Team Lotus Buys Caterham
Prepare for corporate confusion as Tony Fernandes's outfit gets hold of Caterham Cars
"The acquisition of Caterham Cars by Team Lotus Enterprise will not only signal the continued development of the legendary Seven," (says the press release from Team Lotus), "but will provide Caterham with the platform to apply its philosophy of 'adding lightness'" (we recognise that phrase from a certain Hethel-based sports car maker, too) "to exciting new models for the 21st Century."
But the change in ownership doens't mean a change of management - Caterham will still be headed up by the company's existing management team, topped by Caterham Cars Managing Director, Ansar Ali.
"Ansar's direction has been responsible for energising Caterham's export prowess during the last five years, creating the iconic Superlight R500 - Top Gear's Car of the Year for 2008 - and Caterham's first brand new model in 15 years, the stunning SP/300.R sports prototype racer," says the statement from Team Lotus.
"Caterham Cars has remained wholly faithful to Colin Chapman's philosophy of 'less is more', and the DNA of the original Seven can still be traced to the newest additions to Caterham's product offering."
The first fruit of the new partnership between Caterham and Team Lotus will be a limited run of Team Lotus Special editions (pictured).
These can be applied to any Seven model and, for an additional £3k over the base model, the Sevens will be specially liveried in the famous green and yellow colours of Lotus and will come with a raft of bespoke Team Lotus additions.
Included in the upgrade package will be an invitation to a customised tour of the Team Lotus F1 factory in Hingham, Norfolk.
To me there seems little point in this move. The whole dispute is about the "Lotus" name and Caterham have no rights to that at all. Just the ability to build cars to a 50-year old design...
The video says the move is aimed at generating a commercial arm for Team Lotus. Ok, I can go with that, but there is no way Caterham makes enough money to support an F1 team.
Caterham have long held ambitions for another car, they have yet to make enough money to develop that, how do they plan on keeping an F1 team afloat?
What happens if the F1 team fails? Doe they drag Caterham down with them? I'm not saying they are going to, but F1 is hardly a stable long term business.
What are Lotus going to say about this? Does Tony F know he is about to lose the court case and is lining himself up with another name ready?
If he is going to lose the courst case, then that must surely mean that David Hunt was telling the truth and Tony F did renegade on the deal, and if that is the case how the hell can anybody believe / trust what he is saying about this deal?
Whilst it is good news that Caterham are no longer owned by a Venture Capitalist (IMO), I'm not sure that this offers a much more stable future.
Getting pretty pissed off with this now. I have no problem with the company itself and Tony Fernandes, but please please stop with the brand confusion.
further investigation shows its a Team Lotus badge...
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