Tuesday 9th December 2014

New Vehicle Dev Chief Engineer at Lotus

Matt Becker is off after 26 years in Norfolk, replaced by another Lotus stalwart

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More significant staff news for Lotus. There is nothing further on the company restructure, but it has now been confirmed that Matt Becker will be leaving his role as Chief Engineer of Vehicle Test and Development after more than a quarter of a century.

Becker has set a high standard to be continued

Becker's is a name inextricably linked with Lotus in recent years. Lord knows he's featured on PH enough, with Danny's Elise getting the seal of approval, an interview in Harris's Exige video and talking Dan around the Bond Esprit.

But worry not for the future of Lotus. Becker is being replaced by Dave Marler, who has been with Lotus for 17 years. Furthermore, Lotus has reassigned Gavan Kershaw 'additional responsibilities for dynamic attributes and evaluation'. Kershaw is currently Technical Manager for Lotus Motorsport and has also developed road cars including the original Exige and S2 Elise. Between them they have a huge amount of experience with Lotus cars and Lotus Engineering's wider OEM projects.

Of Dave Marler's appointment, Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales said: "His experience means that he is perfectly placed to lead Lotus Cars in ensuring that the process of objective development of Lotus cars is to time, to budget and to specification - and at the same time... making the Lotus driving experience is made even better." A tough ask then, but Marler sounds like the right person for the job and of course has Kershaw in support too.

Becker's future is unconfirmed at present. There are rumours of him joining Aston Martin but nothing official as yet. Once there's anything further to update we'l of course let you know. Don't forget in 2015 we've got the Elise Cup and Exige auto coming from Lotus as well. Plenty more Hethel news to follow!

[mrdemon]

" Exige auto"

woo hoo

just drop a nice engine into a Evora and bring one up for sale at £55k with 380BHp under the 220 Co2 limit at 1250kg.

I do wonder what all the guys in Lotus are doing behind their desks, making up SD Elise's with new paint jobs !!!
or now Exige V6 ltd ed paint jobs it seems.

[mrdemon]

kambites said:

"Just"?

I'd love to see a 1250kg Evora, but it ain't going to happen without a six figure price tag.

what's the weight of Audi's new MK3 TT again ?

I'll tell you 1230Kg

If Lotus cannot make a sub 1300kg Evora it's a bad show.

Even my Boxster is only 1275Kg

Not hard to make a light car esp a Lotus.

[mrdemon]

Yep that's me, fan boy wanna be's :-p

Btw my weights on e cars were FACTs not made up bull st, no wonder I left SELOC :-p

[mrdemon]

SidewaysSi said:

Here we go again. The Boxster isn't really as good to drive though is it?

A simple "yes" is all that's needed here.