Thursday 28th March 2002

The Future

How much longer will Proton hold on?

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[Twin Turbo]

I just hope Proton don't do anything silly with Lotus. Selling it to Tom Walkinshaw sounds like a great idea to me, especially if it means Lotus getting involved in F1 again.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for them.

[adeewuff]

Well if TWR were involved in buying out Lotus then that would inspire alot more confidence for the future of Lotus. I would dearly love to see Lotus once again at the forefront of race driving technology instead of working on 'cost effective, enviromentally sound transport solutions'!

>> Edited by adeewuff on Thursday 28th March 11:18

[Tony Hall]

Tom W's current involvement with F1, Arrows & Phoenix would be a good way back in for Lotus. How about TVR buying it up & adding a small car to its range. Or a V8 Elise. Maybe not!

[smeagol]

"Or a V8 Elise. Maybe not! " They've built one The GT1 was V8 and looked absolutly georgous, I want one.

[JonRB]

Don't forget that Lotus Cars and the Lotus Formula 1 team because very separate entities a long time ago. Whilst I'd love to see Lotus back in F1, I'm sure that whoever owns the rights to the (sadly departed) Lotus F1 team might have something to say about the name "lotus" returning to F1.

[Jasbir]

Ford engines in a Lotus chassis...If there is any sense of justice, Lotus should be owned by an outfit like TWR. Lotus back in F1 racing can only be good for the sport and the company...

come on TWR, pull yer finger out !!!!

[AndyToone]

Whatever happens, I just hope the company can get some focus back. As the Elise became established, it looked like Lotus could grow into more than just a fading niche marque. Then... nothing. A fairly standard mid-lifespan revamp, the Esprit to die soon and the aborted M250. Of course there are reasons for all of these, but it's still a bit of a let down.

I hope Lotus Engineering can really start to show all that it is capable of - putting new technology into cars. But I can't say I'd be excited by a Lotus F1 team - it'd take years before they stood a chance of sucess on the track and years more before the F1 technology ended up in Lotus road cars. After all - it's nice watching them scream round in big circles, but it's more fun being able to do it yourself.

(Yeah, and I'm still annoyed about the M250)

[lotusbmw]

Many years and lots of money to become slightly successful. All the 'great' F1 Engineers work for the other teams and they won't go cheap.

[thom]

Why are you all wishing Lotus to come back to F1? Excuse me but at this state it might not prove better than Jaguar (who even have the cash!!!).
The situation is much different today than it was back in the late seventies...I'm sorry

Which doesn't mean I don't like Lotus. They have always built fantastic, avant-garde gems. IMO they should today have achieved the level of success of Porsche, were it not for "unappropriate" management.
They still have the knowledge and the abilities to build truly outstanding cars as have shown the Esprit and the Elise series and the consultant works.
Forget the formula 1 route; all that glitters is not gold...

[mickj]

for goodness sake.TWR would not be good for Lotus.If Proton do sell,Lotus need a better keeper than TWR.TWR has a lot of assets. Is TWR a public listed company ??

[mickj]

for goodness sake.TWR would not be good for Lotus.If Proton do sell,Lotus need a better keeper than TWR.TWR has a lot of assets. Is TWR a public listed company ??

[grahambell]

I think Tom Walkinshaw would do a good job running Lotus (irrespective of wether or not the name returns to F1) and it would be great to see Lotus as a British owned company again.

[scuffham]

TWR has a history of killing of companies like Lotus, if they can't buy them, they sabotage them.

If you can remeber back far enough, who was it that killed Lotus F1 in the first place?