back to make Apple what it was. Maybe Bahar will move on to something in a few years a make a huge success of that. In terms of marketing, Bahar did a lot right as well as the lot wrong that everyone currently focusses on. There's two sides to every story and I wonder what the truth is about Lotus.
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Prof Prolapse
7,398 posts
59 months
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Article said: Does Ferrari litter the place with its historical artifacts? No... It cuts them to pieces.
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