what do rivals think of lotus?

[garyesprit]

anyone know what companies like ferrari, lamboghini and porsche thinks of lotus? a real threat or do they not care...?

[hedgerley]

You should check out Jabby Crombac's book on Colin Chapman - the foreward was written by Enzo Ferrari himself. I think that speaks volumes about the respect Ferrari had, for the man at least. Of course that was on the back of Lotus's heyday in F1 when Lotus was right up there with Ferrari and beating them most of the time! Things might be different today - I doubt if Luca de Montezelamo (sp?) would do the same thing.

[72twink]

I was over at the Ferrari F1 team for a tour last year - we were all in Lotus (Sunbeam Lotus to be precise) Polo shirts, everyone checked out the badge and carried on with their business, no pointing, no laughing - quite the opposite to what I'd expected. Our guide was telling us how he'd had Team Lotus and Sunbeam Lotus posters on his wall as a lad (and he was from Canada originally) and even Nigel Stepney did a double take, stopped, and then asked after one of his ex Team Lotus colleagues (an SL owner and club member).

[minimax]

hedgerley said:

You should check out Jabby Crombac's book on Colin Chapman - the foreward was written by Enzo Ferrari himself.

have a look also at Eric Dymocks' book on Jim Clark, I have a copy if you want to read it..it's full of the history of Lotus and how they came to be well regarded - as well as info on a Mr. J. Clark too of course!