Lotus Elise was in 1996 and since then it has serious note, not much happened in the Lotus, with the exception of 2:02 a.m. Evora. But then about a year now, the Malaysian Proton, which owns Lotus, ignited by the combustion chamber – with a vengeance!
For more than a year ago, the offensive by Lotus employee Ferrari’s chief designer Donato Cocco and Ferrari head Luca Cordero di Montezemolo right-hand man Danny Bahar. In addition, got a bunch of executives from Aston Martin and Mercedes AMG offers they could not refuse (for economic reasons, it is believed). The nine new executives own 20 percent of the company, the remaining 80 are owned by Proton.
The initiative goes straight to the Ferrari and Porsche country, with a full “lineup” of fine sports cars. Forget the old Lotus with extremely geeky trackdaybilar – now it’s more comfortable, stronger, more expensive and better-looking cars that apply.
Within five years, the five new cars.
2013: Lotus Elan V6 with 420 hp.
2012: Lotus Esprit V8 at 620 hp.
2015, a new Elise with four-cylinder engine and 320 hp (these three cars have the engines behind the driver’s back and is therefore strictly two-seater).
2014: Elite V8, 620 hp. With a small rear seat.
2015: Eterna, four-door sedan with a V8 at 620 hp and a larger rear seat.
According to Andreas Maenner who is PR manager for Lotus in Europe (and stand for facts in this text), the Lotus offering KERS (electric power for improved performance) for all models. It will mean an additional 70 hp of the V8 models and 50-60 hp in the V6 cars.
Lotus is investing therefore hard to offer cars that can be used every day, with high comfort and more luxurious than before (new Elise will weigh approximately 1050 kg). But they will still be the best in its class with more energy efficient. Chassis technology is further developed from the Elise’s aluminum construction and there are a lot of carbon fiber bodies.
For this show Lotus also entered a “City Concept” that will attract other manufacturers to buy engineering help from Lotus, where they must solve their problems by building a smart, efficient citybil. I myself would not have much to having an elite, new Elise and / or City Concept.
It must be recognized that it becomes confusing and overwhelming to try to digest the impressions from the five all-new Lotus models at once. Not at all easy to know which car is which. The design is much better than today’s Evora that tastes too much kitcar for my taste. The front lights remind me of the Lamborghini, but the bodies will have more curves.
I am unfortunately a bit too excited to see clearly, but if I try to collect myself among everyone from gama F1 fan helmets, cult films from the Lotus-old F1 era in the gorgeous booth – which soaked the historical stuff and merchandise – I think I can say that the new generation of Lotus Cars is nice.
With the mass effect that comes from this total investment will be the cars a bit anonymous, as an archetype of the “modern sports car”, but for me it is enough very far with the Lotus brand in front and rear, really nice rims with Lotus Brands and lines that are both sharp and soft. And knowing that the cars are like lotus-light as before. Yum.
I like Lotus can, of course, largely blamed on Ronnie Peterson, with the fact that Lotus never gone to large powerful motors to give good performance has given the label entitled “underdog” feeling.
What will happen now with luxurious leather interiors and V8 machines? No greater danger. Lotus is still far from sports cars überglidarmärke, and I hope that the cars are still focused on driving feel.
Did you know also that the Lotus F1 team only has the name in common with the Lotus factory? A bit boring, but I would wager that Lotus will not allow F1 cars of the same name thrashing around in the back of the line-up once the new cars rolling out of dealerships. Who takes care of the rest Lotus agency in Sweden?
Besides the sports cars set Lotus also his “City Car Concept”. It shows what the company can achieve and even if the model is probably not mass-produced by Lotus in the future, the technology can turn up and another car.
“City Car Concept” has the same range extenders that we saw Concept Evora 414E Hybrid, that is, a 1.2-liter three-cylinder internal combustion engine. This is the total range close to 50 mil, the only electric power can run 6 mil. With 72 horses, the small hybrid decently witty, 0-100 km / h attendees of 9.0 seconds.
