RE: Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Is A Go-er

[chevronb37]

sunsurfer said:

"As well as increased power, carbon fibre has been used to reduce weight by 105kgs against a standard Evora."

That's what I'm talking about!
That 105kg would have been like having Jim Davidson stuck on your bonnet. Now he's gone that car will handle.

If my experience of the Evora and Evora S is anything to go by, the handling was already fairly well sorted...

I rather like this and we should not underestimate the importance of the Chinese market these days. The UK domestic market is pennies compared to China - our desire for light weight and automatic gearboxes is a virtual irrelevance.

[EK993]

I found a reference on the net as to the price being somewhere around $160,000 (it was a US website).

Edit: here is the link

http://m.cnet.com/Article.rbml?nid=20098771&ci...

Edited by EK993 on Friday 2nd September 12:58

[LuS1fer]

I prefer the blue and white racer styling to the actual one if I'm honest.

[DJRC]

The cost will be £125k.

And its BS on the Chinese angle, but great PR from Danny to use that
The GTE road car has been planned for a few months.

[bobberz]

Lotus Marketing said:

...it's billed as the fastest Lotus road car ever built...

Faster than this?

[Guvernator]

DJRC said:

The cost will be £125k.

Sorry, as predicted it's too expensive but seems to be par for the course for "new" Lotus these days. They cannot I repeat cannot hope to compete with the likes of Porsche on a pricepoint basis. This needed to undercut a GT3 buy some margin, instead it's more expensive than a GT3 RS.

[kambites]

Guvernator said:

DJRC said:

The cost will be £125k.

Sorry, as predicted it's too expensive but seems to be par for the course for "new" Lotus these days. They cannot I repeat cannot hope to compete with the likes of Porsche on a pricepoint basis. This needed to undercut a GT3 buy some margin, instead it's more expensive than a GT3 RS.

It does sound stupendously expensive, certainly far more than I'd consider it worth, but I suspect they'll still sell the relatively small number that they make without a great deal of difficulty. Much like the M3 GTS, really.

[Guvernator]

kambites said:

Guvernator said:

DJRC said:

The cost will be £125k.

Sorry, as predicted it's too expensive but seems to be par for the course for "new" Lotus these days. They cannot I repeat cannot hope to compete with the likes of Porsche on a pricepoint basis. This needed to undercut a GT3 buy some margin, instead it's more expensive than a GT3 RS.

It does sound stupendously expensive, certainly far more than I'd consider it worth, but I suspect they'll still sell the relatively small number that they make without a great deal of difficulty. Much like the M3 GTS, really.

I suppose so, still disappointing to me personally that Lotus seem to be abandoning their core market. I always saw a Lotus as providing the supercar experience for a fraction of the price so this move to try to take the brand upmarket in a very short timeframe, certainly in terms of price, doesn't sit well with me and I'm not convinced it will work for them tbh.

[LuS1fer]

Haven't they had to do this before though? I seeem to dimly recall that the Elite in 1973 was quite pricey though doubtless had less competition.

[caine70]

If the regular Evora would have looked like this I'm sure they would have made a few more sales.

[cathalm]

Guvernator said:

I suppose so, still disappointing to me personally that Lotus seem to be abandoning their core market. I always saw a Lotus as providing the supercar experience for a fraction of the price so this move to try to take the brand upmarket in a very short timeframe, certainly in terms of price, doesn't sit well with me and I'm not convinced it will work for them tbh.

And yet they still make the Elise and the new one will probably cost similar money.

[British Beef]

kambites said:

Guvernator said:

DJRC said:

The cost will be £125k.

Sorry, as predicted it's too expensive but seems to be par for the course for "new" Lotus these days. They cannot I repeat cannot hope to compete with the likes of Porsche on a pricepoint basis. This needed to undercut a GT3 buy some margin, instead it's more expensive than a GT3 RS.

It does sound stupendously expensive, certainly far more than I'd consider it worth, but I suspect they'll still sell the relatively small number that they make without a great deal of difficulty. Much like the M3 GTS, really.

The entry Ferrari is now £180k,
a fast Jag XK knocking on £100k and
Porsche GT3 RS are up around the £120k, and
like you say an M3 can be had for £115k.
Hell even Noble is asking for £200k for a car,
the replacement for the Zonda is almost £1M!!!

So before everyone jumps on the bandwagon proclaiming Lotus have their head in the clouds, we should wait to hear what the final specs are. If the performance and hardware justifies the price increase, it certainly looks the part, so I would say maybe £125 is a fair price.

I agree that Lotus's are getting very expensive since the days of sub £20k Elises, but same is true of all performance marques.

[zebedee]

bobberz said:

Faster than this?

that was fast when it worked, but it didn't really work very much (not as a race car anyway, so not sure about the road version. Fact I've only ever seen the road car in the pic static or on the back of a flat bed doesn't bode well though. Fantastic car though.

[Monkey boy 1]

The problem is that sub £20K cars don't pay the bills, If the posters on PH are the core Lotus market, then they are doomed. They have to look to markets new. There seems to be no support form the so called "Core market" so are trying a different tact, which seems to be working. China is a BIG market, lots of new found rich kids.

[Guvernator]

Monkey boy 1 said:

The problem is that sub £20K cars don't pay the bills, If the posters on PH are the core Lotus market, then they are doomed. They have to look to markets new. There seems to be no support form the so called "Core market" so are trying a different tact, which seems to be working. China is a BIG market, lots of new found rich kids.

Oh I agree, they are a business afterall and in it to get money but to try to go from selling £30k cars to £125k ones without building some sort of brand image, loyalty or racing pedigree etc just seems a leap to far for me. I think if they wanted to move in this direction they should have taken it a bit slower. I just think Lotus are trying to run before they can walk.

[Lord_Colin]

Governator said: Oh I agree, they are a business afterall and in it to get money but to try to go from selling £30k cars to £125k ones without building some sort of brand image, loyalty or racing pedigree etc just seems a leap to far for me. I think if they wanted to move in this direction they should have taken it a bit slower. I just think Lotus are trying to run before they can walk.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I'm sorry man, but before you talk about Lotus and for ex. about there racing history, go and get some facts!!
Lotus was dominating the F1 from from 1963 up to early 1980!
Lotus has won several F1 driver championships, has made 79 F1 winnings and several constructor championship titels. People like Senna, Mansell, Andretti and many more have been racing for Lotus.
Lotus is one of the very few carmanufacturers, that has won all major race -and race series around the world!

Lotus used to compete head to head, with Porsche and Ferrari, that chanched step by step, after the legendary founder Colin Chapman died.
If you take your time, to read about Colin Chapman, you will learn, that his influence to F1 racing was the biggest, one man ever had to this sport (technicaly speaking).

What Lotus is doing know, is nothing more than come back to were they belong and they will make it!
Just have a look at the new management team over there: Dany Bahar has gatered the best of the best of the industrie around him, to reach his ambitious targets. People like Donato Coco (former chief of design at Ferrari) or Wolf Zimmermann (former head of engines at AMG) and many more (total of 24 top shots of the car industrie) have followed Dany Bahar's call to come and work for Lotus. The reasons: Lotus has a great history, Lotus has a enourmos potential (do you know, that 15% of all cars in the world use Lotus developed part?) and the name Lotus is still as big as it always was, for the few that know the story behind the brand.

In the late 1960, the Elan was competeing at the track and the road against Ferrari and Porsche and scored many victories. In the early 1980, a Lotus Esprit Turbo was destroying a Ferrari 308 on the road.
And if you get todays facts straight, you will learn, that Lotus will sell cars, from around 35K up to 125K. So there ist NO jump from 25 to 125, there will still be cars for that kind of many, but there will be again cars for much more money, like it used to be, with the Esprit for example!

Edited by Lord_Colin on Sunday 4th September 18:18

[PiB]

Regarding price:

It's the top range Evora so of course it's going to be pricey. We don't need another mechanically identical Evora that is simply a "special edition." I've got to hand it to Lotus for *finally* producing a more intensely altered Evora.

At the moment we have the Elise 1.6 and used market for cheap Loti fun. For the future it's yet to be determined what the prices will end up being at the most affordable Lotus range.

While Lotus is known for amazing performance at a competitive price I think for the future we will see again new Lotus technology designs not seen elsewhere in the sports car market.

[Thorburn]

PiB said:

Regarding price:

It's the top range Evora so of course it's going to be pricey. We don't need another mechanically identical Evora that is simply a "special edition." I've got to hand it to Lotus for *finally* producing a more intensely altered Evora.

At the moment we have the Elise 1.6 and used market for cheap Loti fun. For the future it's yet to be determined what the prices will end up being at the most affordable Lotus range.

While Lotus is known for amazing performance at a competitive price I think for the future we will see again new Lotus technology designs not seen elsewhere in the sports car market.

I have to say, the Frankfurt products should help fill out the current range nicely.

The 1.8, supercharged Elise S will (ignoring brand confusion vs. old Elise models, it fits with the current Evora and S2 Exige branding) help offer a higher performance Elise, while the Exige V6 finally gives some strong differentiation between the Elise and Exige.

With Elise, Exige and Evora in both standard and S form (although not sure if the Exige will come sans supercharger?), plus a high-end Evora GTE, you have a nice sports car line up covering most the bases.

[Guvernator]

Lord_Colin said:

Historical Lotus stuff

Well judging by your name and your car ownership history you are obviously a fan of Lotus. I also like Lotus but am trying to look at their current strategy without having the fanboy blinkers on. I am well aware of Lotus's racing history and some of their car heritage but even in your post, the latest date mentioned is 1980, that was over 30 years ago, ancient history in motorsport and car terms I'm afraid.

Over the last couple of decades Lotus's brand image has been about providing engineering expertise to other manufacturers and the motorsport industry. In terms of actual cars that the general car buying public know about, it's been about the Elise and the Exige, i.e. reasonably priced lightweight performance cars. THIS is what 95% of people know of Lotus and it's what Lotus's road car image has been based on so you can't just step from selling Elise's and Exiges for the last 2 decades to all of a sudden trying to take on the likes of Ferrari and Porsche in terms of price, two car manufacturers who have dominated the premium sportscar\supercar segment for the last 20 years. What Lotus did 30 years ago is totally irrelevant to them attempting to sell a car for £125k today, especially since until 2 years ago, their average car price was closer to £30k. All IMO opinion of course, this new strategy might work out for them, I don't think it will but I guess we shall all wait and see.

Edited by Guvernator on Monday 5th September 14:18

[The Pits]

I'd be with Lord Colin on this one.

Heritage is heritage. It doesn't matter whether it's 30 years ago, no-one can take away what Lotus achieved.

Jaguar are haven't achieved much in racing recently but their success in the 50's and 60's is part of the brand too. Like Lotus is also gives them the right to tap into that heritage for future models should they wish. Whether anyone will care if Jag made a new E-type is up to the market to decide.

As for jumping up a league or two, why ever not? It's all about whether or not it is done successfully or not.

Ford did it successfully with the new GT. Tapped into 60's heritage, their right to do so. The GT40 was an incredible achievement, a long time ago yes (never mind 30 years ago, try 50!), but I'd argue Ford would be mad not to acknowledge and celebrate it, providing the manner of that honors the memory of original - not for anyone else's sake but Fords. To stick GT badges on a focus will devalue that heritage.

To produce a stunning top end modern supercar evoking the lines of the 60's original was an inspired move. I've been lucky to drive a Ford GT and they are brilliant. Lotus have just as much right, if not more, than Ford to both tap into their heritage and also to make any car they wish, at any price point, providing it's very, very good and it sells. There are no rules to abide by other than that.

Incidentally there is more than a rumour that Lotus had a hand in the Ford GT development, and it shows, the steering for one is astonishingly good, doubley so for an American car. So if Lotus have the nous and talent to make a car like the GT so good, why the heck shouldn't they have a go at one their own? It's simply a matter of resources.