RE: PH Blog: "If you see SID..."
Friday 7th September 2012
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 dismissalWhether 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.
SID's technology was ground breakingSID - 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?
Search results for 'new' Esprit on Lotus siteSometimes 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.
PH Blog: "If you see SID..."
The 'Bahar car' isn't the only interesting old Esprit still at Lotus...
Bahar wants £6.7m for unfair dismissal
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
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
And now he wants £6.7 million.
Chris
Discussion
I recall reading about SID at the time along with other Lotus tech that still eludes us - active noise suppression, anyone?
There must be something in that kind of technology that puts makers and buyers off - think Xantia Active - as manufacturers who surely could and would (Porsche springs to mind) have obviously assessed and dismissed the technology.
Would love to have a go in it though.
There must be something in that kind of technology that puts makers and buyers off - think Xantia Active - as manufacturers who surely could and would (Porsche springs to mind) have obviously assessed and dismissed the technology.
Would love to have a go in it though.
Small Car said:
I recall pictures of various Vanqui
You sound like a certain Mr A Partridge who happened to get given his second series.... Vanqui... Good call.The original...
Michael: Nice Lexus.
Dan: Yes. I love Lexi.
Alan: Yeah, I always have a thing I say about Lexus, it's like the…
Alan and Dan: Japanese Mercedes.
Edited by cris9964 on Friday 7th September 16:20
RichTBiscuit said:
To be fair to Bahar, If he was sacked unfairly (which is probably was, as the new management realized what a mess he'd made) then he should receive the 6m he's entitled to. No matter how well you think someone has done (or not) - a contract should be binding.
Unless he's already broken the terms, or commited some kind of gross misconduct such as, for example, misappropriation of company funds.....RichTBiscuit said:
To be fair to Bahar, If he was sacked unfairly (which is probably was, as the new management realized what a mess he'd made) then he should receive the 6m he's entitled to. No matter how well you think someone has done (or not) - a contract should be binding.
ThisAnd I still don't understand why ppl hate him,I liked the new line up incl the esprit
I miss Bahar - at least he had vision and the balls to have a go at making it happen. Jobs got it wrong with NeXT computer after the success of the Apple II, and then went back to make Apple what it was. Maybe Bahar will move on to something in a few years a make a huge success of that. In terms of marketing, Bahar did a lot right as well as the lot wrong that everyone currently focusses on. There's two sides to every story and I wonder what the truth is about Lotus.
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