My Love for Lotus

Kinda Lotus content: I like to watch track oooops and spins/saves/etc. This is my latest compilation. It was a rough few years for the Lotus.

 

evo car of the year did not get to test emira for 2nd year in row. last year they said they wanted to wait for the 4cyl and this year said, they didnt have enough 4 cyl in test fleet. imo, they just didnt want to risk getting shown up in the test

 

oh wow. throtle house just named emira car of the year! over gt3rs no less.

 

Great thread. I’m a Lotus fan, but I’m baffled by the new stuff, especially the Eletre SUV. The Elise/Exige were peak Lotus, IMHO. But I still like the Turbo Esprit from the ‘80d.


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Can’t wait to get this on track!

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The new stuff is an amped up Chinese electric car with a lotus badge on it. These cars are "heavy" and pretty much the polar opposite of northing lotus stood for.
There is the argument that Lotus was never that successful and the chinese are reinventing the brand for sucess.

I would say that if lotus is a brand of worth, thats becase it made superlative(if flawed cars) of a particular type, ie lightweight and smart/ It was a corner of the market lotus owned. For the "brand" to stay relevant it makes no sense to abandon that corner no matters where else they go,

poche still makes a 911 even though the Macan is the volume and profit. They also make a GT3 which is the modern essence of the type of car they always made, it keeps porches relevant and allows them the cred to sell all those essentially rebadged Audi SUVs.

I also get that electrics are arguably the future, although in the sports car arena not as quickly as some imagined.
We can see that renault has had very good success with the alpine a110, the exact type of car lotus used to make updated for adulates in the 21st century and is probably the car Lotus should have made instead of chasing fantasies' of porches with the evora and emira.

the elige platform was made under Ramano Artorioli in the 90s when he was resurrecting Bugatti too. Its brilliant and the result of vision, something Lotus has lacked since then. Thats also because management were MBA's/marketing types working to "save or build" the company and the true lotus peopel in the factory who had vison were shunted aside.

Meanwhile the good news is, at caterham the spiritual successor to lotus(and still home fo the 7) were seeing this

https://caterhamcars.com/en/models/projectv

Which is the type of car lotus sued to make, now in an electric. In a few years when soild state batteries exist it will probably also work great. The saving grace at caterham is they have a very wealthy Japanese owner with budget and vision. As an aside its really a pity Neither toyota nor honda bought lotus, the Japanese and their light, minimalist philosophy would have been excellent stewards for the brand. Just imagine the Civic type r powertrain in something that looks like the above caterham.

Whatever the chinese are now producing, the only thing lotus about it is the badge. Its not a surprise, I highly doubt there is gearhead culture in China yet, no one there really grew up with the cars or roads. Its just not part of their cultural DNA, at least not yet.

The good news is it looks like caterham, and Alpine are flying the flag.

Its a pity and would prob have been good for the brand to keep building some clever elemental sports cars in hethel. the Chiense are also beign smart, I imagine as with the boat business' its more profitable to make one expensive thing with a big margin than 10 less expensive things with smaller margins, however how to you calculate brand value built upon core product.

All is not lost however. Over at inokinetic in California, Shinoo will build you(off a used elige platform) and new elise with all the bugs ironed out and a fully balanced and honed motor, or one can send ones own else to him for the redo.

maybe one day lotus will relent and sell the elige program to someone like caterham, and we'll be seeing new eliges for decades to come.

I can easily see original cars going for 150k in the not too distant future, theyre really that good to drive, so much so that if youre not on the highway or a straight road, everything else, and I mean everything else just seems like a waste of time.

 

For the lotus fans. In a car/sedan I would urge you to try a new alfa gulia, its revelatory. They have the lotus attributes of actual well judged suspension compliance with great shocks to keep it under controls(as opposed to the german philosophy of cement block's for springs), plus a really responsive feelsome front end without being too nervous.

 

^^^
But it IS an Alfa…
Buy a CT4 Blackwing and sleep better at night.

 

had mine 4 years, only ever just changed the oil, wife has a stelvio 2.5 years same deal.
You get the joy of an italian car, the minimalist yet purposeful interior, a steering wheel that fits the hand beautifully, that lithe and accurate sharp steering, designed by Ferrari engineers who understood they were doing, with the reliability and useability of a Japanese car. IMO its simply the best useable daily road car for drivers created to date.

What sets it aprt is perhaos it was designed and built that way from the beginning. Unlike Cadillac's, BMWs Mercedes and pretty much every other, that started as a more pedestrian sedan and was then turned into a "performance car"

 

Salesman told me today that “the most powerful ICE Lotus ever” will be coming (plans or hopes and dreams or reality, no idea).

saw this gem, 2002, 25th anniversary, crema interior with yellow piping. 7K miles, just over $100K (don’t recall exactly)


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OH SHEEETTTT!!!!! That is amazing. Me want. Where is it for sale?

 

More powerful Emira perhaps

 

Motorcars of Atlanta

edit: they also have a “new” Evora GT. Not sure what they would ask for that- might be best deal on a Lotus out there?

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Time for some owner driving impressions.

 

Love my Esprit. It is the last car that I would sell.

 

Just did Tail of the Dragon with Merit Partners Mountain tour… amazing!

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Perfect car for the roads.

 

What is the Merit Partners Mountain Tour? I have been looking for a good rally in that area.

 

Merit Partners is a dealership in Atlanta. I’ve bought and sold many cars through Burt and Jonathan who run it and they are the best in the business.
https://www.meritpartners.com
This was their first year that they rolled out a weekend rally through epic roads, including the Tail of the Dragon. There were about 25-30 clients of theirs from all over the country. They let us test drive a bunch of their cars, all 911 variants - I test drove a 997 GT3 RS 4.0 (and nearly bought one…it’s that good!) and test drove an FGT (now want one of those too).
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In case anyone was wondering where the electric lotus comes from.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-polestar-4-starts-at-56300-and-no-you-cant-pay-extra-for-a-rear-window