What are new Lotus cars made of ?

[clemo]

I was thinking about this the other day .

Are they actually a full blown manufacturer ?

Are the engines in house or still toyota camry things?

Are the cars still parts bin ?

Will they ever expand the range of sportscars ?

And finally an SUV 4x4 .... is this against the ethos of lotus or is it forward thinking ?

So may questions

Your opinion ...

[muley]

Unfortunately 4 x 4 'tanks' are what the public want and have done for some time.

Yes, beats me, too - but there you go.

I think Lotus have missed a trick - they could rebadge any old Jap tank (saying they've tweaked the suspension and fitted a flux capacitor) and sell by the thousand and use the profit to fund the real motors.

Stands by for a flaming..


Jim

[Steve A]

Stands by for a flaming..

I wouldn't dream of it Jim

Having worked for a large automotive giant in several departments and seeing the Lotus factory in action (all be it at the 60th anniversary)
I don't think it has the money for such investments like "it's own" engine development, far cheaper to tweak a bought in unit.
In fact even the big boys share components to save on development costs.
The Lotus factory was basically an "assembly plant", what was actually "made" at the factory ?

[lotusrepair]

I would like to see the City Car get made. We got to sit in the prototype at it had some good features.

[abmunro]

Sure this was done with the Izuzu Piazza turbo ( think badge said 'Handling by Lotus' )

Unfortunately 4 x 4 'tanks' are what the public want and have done for some time.

Yes, beats me, too - but there you go.

I think Lotus have missed a trick - they could rebadge any old Jap tank (saying they've tweaked the suspension and fitted a flux capacitor) and sell by the thousand and use the profit to fund the real motors.

Stands by for a flaming..


Jim

[clemo]

And also the isuzu trooper "Handling by Lotus "

Sure this was done with the Izuzu Piazza turbo ( think badge said 'Handling by Lotus' )

Unfortunately 4 x 4 'tanks' are what the public want and have done for some time.

Yes, beats me, too - but there you go.

I think Lotus have missed a trick - they could rebadge any old Jap tank (saying they've tweaked the suspension and fitted a flux capacitor) and sell by the thousand and use the profit to fund the real motors.

Stands by for a flaming..


Jim

[Dave Eds]

To put some answers to Clemo's original questions

Engines are Camry with additional tuning for performance gain

Bodies are still glassfibre with plastic and/or carbon fibre

Elsewhere lots of bits of leather, plastic, metal, rubber, glass, etc.

SUV been talked about for years and could be closer now Geely have bought in. Sports car range currently gets multiple facelifts and revamps but will there be a whole new model soon? - we can live in hope as we have for nearly ten years since the Evora came off the drawing board. At least we had MJK on the case, then along came Dany Ba-ha-ha-har with his never to be made range, JMG to steady the ship and now with Geely too there is eternal hope.