The 'Bahar car' isn't the only interesting old Esprit still at Lotus...
It would appear that leaving Lotus facing a future perilous even by the standards of its own roller coaster history isn't enough for
D Bahar Esq. He now requires compensation for what he perceives as the premature end to his stint at Hethel, and is now using the courts to pursue a £6.7 million claim.
Bahar wants £6.7m for unfair dismissal
Whether he gets what he wants is of course a matter for the them. Many of us can think of reasons why Mr Bahar shouldn't receive his payout but I would like to present evidence of an emotional nature. It's called SID.
Do you remember SID?
I do. It - or to acknowledge the anthropomorphic acronym - he, was one of the most famous cars from my early life. SID was the heavily modified Lotus Esprit test car from the early 1990s: a rolling test bed for technology that should have made it to market in the mid-1990s, but which never reached production.
SID's technology was ground breaking
SID - that's, Structures, Isolation and Dynamics - generated stories that had me completely transfixed. It was a four-wheel drive, four-wheel steer supercar with fully active suspension that left
contemporary commentators completely befuddled by its abilities to absorb bumps, but at the same time remain accurate, agile and without roll. It remains possibly the most advanced, and therefore the most significant, road car Lotus has ever produced. So where is this integral part of the company history?
Behind a shed in the pissing rain, that's where.
I spotted it earlier in the year when we shot the Exige V6 video, pushed up against a fence - looking about as sorry and dejected as a car could. Would Porsche leave a development 959 by the gent's bog at Weissach? Does Ferrari litter the place with its historical artifacts?
Search results for 'new' Esprit on Lotus site
Sometimes in the cacophony of press uproar and internet indignation you kind find real meaning in simple images and metaphors. Seeing SID like that just made the company, as it was then back in March, look completely doomed. Any management team that cared so little about its past achievements - was so ignorant of the importance of heritage in a sector dominated by the subject - didn't stand a chance. It's just incredible so much of the world's specialist motoring media seemed swept away by his hubris - they now look nearly as ridiculous.
And now he wants £6.7 million.
Chris
