A little grey Lotus has been causing a bit of noise lately, its owner Frank Profera – AKA ‘Ronin’ – not shy of defending his car’s honour. As PH found out, unwittingly, when we rashly summed up
the tuner hall at the LA show
as “the land that taste forgot.” With said Lotus in the foreground of the photo.
Frank: "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" etc
Big mistake, Frank alerting us to this in no uncertain terms in the comment thread below.
To be fair much of what lurks in the basement at the LA show is, to UK eyes, over-wheeled, over-blinged tat. And it was a throwaway comment and a mere coincidence that the shot selected to illustrate it had the Exige in the foreground.
And, as Chris Harris’s Stateside colleagues on the Drive channel recently highlighted, Ronin’s Lotus is something a bit different. You can watch the full video below but, suffice to say, Frank is a car nut with more than average drive and passion. And we got it wrong.
So the news his car has been involved in an accident on the Freeway – as reported on Jalopnik and discussed, in typically robust fashion, in both the YouTube comments beneath the Drive video and on Frank’s website - will sadden anyone who’s been following the story.
Pic of the damage from Frank's website
We’ve had just a taste of Frank’s, ah, strength of feeling when it comes to his Lotus. That from a slightly sarcastic comment. Suffice to say, we wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the Porsche owner that apparently drove into him, should the two ever meet.