TEAM Lotus Road Cars?
Discussion
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/team-lot...
Seems Tony Fernandes is so keen on the Lotus brand that he might enter the road car arena, producing the low cost high performance sports cars that lotus are known for but now leaving to persue higher end supercars.
I like tony alot, and i like the way he follows lotuses core principles and has alot of respect for the history and Colin Chapman, but this idea sounds like a potential minefield of legal issues. In my opinion the guy is so likeable and succesful he should rename the F1 team something new and original, and start his own brand of British/Malaysian sports cars (perhaps the 'Lion' name suggested in the above link), rather than have to fight Lotus over rights and trademarks.
Still, nice to know someone is thinking about filling the Elise void that Lotus are leaving behind, while im not sure on the name and issues that go with it, i like the F1 team and would love to see a new elise type car on the market.
Seems Tony Fernandes is so keen on the Lotus brand that he might enter the road car arena, producing the low cost high performance sports cars that lotus are known for but now leaving to persue higher end supercars.
I like tony alot, and i like the way he follows lotuses core principles and has alot of respect for the history and Colin Chapman, but this idea sounds like a potential minefield of legal issues. In my opinion the guy is so likeable and succesful he should rename the F1 team something new and original, and start his own brand of British/Malaysian sports cars (perhaps the 'Lion' name suggested in the above link), rather than have to fight Lotus over rights and trademarks.
Still, nice to know someone is thinking about filling the Elise void that Lotus are leaving behind, while im not sure on the name and issues that go with it, i like the F1 team and would love to see a new elise type car on the market.
Edited by Forbes82 on Monday 13th December 11:09
It seems a bit optimistic to have planned to buy Lotus out from under Proton. Whilst it's underperformed lately, as a group it continues to do solid business and the owners have vast reserves of cash (as demonstrated by the current plan for the marque).
Going it alone is interesting, but a hell of a challenge. Good luck to him, and good luck to Group Lotus though - I hope there's a place in the market for both to work.
Right now, with legislation getting ever stricter and major manufacturers looking to some pretty complex technology to meet required emissions and safety standards, I wouldn't want to be starting a 'new' road car group - there's a pretty big opportunity to back the wrong horse over the next couple of years. I guess that means there's also an opportunity to make the right gamble, but to do that _and_ produce low cost, innovative sports cars would be nothing short of miraculous.
So far we've not heard anything from Caterham, Westfield, Dax et. al in terms of filling the low end niche vacated by the Elise. Either they're still getting their plans together, or they see that market as untenable. I'm inclined towards the latter.
Going it alone is interesting, but a hell of a challenge. Good luck to him, and good luck to Group Lotus though - I hope there's a place in the market for both to work.
Right now, with legislation getting ever stricter and major manufacturers looking to some pretty complex technology to meet required emissions and safety standards, I wouldn't want to be starting a 'new' road car group - there's a pretty big opportunity to back the wrong horse over the next couple of years. I guess that means there's also an opportunity to make the right gamble, but to do that _and_ produce low cost, innovative sports cars would be nothing short of miraculous.
So far we've not heard anything from Caterham, Westfield, Dax et. al in terms of filling the low end niche vacated by the Elise. Either they're still getting their plans together, or they see that market as untenable. I'm inclined towards the latter.
Sounds like a good paln to me! Lotus under Danny Bahar are reported to be spending £800 million on five new models to rival Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche, plus a big wedge on sponsoring the "new Lotus" F1 (Renault) team. All Tony needs to do is wait until Lotus go belly up (again) and buy them out for 10p 
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