Lotus at the Goodwood Festival of Speed

Lotus at the Goodwood Festival of Speed

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Thorburn

Original Poster:

2,406 posts

199 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
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So what did people think of Lotus's showing at this years Goodwood Festival of Speed?

Was there yesterday and thought they had a nice selection of cars in their main booth, the Exige S Roadster surprised me as the Premium Pack interior was actually pretty nice. They'd ditched the funky steering wheel which was on the show car a few months back which looked a bit odd but overall it was much plusher than your average Exige.

Turn out of classic and modern race cars in the main paddock was impressive too, Classic Team Lotus were outstanding as always and there was a huge number of old F1 cars both on display and driving up the hill.

Even the sculpture outside the house was a resounding success - something you could wander round and be impressed by from almost any angle.

Only real disappointment was the promised surprises were somewhat missing - no new Evora models, nor a look at the new Esprit. Seems DRB-Hicom only wanted to focus on current production models on that front.

For those that missed it I've uploaded a big gallery here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.385307604...
And video of the Lotus cars heading up the hillclimb course here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUXIkFUmCfI

Hedgerley

620 posts

274 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
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Was there Thursday and Saturday. Considering Lotus' recent travails they put on an excellent show. According to guys upstairs on the stand the only major change from the original proposals was a focus on what can be sold now and Lotus Engineering, which is no bad thing.

One thing I would say, having spoken to the new Esprit Programme Manager and the senior sales guys over coffee and muffins upstairs, as well as Donato Coco, Head of Design, is a sense of optimism about the future, despite the potential upheaval of their future plans following the DRB review.

s111dpc

1,397 posts

235 months

Monday 2nd July 2012
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Was there on Friday and was also impressed by the Lotus stand and other cars in the paddock as well as a smattering of Evora's etc on other stands around the event.

Was also pleased to be able to take advantage of some Lotus hospitality courtesy of Jamie from B&C which enabled us to shelter from the rain!

Overall I thought the day, and Lotus' presence, was a big success and can't be doing any harm for their brand / image.

EnjyBenjy

924 posts

259 months

Monday 2nd July 2012
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Was surprised not to see anything Esprit-esque this year...

bobo

1,708 posts

284 months

Monday 2nd July 2012
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I thought it was great . Too big by far as there were only 3 tangible products 2 of which are dated. You could see DB was planning to fill the space with his 5 year plan models

Telling that none of them were there which was a shame

Things I learnt

The spiders interior was excellent and should be a cost option for revenue
The exige looks better in metalics
Full leather is better than the half alcantara
The exige brake upgrade is a floating disk and is basically pointless but looks nice
Chrome orange is too bling for London living
The green exige had a slightly louder hybrid exhaust -apparently
The exige looks better w/o the wing as expected and as all cars of this ilk do!

All subjective I know


And the tornado's rocked it!

Edited by bobo on Monday 2nd July 18:09

Thorburn

Original Poster:

2,406 posts

199 months

Tuesday 10th July 2012
quotequote all
bobo said:
The exige brake upgrade is a floating disk and is basically pointless but looks nice
So just a change of disc, same callipers as standard?