The Death Of Chapman’s Lotus?
For many, many years Lotus has been limping along with the Elise, a light weight, two seat sports car that uses a Toyota engine. It is worshipped by sports car drivers and the motoring media as one of the best handling cars money can buy, but many have been put off by the cramped cabin, extremely low equipment levels and the total lack of any practicality.
They have tried to broaden the range with the Exige, a hardcore, coupe version of the Elise, along with the Europa, a more up market, lengthened car based on the Elise and the Evora, a 2+2 coupe powered by a Toyota V6. Notice a trend?The problem is simply that the Elise isn’t a versatile enough platform to base anything other than a hardcore two seater on, testified by the fact that the Europa was a flop.
Lotus has been owned by Proton since 1996 after being passed around for a few years. They have largely allowed Lotus to try and solve it’s own problems, but finally, after 15 years Lotus has never been in profit under Proton. So in 2009 when the then CEO retired, Proton appointed a Turkish born man named Dany Bahar, who’s CV includes being responsible for worldwide road car sales and after sales business, overall road car and F1 marketing activities, licensing, and merchandising business at Ferrari.
And then, at the Paris motorshow in October of 2010, he unveiled his plan for a new, fitter, more modern and, crucially, profitable Lotus. The power brokers inside Lotus admit they are taking a risk, 6 new models within 5 years, dumping the company ‘face’ from the current crop of cars, making a new, heavier more practical Elise, ditching everything the company currently uses.
Initially, I’ll admit, I was worried. Colin Chapman, one of Britain’s greatest engineers and widely seen as the Godfather of modern Formula One, began Lotus with a simple principle; “To add speed, simplify, then add lightness.” The Elise and Exige, have been the embodiment of this principle.
Bahar has had to endure plenty of criticism, that he is destroying Lotus’ soul, he is ruining Chapman’s legacy, that he doesn’t care about Lotus, but then you listen to what he has to say and look at what he’s doing.
He began by pilfering Mercedes and Ferrari engineers, including former AMG man Wolf Zimmerman, and bringing them to Hethel, not to replace the current crop of Lotus staff because Lotus Engineering is regarded as one of the best in the business, but to build a team of top talent. He has declared that he wants to turn Lotus into the British equivalent of Porsche, an attempt to show that a ‘narrow minded car company’ such as one who only produces sports cars, is a viable and profitable business model.
And so, in Paris he stood up and pulled the covers off of six, yes SIX brand new, from the ground up, cars. One is a city car designed in the same vein as the Aston Martin Cygnet; to ensure the company’s average CO₂ emissions are within EU quotas, the rest are full on sports cars.
So what do we have?
Well first thing first we will finally get a new Lotus Esprit. It is the first car to be released in Bahar’s rescue plan. It’ll arrive in 2013, ten years after the old Esprit was killed off.
Obviously Lotus haven’t revealed much about it but we do know that this gorgeous beast will be around £110,000 and, most interestingly, be powered by a Lotus designed and built V8.It was originally going to be powered by the Toyota V8 that is used in the Lexus IS-F, in supercharged form and developing 550 and 620 bhp. Bahar however revealed that potential customers were put of somewhat by a Toyota engine.
It is now that you begin to see that Bahar does indeed want Lotus to succeed. When the plan to build their own engine was announced Bahar stated: “We have done three engines for other manufacturers; why not do it ourselves? The engine is the heart of a sports car; we should do our own product.” Adding, “In the mind of sports-car enthusiasts, Toyota power might not be good enough”
The plan is dependant on the decision makers and whether this plan is financially viable. However, if Lotus are having to buy the Toyota engines, and then fit the supercharger before caring out the necessary tuning and refinement work, the cost of their own engine might not be an impossible stretch.
The Espirt is likely to weigh in at 1495 kg. While this is hardly keeping to Chapman’s policy of featherweight, the car is likely to be able to hit 62 mph in around 3.5 seconds, putting it comfortably in supercar territory. In comparison, the recently announced Zonda replacement will have over 700 bhp and reach 62 mph in 3.3 seconds.It’ll have a seven speed paddle shift gearbox, as well as a KERS system likely borrowed from Lotus’ involvement with F1 teams and that the three mid-engined cars will likely share the basic platform, suspension, brakes and electrics, according to Zimmerman.
Also in 2013, Lotus has decided to drag an old name from the dust bin; the Lotus Elan.
In keeping with Elan tradition, this new one uses a totally different drive system to the previous Elan’s.
The original 1962 Elan was a front engined, rear wheel drive two seat convertible. It was followed in the 90’s by the GM funded M100 Elan that featured a front engine, front wheel drive system, leaving it to be comfortably out classsed by the Mazda MX-5.
The third generation Elan will be mid-engined, rear wheel drive. However there’s more. While the first two were powered by four cylinder engines, the new Elan will use a V6 engine, although, like the Esprit, it was originally tipped for a 4.0 litre version of the 2.6 litre Toyota engine that currently powers the Evora.
As with the Esprit, you wouldn’t dare suggest that Lotus are holding back on the looks front.The Elan name has never really been at the fore-front of the Lotus brand, however possibley because of this, Lotus are using this car as it “Heart of the range” according to insiders as it will take the fight to both the Porsche 911 and Audi R8. Pricing is to be around £75,000, and the engine, whoever designs it, will be tuned to produce 400 and 470 bhp, which will probably be good enough to propel the 1295 kg Elan past 62 mph in 3.9 or 3.5 seconds.
The current R8 V10 needs a 518 bhp 5.2 V10 to get its 1600 kg to 62 mph in over 4 seconds, showing that Lotus, if it can get this level of performance, it not playing around any more.
On top of all this performance, Lotus is aiming for the top model of the Elan to emit only 200 g/km of CO₂ in keeping with the aim of making cars that are some of the cleanest in their respective classes.
As mentioned, this will likely share the base, suspension and brakes of the Esprit, obviously retuned/sized for the Elan.
It would seem that the Elan is where Lotus is putting most of it’s eggs. This car will go right into the heart of the premium Sports & GT car market, with the aim of undercutting, out performing and running cleaner than the cars it will compete with.
2014 will see Lotus chart brand new territory: the £100,000-plus 2+2 GT market, taking on Aston Martin for the first time. And it will do this using, possibly the most spectacular concept of the six; the new front-engined, rear wheel drive Lotus Elite.
Again, the Elite is a dead give-away of the fact Bahar is not playing around with this revival. This ambitious car will aim to be the first performance hybrid in this market by using a KERS system to suppliment the ‘charged’ V8 engine and electric motors.
I say ‘charged’ because Lotus admits they haven’t decided what forced induction system to use yet. Again, assuming Proton decides not to fund in-house engines, the Elite, a name not used since 1982 when the Type 83 Elite ended production, will use a 540 bhp and 610 bhp version of the Lexus 5.0 litre V8 engine, possible taking the LS600h which uses the set-up Lotus are wanting to give the Elite.
Lotus are squarely targeting the Aston Martin DB9 with this car. It will be slightly shorter than the DB9 but, at 1680 kg, will be substantially lighter then the Aston’s 1780 kg weight. With this lighter mass and vastly superior power, the DB9 making do with just 470 bhp for it’s 6.0 litre V12, the Elite will likely stomp the Aston to 62 mph, reaching it in just 3.7 for the 540 bhp model while the DB9 takes 4.8.
However, it is the emissions that Lotus are keen for us all to pay attention too. For that extra power and performance, the Elite is aiming for just 215 g/km CO₂ which will under cut the Aston’s 367 g/km by a massive 40%.
When he announced the Elite, Bahar was keen to point out that prior to 1996 when the Elise became the only car Lotus produced, the front-engined 2+2 configuration accounted for 20% of the company’s production throughout it’s history.
He also announced that as well as this coupe model, there would be a hard-top convertible model produced as well, although there was no word when that would join the line-up.
Interior wise Lotus plan to produce a bespoke control touch screen and insider freely admit they have to really ramp up the quality and craftsmanship for this car to be a success.
It would seem that Lotus are not only targeting Aston Martin, but blatantly copying them to as this 2015, four door car, the Lotus Eterne, which will use the underpinnings of the Elite and will be going straight for the Aston Martin Rapide, the four door Aston based on the DB9.
Obviously, the platform will be an extended version of the Elite, as well as slightly heavier, however the engine, KERS and electric motor set-up is set to be identical, although Lotus did give figures of 10 bhp boosts over the Elite, giving the Eterne 550 bhp and 620 bhp for the two versions planned.
Unlike the other new models, the Eterne is a brand new name, all the others are previous names revived for this brand revival, again Bahar to my mind is demonstrating a knowledge of Lotus by keeping with the naming traditions of all model names beginning with the letter ‘E’. It is only a small gesture but it is the same as all Audi ‘S’ models having four wheel drive, a deep rooted company tradition.The Eterne is likely to cost around £120,000.
In 2015, the Lotus Elise will finally join the Bahar revolution, but not before even it has gone through it’s own revolution.Firstly, it will adopt the new company face. A given really. However, having abandoned it’s traditional look, the Elise will abandon it’s current position as well. Firstly, the price-point will move considerably, rising to over £40,000 starting from it’s current £30,000.
Secondly, the current Elise’s 1.6 litre engine will be left for dust as the new car will get a 2.0 litre supercharged unit that Lotus plans to either build itself or source from somewhere other than Toyota.
Power will jump from the 138 bhp to 300 bhp base and 350 bhp, driving the rear wheels through a robotised manual gearbox and will come equipped with a stop-start system. Despite this, the Elise is aiming for a weight of just 1095 kg, a massive jump on the 876 kg of the 1.6 Elise but still very light weight for a 300 plus bhp car. The difficult bit for the 2015 Elise will be emissions, the ace of the current car, which emits an amazing 149 g/km CO₂.Unlike the current set-up of Elise and Exige, the new car will be available as a coupe or roadster, suggesting the Exige’s days are numbered. Also planned is a hardcore ‘R’ model, presumably the spiritual successor to the Exige.
Finally we arrive at the first none sports-car Lotus will be producing. Currently we know it only as the Lotus CityCar, it shows that Bahar has been copying the Aston’s answers again, this time it’s the Cygnet they are copying.
Although Lotus is currently looking into hybrid technology, apparently keen of flywheel-based systems, the CityCar would appear to be a sensible insurance policy just in case no system is suitable or viable.
So that’s the plan. Take everything Lotus currently makes, throw it all in the bin and start again.
Bahar has endured a huge amount of criticism from Lotus purists but the way he has gone about setting up this revolution, revealing all these models just a year after taking charge shows he obviously knows exactly what he thinks Lotus needs to do to turn it’s current inevitable slide into oblivion. I personally think that a Lotus that makes light cars rather than super-light cars to ensure it can survive is much better than letting yet another British marquee slide into decline to become nothing more than a foot-note in history.
I asked is this the death of Chapman’s Lotus? In way the answer is ‘Yes’. The current Elise, weighing a featherweight 879 kg and needing just 138 bhp will be gone, possibly for good. However, the company that Chapman founded will go on, it will still exist, still have dealerships and still make and sell cars, surely that is, ultimately, what we want.
In 2012, Lotus will celebrate 60 years since Colin Chapman first began working as Lotus Engineering in a set of old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey, North London, what better way to celebrate that than with the knowledge that the company has a plan to revive itself back from a niche company that’s nearly dead into a major player and that there is the financial backing to achieve this goal.
MD
