RE: Lotus Reveals Exos T125 Hardcore Track Car

[Scuffers]

irodger said:

It never ceases to amaze me how selfish and tragically historical some people on PH can be sometimes. "I don't want Lotus to build this because I'll never afford one"..."I don't want a luxurious heavy-Lotus"...."I want them to make another Seven-alike"..."I want this, I want that..."

Do grow up, look at things from outside your own little glass box of emotions and realise that in a modern world companies need to evolve to stay competitive and financially viable. This is an opportunity for Lotus to grab a slice of a market currently only Ferrari has major vested interests in (with the FXXs).

You really think that the same rich Arabs who paint a £1m Veyron pink wont want to brag to their mates that they're driving a Lotus F1 car at the weekend? 25 of these will sell no probs, be a great exercise for Lotus and help them out financially. Its a no brainer, I'm only surprised nobody has done it before.

not sure that's the point though is it?

in what way apart from putting a Lotus badge on it is this a Lotus?

With respect, anybody could go and get Lola/Dallara/etc to go and make them such a car then slap a badge on it, and put $1M price tag on it.

realistically, you could buy just about anything single seater cheaper, and go racing with it, this is all about marketing, nothing more.

I am no Ferrari fan, but at least the FXX could be driven by wealthy businessmen, in much the same was the Merc SLR race cars were, I very much doubt most of the potential customers for this car could safely drive one of these at anything like 50% it's potential without issue.

as a side issue, Can you imagine what said businessmen key personnel insurance would say about this?

[Munter]

Scuffers said:

as a side issue, Can you imagine what said businessmen key personnel insurance would say about this?

Insurance company: If it keeps you out of a race car we're all for it. Please for the love of god don't go racing. I have a family to feed. And a Cat. A sick cat. Please buy this rather than go racing!

[havoc]

Munter said:

Scuffers said:

as a side issue, Can you imagine what said businessmen key personnel insurance would say about this?

Insurance company: If it keeps you out of a race car we're all for it. Please for the love of god don't go racing. I have a family to feed. And a Cat. A sick cat. Please buy this rather than go racing!

Wonder what RedBullRacing's insurers are saying right now...

[Bibs_LEF]

cragswinter said:

Errr sorry to piss on the parade but this is going to be useless on a track day.
1- it has no muck guards & most track days will not allow open wheelers
2- it looks like it may be quite quick, even if your trackdays are populated by gt3rs' & gtr's the chance of ever getting a full lap in without getting held up by something slower is minimal.

Craig

Do you really think that the owner of this $1,000,000 car is going to be ringing RMA or LoT looking for events? :-/

Edited by Bibs_LEF on Tuesday 10th August 14:27

[tylerama]

ThirdShift said:

Looking at the Roll hoop, have the boys in Norfolk been really clever and simply purchased the Lolas from the A1GP series that are knocking around at reasonable "bulk price"???????????

That occured to me too. Tony Teixeira (sp?) needed the money pretty bad last time I checked !

[PiB]

I was skeptical of the previous article on Lotus going "up market" from where they are now however having read this I do see the the perspective they are making. From the autocar article:

"He believes Lotus was at its strongest when it was firmly involved in multiple forms of motorsport and there were strong connections between road and track. The Lotus T125 is how the Norfolk firm plans to restore that connection;"

I like the idea of the cars simply becoming higher performance at the cost of being more expensive/'up market'.

[Forbes82]

Scuffers said:

irodger said:

It never ceases to amaze me how selfish and tragically historical some people on PH can be sometimes. "I don't want Lotus to build this because I'll never afford one"..."I don't want a luxurious heavy-Lotus"...."I want them to make another Seven-alike"..."I want this, I want that..."

Do grow up, look at things from outside your own little glass box of emotions and realise that in a modern world companies need to evolve to stay competitive and financially viable. This is an opportunity for Lotus to grab a slice of a market currently only Ferrari has major vested interests in (with the FXXs).

You really think that the same rich Arabs who paint a £1m Veyron pink wont want to brag to their mates that they're driving a Lotus F1 car at the weekend? 25 of these will sell no probs, be a great exercise for Lotus and help them out financially. Its a no brainer, I'm only surprised nobody has done it before.

not sure that's the point though is it?

in what way apart from putting a Lotus badge on it is this a Lotus?

With respect, anybody could go and get Lola/Dallara/etc to go and make them such a car then slap a badge on it, and put $1M price tag on it.

realistically, you could buy just about anything single seater cheaper, and go racing with it, this is all about marketing, nothing more.

I am no Ferrari fan, but at least the FXX could be driven by wealthy businessmen, in much the same was the Merc SLR race cars were, I very much doubt most of the potential customers for this car could safely drive one of these at anything like 50% it's potential without issue.

as a side issue, Can you imagine what said businessmen key personnel insurance would say about this?

Plenty of well off people race Historic F1's/F5000's (Some of the BOSS/euroBOSS stuff is even quite modern) etc without killing themselves, even on wet tracks. Alot of these cars have 600 hp with a hell of alot less aero and mechanical grip than modern day f1's. They might be hard (or impossible!) to drive as fast as a pro driver, but i don't think modern F1 cars are as impossible to drive safely as you make out.

[Mag1calTrev0r]

IMO this is superb!

Yes it's not their usual target market but so what? It's a technology/engineering showcase which just so happens to be what Lotus are very, very good at. Just like when Aston Martin made the One-77 for £1 million. That wasn't their usual target market was it? A car costing £800k more than their usual model.

The person who buys this doesn't care about not being allowed on your average trackday and is perfectly happy to take it to the 5 events organised by Lotus, to mingle with other significantly rich owners rather than 'the riff raff'.

It's a 'mere' £600k to have something that makes him feel like an F1 driver but can just jump in, turn the key and have fun.

And in the mean time it pays for all sorts of carbon fibre/F1-esque technology for the next generation Lotus cars that WE CAN afford to buy.

Good on them I say

[Gummy Sagoo]

Special prize for the next poster who trots out the 'they could buy a real old F1 car for that money'.

[Mag1calTrev0r]

Gummy Sagoo said:

Special prize for the next poster who trots out the 'they could buy a real old F1 car for that money'.

Which would be a valid thing to say... however...

Consider the TopGear episode where Hammond took the Renault F1 car round the track. He couldn't drive it quick enough to make it driveable (if that makes sense!), I reckon this Lotus will be driveable (jump in and drive) so will appeal to the rich guy who just wants to turn up and drive it without having to be concerned about getting everything ready and fannying around with an entire pit crew.

It's a 'convenient F1 car'

[CoopR]

"10,800rpm 645bhp 3.5-litre Cosworth V8"

drooool.....

[Scuffers]

Mag1calTrev0r said:

Gummy Sagoo said:

Special prize for the next poster who trots out the 'they could buy a real old F1 car for that money'.

Which would be a valid thing to say... however...

Consider the TopGear episode where Hammond took the Renault F1 car round the track. He couldn't drive it quick enough to make it driveable (if that makes sense!), I reckon this Lotus will be driveable (jump in and drive) so will appeal to the rich guy who just wants to turn up and drive it without having to be concerned about getting everything ready and fannying around with an entire pit crew.

It's a 'convenient F1 car'

How can you possibly say that?

it's not even turned a wheel yet, but you seem to know that it will be easy to drive?

Just speechless....

As for the comment on Euroboss and F5000, yes, I know a few people that run them, but as well as being able to afford it, most of them have come though several other cars and worked their way up to them, not just jumped into an F5000 or the like.

[Stephanie Plum]

Twincam16 said:

egomeister said:

Twincam16 said:

kambites said:

Does anyone seriously think they'll struggle to sell 25 of these things? They may all end up going to Malaysia, but I bet they sell.

I bet the bloke who set up Race Resort Ascari will buy at least one.

Why? He already has his own F1 cars, the people to run them and the circuit to run them on!

Precisely. He's a completist. He's already got Lotus F1 cars in his collection, surely this one will tempt (plus I bet he'd be more willing to let a wider selection of people use it compared to, say, the Type 72, thus further broadening RRA's appeal).

I don't recall seeing any Lotus F1 there. Benetton and Ferrari iirc, but no Lotus. He does have some Elises though

[DonkeyApple]

Andy T said:

I dont get it. Lotus can't possibly be wasting millions of pounds developing what is in effect an F1 car for the public. It must be a bought in chassis, i.e dallara or something.

What a weird thing for Lotus to do. They seem to be spending their time and resources trying to mess up their heritage and alienate their current customer base.

Lotus management, what are you smoking at the moment?

Not really. Even if they only sell a few the purpose of this exercise is to re-position the brand and move it onto the radar of the more wealthy international car enthusiast.

If we want Lotus to survive and build Elises etc then they need to sell a product into the top end overseas market.

The PR from this product will help sell their development side, marks them out as a serious player able to deliver and also will allow them to sell the Esprit wit a higher margin more easily.

Pointless as a car, hugely important as a branding exercise, product awareness etc.

[Twincam16]

Stephanie Plum said:

Twincam16 said:

egomeister said:

Twincam16 said:

kambites said:

Does anyone seriously think they'll struggle to sell 25 of these things? They may all end up going to Malaysia, but I bet they sell.

I bet the bloke who set up Race Resort Ascari will buy at least one.

Why? He already has his own F1 cars, the people to run them and the circuit to run them on!

Precisely. He's a completist. He's already got Lotus F1 cars in his collection, surely this one will tempt (plus I bet he'd be more willing to let a wider selection of people use it compared to, say, the Type 72, thus further broadening RRA's appeal).

I don't recall seeing any Lotus F1 there. Benetton and Ferrari iirc, but no Lotus. He does have some Elises though

What about the Type 72 that turned up on Top Gear when they went to RRA? Clarkson referred to it as the 'course hire car'.

[Stephanie Plum]

Twincam16 said:

Stephanie Plum said:

Twincam16 said:

egomeister said:

Twincam16 said:

kambites said:

Does anyone seriously think they'll struggle to sell 25 of these things? They may all end up going to Malaysia, but I bet they sell.

I bet the bloke who set up Race Resort Ascari will buy at least one.

Why? He already has his own F1 cars, the people to run them and the circuit to run them on!

Precisely. He's a completist. He's already got Lotus F1 cars in his collection, surely this one will tempt (plus I bet he'd be more willing to let a wider selection of people use it compared to, say, the Type 72, thus further broadening RRA's appeal).

I don't recall seeing any Lotus F1 there. Benetton and Ferrari iirc, but no Lotus. He does have some Elises though

What about the Type 72 that turned up on Top Gear when they went to RRA? Clarkson referred to it as the 'course hire car'.

Not in the garage when I was there which was about a week after they filmed it. Definitely not - nor in the repair bays. Possible they just borrowed it? The F1s they had were later models than that as well - no real classics as such.

[zakelwe]

This reminds me about the Noble M600 thread.

Considering the UK economy at present that would be most unfortunate. Perhaps that is why we are in this mess though, we don't get behind our local producers like the USA does, cynicism taking over from pride. You sow and you reap.

Personally I think Lotus are doing the right thing by being still in the news with new things. Compare that to Ruf, my favourite Porsche enhancer, they seem to have been usurped by 9FF of late, even if Ruf is perhaps a far more balanced package. It's all about column inches and flavour of the month.



Andy

[Mag1calTrev0r]

Scuffers said:

Mag1calTrev0r said:

Gummy Sagoo said:

Special prize for the next poster who trots out the 'they could buy a real old F1 car for that money'.

Which would be a valid thing to say... however...

Consider the TopGear episode where Hammond took the Renault F1 car round the track. He couldn't drive it quick enough to make it driveable (if that makes sense!), I reckon this Lotus will be driveable (jump in and drive) so will appeal to the rich guy who just wants to turn up and drive it without having to be concerned about getting everything ready and fannying around with an entire pit crew.

It's a 'convenient F1 car'

How can you possibly say that?

it's not even turned a wheel yet, but you seem to know that it will be easy to drive?

Just speechless....

How can I possibly say that?
Well in actual fact it was remarkably easy... you see I used the awesome power of the English language to utter the words "I reckon this Lotus will be driveable (jump in and drive)". Now this word 'reckon' implies I have an opinion that this car will be driveable (not 'easy' as you somehow read).
I'm not for one second suggesting it'll be Nissan Micra driveable... so pipe down and allow people to have an opinion of what they RECKON this car MIGHT be like.

[Amizade]

tylerama said:

ThirdShift said:

Looking at the Roll hoop, have the boys in Norfolk been really clever and simply purchased the Lolas from the A1GP series that are knocking around at reasonable "bulk price"???????????

That occured to me too. Tony Teixeira (sp?) needed the money pretty bad last time I checked !

This has nout to do with A1 GP - what's left of those sit rotting at Dunsfold - also Ferrari have retained the ECU's & it would be tricky to re-package with a cosworth engine. There is a shed somewhere full of formula master's and with a new engine cover, they could look similar to a T125 - highly unlikely and the nice people down at Hethel are far too professional to mess around with a re-hash of a mothballed single seater. Hope it works, as could be v good for Lotus and all those engineers looking for paid work.

[M400 NBL]

Skipe said:

M400 NBL said:

Skipe said:

I'm not sure many will see the track....

I reckon most of the 25 will be driving (or trying to drive) round Knightsbridge next summer then? Probably all decked out in polka dots, hot pink, swarovski's cristals or lots of other tasteless custom paint jobs??

Driving round Knightsbridge in a single seater. I doubt that some how.

Not being able to have passengers is bad enough. Having a car with that much power to weith ration and not being able to use 90% of it makes that even more likely.

And I dought it'll have a top of the range Bose surround sound speaker system. Has it even got a stereo?

I think these cars will be tracked by rich people or their very lucky friends and family.

Errr a joke....see thread on supercar parade in London....

Sorry I didn't realise.

Having said that, I wouldn't be too surprised if a pro footballer bought one (in team colours)... it which case it probably wouldn't be tracked. Parked on double yellows, driven without insurance/license or crashed.. but probably not tracked.