The Lotus rivalry gets more compex: Fernandes buys Caterham

[simonrockman]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 23 April 2011 at 23:48

[marshalla]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Aizletree]

^^^^

[Twincam16]

I find that strangely satisfying for some reason. Maybe it's because of the historic Lotus/Caterham 7 breakaway, but it'd be great to see the Caterham name on the F1 grid (as I take it this is his way of retaining a Lotus link while admitting that the black and gold cars at the front of the grid are closer to Lotus in spirit than his backmarkers), especially as the 7 was designed to provide F1-style thrills on the road.

It also paves the way for greater Renault involvement in Lotus. I've suggested it before, but RenaultSport engines would be great for the Elise given the clobbering they've taken downsizing to the Toyota 1.6. The Nissan link could mean 370Z V6s for the Evora and its Elan rebody/'replacement', and I can see the GTR's engine providing the Esprit, Elite and Eterne with instant Porsche-bothering performance straight out of the box.

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

Let's stick with the other threads above