Lotus is the car company that wants to be associated with everyone at the moment. 

Or should it be Lotus is the car company everyone wants to be associated with?

Either way, it’s great PR for the long-fledgling Norfolk brand, which suddenly has worldwide exposure it could never have imagined a year ago. If Lotus is eager for a bigger share of the limelight, it’s certainly getting its wish.

But given how every day seems to bring some sort of new Lotus linkup, it’s perhaps time for a recap: just what are the car firms whose name Lotus sits alongside today?

Well, here’s a list. Some are stronger than others, but all are focused on one thing – maximising the value of that world-famous Lotus roundel.

Colin Chapman would, I’m sure, be chuffed to bits.

Lotus

Lotus road cars is the focus of huge investment, activity and interest. Parent company Group Lotus wants to become a supercar rival to Ferrari and Porsche: after the clumsy way it launched these intentions at the Paris Motor Show 2010, it is now slowly winning acknowledgement that the plans could have merit – and COULD actually work.

Lotus-Renault

Renault, faced with falling market share, has pulled back on its F1 exposure in recent years. After selling a stake in the team to Genii Capital, Renault sold its remaining 25% stake to Group Lotus. The F1 cars are thus called ‘Lotus Renaults’.

Lotus-Caterham

Entrepreneur Tony Fernandes purchased the rights to use the ‘Lotus Racing’ name in 2009, successfully running the team in F1 last year. The team was renamed ‘Team Lotus’ for 2011. Group Lotus brought a court case against Fernandes this year, which culminated in the ruling that Fernandes can continue using the Team Lotus name. In the meantime, Fernandes also bought Caterham Cars. Team Lotus is now thus carrying ‘Caterham’ branding, just as the Renaults carry ‘Lotus’ branding.

Lotus-Proton

Proton owns Lotus, and has used its British sports car division’s name on several models in the past. ‘Engineered by Lotus’ has graced the back of models such as the Proton Satria GTI, after it commissioned Lotus Engineering to re-engineer the cooking budget hatchbacks.

Lotus-Youngman

Youngman, a Chinese bus manufacturer, entered passenger car production with a new brand, Europestar. These were rebadged Protons, which Lotus Engineering developed into Chinese-market models with a series of revisions. Youngman, drawn to the allure of the Lotus brand, has been increasingly associating itself with (and marketing itself as) Lotus, despite the link being with Lotus Engineering, not Group Lotus.

Lotus-Saab

Youngman-Lotus, in alliance with car distributor Pang Da, has secured a €245m equity stake in Saab and signed Memorandums of Understanding for further alliances subject to approval by authorities. Chinese interests in Saab are thus likely to grow, as further investments are made in the Swedish brand.

The Lotus name has links with yet more makers too: these are a bit more tech-specific but are still a rare public showcase of Lotus Engineering links with another manufacturer. Here’s a few examples:

Lotus-Tesla

The most well known recent Lotus collaboration: Lotus provides around 40% of the overall content of a Tesla Roadster, the world’s first electric sportscar. It doesn’t wear Lotus badges but even casual observers know the link.

Lotus-LTI

Lotus Engineering was part of a collaboration that’s developed a hydrogen fuel cell taxi, led by cash from the government Technology Strategy Board. Lotus designed the full propulsion system, including the fuel cell engine.

Lotus-Jaguar

The two worked together on the Limo-Green project that created a Jaguar XJ EREV. Lotus provided its 1.2-litre range-extender engine, created with funding from the TSB. This has three cylinders, 47hp, simple construction and weighs 56kg. It’s been designed specifically to drive an alternator, to generate electricity – and is thus better than the Chevrolet Volt’s car-derived 1.4-litre range-extender motor.

Quite a list. And these are just the public ones. Group Lotus’ consultancy division, Lotus Engineering works with many other car manufacturers besides, on below-the-line solutions to specific needs, most obviously in vehicle dynamics.

Lotus Engineering, for instance, is said to have worked on the latest Nissan GT-R, and also has long associations with GM/Vauxhall (the excellent Vauxhall Corsa VXR was Lotus Engineering-developed, and thus way better than the Vauxhall Corsa SRi it was derived from).

Frankly, Lotus is everywhere. It always has been – but the fact it’s so omnipresent hasn’t always been advertised so well. Finally, both the allure of and expertise behind the name are gaining recognition, which means lots are now keen for some of the Lotus limelight.

Not all these collaborations are perfect, but all of them DO have some genuine Lotus link in some way. Question is, which are the lasting Lotus links and which are the Lotus liabilities?

UPDATE

Lotus-Top Gear

Group Lotus Motorsport designed the original Top Gear test track, which stars in reasonably priced cars have competed with The Stig upon for years. Now, the link is being reinforced: Lotus is designing the new Top Gear Live test tracks. Well, the links don’t have to be literal car ones…

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LOTUS this week fired up an apoplectic rage of motoring journos exploring ingeniously creative alternative takes on the image of Colin Chapman spinning in his grave (I respectfully bowed out after I read Autoblog’s hybrid quip…).

Why? Because the firm has announced its intention to move upmarket.

Lotus will, in the future, be about challenging Ferrari and Porsche, in their exalted price brackets, rather than being the next obvious trade up from a Caterham.

And with this, many have assumed, comes a move away from everything the brand stands for. Lightweight, simple, light, affordable, only add lightness, don’t weigh much, all of these will be thrown out of the window, it is predicted, when Lotus starts instead selling Plutocratic Panamera rivals.

Me, though, I’m a dissenter. I reckon it’s just what Lotus should be doing. And, get this, feel Colin Chapman would agree.

Why? Well, why did he start making road cars in the first place? To finance the racing car team. And the more you can charge for those cars, the more money you have to go racing. Bingo.

OK, one of the first Lotus was the simplistic Seven. But this gradually moved over for higher-profit, more upmarket models, such as the Elite, the Eclat and, yes, the iconic Esprit. The period price lists reflected the trend, showed Chapman’s thinking.

So, why not the same approach today? After all, Lotus carries stonking brand currency. It’s back in F1, and doing a pretty good job to boot (as I write, a Lotus sits on the Valencia grid in 19th. Million-time World Champ Michael Schumacher, in the big-bucks Benz F1 team? 15th…).

It would be remiss of management not to trade on this value. Besides, who’s to say a move upmarket will distill the famed Lotusness? Isn’t there more opportunity for lightweight innovation and clever tech details with higher-margin cars – and wouldn’t Chapman have relished the opportunity?

Besides, it’s not even as if the aged Elise itself is all that cheap anymore. No, I’m all for it.

And if part of the move means Caterham can buy the production line for the Elise, and carry on the tradition with a sister to the Seven, then power to ‘em…

+ Do you agree with me?
+ Can Lotus pull off a move upmarket?
+ Just HOW cool would a Caterham Elise be?

FORD had an inspirational boss in Walter Hayes. The man who retired from the top job in 1989 rose to the top of the company through ‘exceptional vision and shrewd mind’.

Mark Hughes paid praise to him in Autocar. He explained how Hayes, more than anyone else, had masterminded a change in the public’s eyes of Ford. Fuddy-duddy to motorsport icon, performance master and, well, the exact opposite of the firm its name was once similarly joked about: British Leyland.

He was a former newspaper man, we learned. He used to work for the Daily Mail – and, when Ford decided it wanted a PR-led approach to rejuvenate itself, UK boss Sir Patrick Hennessy asked a pal of his who would be suited. That pal was Lord Beaverbrook…

Hayes subsequently jumped at the change, finding a firm, explains Hughes, packed with young talent. And one willing to listen to his public affairs ideas; after all, it was bred into the company.

Henry Ford, he explained, got it from an early age, and helped transform the company. And, what exactly is public affairs? ‘An all-encompassing external activity,’ one that covers much more than simple PR. It extends to long-term strategy, government relations, employee communications, motor sport, even the performance car strategy.

Hayes was the man behind the Cosworth DFV F1 engine. The Lotus Cortina. The Escort Mexico and RS2000. Formula Ford. Sierra Cosworth. You name all the fast Fords we idolise – and they were his doing. Surprising, for a man who admitted he didn’t like motorsport… maybe that’s why he admitted not to ever spending more than $1m a year on it?

It was because of Hayes that Colin Chapman became linked with Ford. Why? Because Chapman used to write a motoring column for him, while editing the Sunday Dispatch. Can you believe?! Proof that motoring journos do sometimes know stuff…

Former newspaper men do, too. ‘The Mini is a notorious example of a car which lost money through most of its life,’ said Hayes. So, how to approach Ford’s first-ever supermini, the Fiesta? Start in 1969 – seen years before it was launched. Spend four years taking every small car in the world to pieces, analysing every component. Then, massively research new manufacturing techniques. Result: the Fiesta made money ‘all the way through’.

He even predicted something back in 1989 that is now starting to occur – an ageing population Visionary thinker indeed: Hayes predicted that there will be a time where there is one retired person for every two in work – ‘with huge implications on car buying patterns’.

Once, the average couple had 2.2 kids and a Cortina, he said. By 1989, it was 1.7 children and an Escort. ‘This is why a changing market must be understood’.

‘If you have a good idea and the wit to sell it,’ reckoned Hayes, ‘you can do anything.’ This is what made him one of the most remarkable fellows in Ford history. Next time you hear mention of the Sir Walter Hayes Trophy, now you have a taster of why it, and he, are so highly esteemed.

Business acumen from Hayes? Includes:

•    The importance of good mainstream models: There are far more poor people than rich people

•    On harmonisation of legislation: ‘It does the baker a huge favour if regulations say that all cakes must have green icing and little red snowmen – he can get on with making nicer snowmen’.

•    On Fords internal jingle: ‘perceived customer value,’ for appeal to customers who ‘have an almost instinctive ability to recognise good value for money’.

•    On his approach to challenges: ‘I am an inveterate brain-picker; assimilating every idea that comes my way.’

•    On business methodology: ‘The secret of success in the motor industry is not what you do, but who you are smart enough to get to work for you.’

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‘LOTUS’ is a badge stuck onto the rump of many legends.

The Cortina. The Carlton. The Sunbeam. The Corsa VXR.

Well, on the last one, it wasn’t – but it should have been. That’s because much of Louts’ profit comes from Lotus Engineering. That’s the specialist consultancy division, which does work for loads of car makers, including sorting out their cars’ handling.

Back in 1987, it completed a textbook project for the Isuzu Piazza: could they, err, sort out the handling?

Yup, indeedy. Which earned the funny old Piazza a ‘Handling by Lotus’ badge for its rump. But just what did Lotus do, in the five months and 50,000 miles it worked on the car?

Well, typically for Lotus, the mods focused on black magic with the dampers. But there were subtleties elsewhere, too:

•    Softer front springs
•    More compression and less rebound for front dampers
•    Stiffer rear springs
•    Relocated rear dampers with equal-rate bump and rebound
•    1mm thinner front anti-roll bar
•    Altered caster and camber angles

The result of these delicacies? Well, according to some bizarre test within Isuzu, handling was up by 21 percent, and ride by 15 percent.

Nuts. I prefer the road tester assessment; it was ‘now much more like it’…

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I was in love with the 1990s Lotus Elan as a kid.

Loved the shape, had the Lotus Turbo Challenge computer game for my Amiga, basically lived the dream as a 12 year old. Dreamed about it all the waking hours of my life. As Thorns School & Community College would attest.

So why didn’t others like the Lotus Elan?

It wasn’t through lack of power. 165bhp and 148lb/ft stack up today, when you consider a scant 1020kg kerbweight; the far heavier Corsa VXR can only add 24bhp from its more modern 1.6-litre turbo.

Autocar, at the time, reckoned it was effervescent and had lots of mid-range oomph, although the throttle response was soft. Old-school turbos, that. It was boomy, too.

The ride, long a Lotus beauty, was so good at soaking up bumps, it made rivals ‘look amateurish’, reckoned our writer. Superior damping control gave the driver near-total immunity over poor roads.

So what was the problem?

Controls and dynamics (oh, only the controls and the dynamics…). Sure, there were no 101 #fails here; it’s just that ‘the simple acts of steering and gearchanging, which play such a vital role in the pleasurable aspects of driving’, were not up to scratch.

Here’s why:

•    Gearchange – too-long in throw, vague and rubbery action
•    Steering – saddled with torque steer, which degenerated feel and corrupted feedback
•    Handling – phenomenal grip, but no delicacy or throttle-adjustability
•    Overall enjoyment – too remote, too frustrating; fast motoring wasn’t a challenge, but also didn’t reward

Still didn’t bother our man. Unlike the vast majority, his vote still went to the Elan, ‘because it sets a higher over standard in small sports cars that few of us believed possible’. Heavens. Praise, despite the above?

Indeed: ‘If,’ he continued, ‘the Lotus Elan loses some of the fun element, then that can only be put down to the price of progress.

‘In this case, it’s a price worth paying.’

Bold stuff. Even now, I’d probably agree. Alas, the rest of the world STILL doesn’t. The Lotus died, was rejuvenated, died again, and was recreated as a half-heated Kia. Seems Lotus fans really did wish bad stuff on their worst enemy.

But there’s a lot of significance in the failure of the Elan, I reckon. So, more on this to come…

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LIVE in Norwich? Stuck for something to do over Easter? Got a car that’s spizzy through the corners?

Then get yourself over to one of Lotus’ own test routes, and enjoy some of the best roads in the district.

I did this, a few years back, on the Elise S launch. That’s the one with the old Corolla 1.8-litre engine, by the way – proving that 134bhp is just enough. It’s a sublime car.

The routes were as good, though. Google Maps will give you an idea, but a brief overview from the company’s Wymondham base will see you heading…

• North on the A47
• North on the B1145, just past Honingham
• Swinging onto the B1354 at Aylsam
• Peeling off onto the B1149 at Saxthorpe
• Threading through Little Thornage, then sniffing out the B1156

That gets you to Burnham. It got me to a hotel just outside Burnham. And, back to the factory the next day? Well, we headed…

• South on the B1355
• South on the B1146
• Just past Dereham, south on the B1135

Top stuff, and not a motorway in sight. Hark! What’s that ticking noise? Probably Lotus’ red Elise S test car, still cooling down.

Yes, you could say I enjoyed it.

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