RE: Lotus Evora 400

[MrTappets]

A tiny bit fussy on the styling, I think, but I'm certainly not going to slag it off for that. This is brilliant news and I very much hope it does what they need it to.

[IMIA]

wevster said:

IMIA said:

Mutton dressed up as lamb. Styling looked out of date in 2009. It looks prehistoric now.

A CEO with no vision or budget and deluded owners.

I'm sure it drives well but has never been the emotional/aspirational product the original late 70's Esprit was. Just goes from bad to worse.

I agree styling is subjective.

I think the CEO is doing the best job he can on a limited budget, he's certinly not living in a dream world like Bahar.

Well if he believed in the brand he'd get a private equity backer carry out an MBO and then start from scratch. They need to use carbon tubs from carbotech as Mclaren do and in their shoes I'd basically be selling reskinned Mclarens. Styling has never been McLarens forte and I actually liked some of Bahar's design concepts. That rehashed Evora is an insult to Colin Chapman IMO. Sorry but he did not do Halfords.

[DanielSan]

The styling looks a lot fussier than the old car. I'm not convinced it looks better, but the performance is more deserving of the Evora now. I'd like a go in one

[soad]

jamesaevans said:

I completely agree, looks over styled and too much like the new Honda NSX.
I think that it will date very quickly, but will probably sell well in China anyway.

They should have just gone with the engineering changes which sound great and made it look like the Evora GTE, which is a much better design in my opinion:

What about the "By Swizz Beatz" version? Remember that?

[BoRED S2upid]

Looks great but the clam that it will beat anything under £100k on a track is very bold. It's going to have to be very good indeed to do that.

[Impasse]

There's still a handful of Evora GT350s left to purchase should the 400 not be to your liking.

Youtube clicky

[LotusOmega375D]

IMIA said:

That rehashed Evora is an insult to Colin Chapman IMO. Sorry but he did not do Halfords.

Really, did you not notice the horizontal black slats over the engine cover of an Esprit Turbo or the Slot Mags fitted to the S1 Esprit?

They were staple items at Halfords in the 70s.

[V8A*ndy]

So Lotus have implemented cost savings and put the price up by a considerable margin.

Not something I'd be shouting from the roof tops to potential customers.

Lotus make utterly brilliant cars IMO but now I can't get past the price after reading those comments.

Yes I know it's all more than that but you can see where I'm going with this.

[unpc]

IMIA said:

Well if he believed in the brand he'd get a private equity backer carry out an MBO and then start from scratch. They need to use carbon tubs from carbotech as Mclaren do and in their shoes I'd basically be selling reskinned Mclarens. Styling has never been McLarens forte and I actually liked some of Bahar's design concepts. That rehashed Evora is an insult to Colin Chapman IMO. Sorry but he did not do Halfords.

Have you put forward your CV as you sound like great asset and this is an excellent plan. The only flaw in it is the fact that the Macca tub costs more than the entire Evora. Still I'm sure private equity backers would be queuing around the block to get in on this.

[indigoblue73]

[LotusOmega375D]

LotusOmega375D said:

The Lotus Cars website doesn't even have anything about this coupe on it yet! Surely they should have updated that at midnight when they issued the press release? It's not like they're launching a new model every week like Porsche & Co.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Wednesday 18th February 09:09

Seems like the website guy's finally clocked in now:

http://www.lotuscars.com/e400/

[RobM77]

LotusOmega375D said:

IMIA said:

That rehashed Evora is an insult to Colin Chapman IMO. Sorry but he did not do Halfords.

Really, did you not notice the horizontal black slats over the engine cover of an Esprit Turbo or the Slot Mags fitted to the S1 Esprit?

They were staple items at Halfords in the 70s.

You couldn't get the rear tail lights or door handles for the S1 Esprit from Halfords!

[Gorbyrev]

LotusOmega375D said:

IMIA said:

That rehashed Evora is an insult to Colin Chapman IMO. Sorry but he did not do Halfords.

Really, did you not notice the horizontal black slats over the engine cover of an Esprit Turbo or the Slot Mags fitted to the S1 Esprit?

They were staple items at Halfords in the 70s.

...or the spoiler on a Turbo Esprit (shout out "For Your Eyes Only), the plaid trim or the gold and silver decals on pretty much everything. The rationale behind not running with an adjustable front splitter sounds very Colin Champman to me. Building in lightness with modern regulations is a whole different ball game to Chapman's era, but finding engineering solutions to make a car handle and perform better with as little mass as possible continues the best of the Lotus tradition.

[Buzzfan]

Before all the anti-Lotus armchair wannabes jump in, and rub hands at prospect of demise, I wish Lotus luck, the world would be a duller place without them.

It's a cracking car, if you're in the market for a mini-Ferrari/Mclaren. Setting a higher price, building them to higher quality standards & offering sizzling performance is often a route to business success in many sectors. Aiming at the 911 buyer rather than a cayman/alfa buyer seems their new tactic.

I tried an early used one recently, loved all about it except the darker pill-box interior - a sad trend of most sports cars, hence my boring preference for an early 911, probably the only other 2+2 sports car on sale new today.

[king arthur]

V8A*ndy said:

So Lotus have implemented cost savings and put the price up by a considerable margin.

Not something I'd be shouting from the roof tops to potential customers.

Lotus make utterly brilliant cars IMO but now I can't get past the price after reading those comments.

Yes I know it's all more than that but you can see where I'm going with this.

Yes, into administration.

Lotus have improved the car so it commands a higher price, and also cut costs at the same time, in order to help them into profit. What else would you have them do, sell the cars at cost price?

[RobM77]

Buzzfan said:

Before all the anti-Lotus armchair wannabes jump in, and rub hands at prospect of demise, I wish Lotus luck, the world would be a duller place without them.

I think they've already done that (as least I hope that's all of them!). As far as I'm concerned, Lotus make better cars than anybody else, but that's just my requirements and my opinion!

[IMIA]

unpc said:

IMIA said:

Well if he believed in the brand he'd get a private equity backer carry out an MBO and then start from scratch. They need to use carbon tubs from carbotech as Mclaren do and in their shoes I'd basically be selling reskinned Mclarens. Styling has never been McLarens forte and I actually liked some of Bahar's design concepts. That rehashed Evora is an insult to Colin Chapman IMO. Sorry but he did not do Halfords.

Have you put forward your CV as you sound like great asset and this is an excellent plan. The only flaw in it is the fact that the Macca tub costs more than the entire Evora. Still I'm sure private equity backers would be queuing around the block to get in on this.

I've bought and sold a few large companies and actually contacted Malaysian owners who currently have no intention of selling Lotus. Also I would not need private equity backers. My plan was to take the brand further upmarket. I would not have been selling an Evora type product. And you have not got a clue how much the Macca tub costs. I've also been to Austria and know the owner of carbotech very well indeed.

[kbf1981]

Oddball RS said:

Fussy isn't it........................... I think it could have been better, more cohesive a little more dare I say GTE, the interior looks much better, BUT it really doesn't need to say 'Lotus' on top of the display............ not it doesn't remove it.

It's called brand building. Ever sat in a Lambo, Ferrari, Porsche etc? Lambo have badges all over the place in their interiors.

[kbf1981]

V8A*ndy said:

So Lotus have implemented cost savings and put the price up by a considerable margin.

Not something I'd be shouting from the roof tops to potential customers.

Lotus make utterly brilliant cars IMO but now I can't get past the price after reading those comments.

Yes I know it's all more than that but you can see where I'm going with this.

It costs Porsche £30-40k to make a 991 turbo from memory. A car that retails for £140k.

[unpc]

IMIA said:

I've bought and sold a few large companies and actually contacted Malaysian owners who currently have no intention of selling Lotus. Also I would not need private equity backers. My plan was to take the brand further upmarket. I would not have been selling an Evora type product. And you have not got a clue how much the Macca tub costs. I've also been to Austria and know the owner of carbotech very well indeed.

Ooh! get you.

I'd be wary of presuming that I don't have a clue . Taking the brand upmarket hasn't been tried for at least a couple of years. Worked out well for the last fella.