Wild Ass Rumor Of The Day: Lutz To Lotus?
June 28th, 2010 4:10 PM
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Our aim is to raise the Lotus brand equity back to its rightful place as it existed in the 1970s when it competed with the likes of Ferrari, Porsche or Aston Martin. Maintaining the unique Lotus DNA is crucial, but with more relevance, greater efficiency and even more sustainability than we have had in the past.
Lotus’s owner, the Malaysian automaker Proton, is getting tired of steady losses, and is giving the legendary British marque five years to become competitive with the top-rung of European sportscar houses. That means more volume (from 2,500 to 8k annual units in five years), more marketing and (almost certainly) less of the stripped-down enthusiast utilitarianism that keeps the brand so beloved by hardcore handling fans. Oh yes, and Lotus is reportedly getting one more thing that every brand overhaul needs: a little Maximum Bob Lutz.
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Hey! Maybe Bob will answer his own CTS-V challenge!
If I remember correctly,the Elan was as much as a corvette when introduced.and terribly fragile. Kudos to those that want the Lotus of old ..or new, to survive but when I see the price on a new one??? In my opinion Lotus needs to do a reality check!REALLY how many drivers are going to part with that amount of cash?I`m surprised they are still alive at all. Either make a $100,000.00 sports car or make a $25000.00 sports car... They cant make it with a $25000.00 car that sells for fifty...unless they have the funds...which they DONT!
Are Proton on really losing money owning Lotus? My understanding was that Lotus was very successful at production engineering and chassis tuning for other car companies such as GM, and that this more than made up for any losses from building Elises etc.
Maybe MaxBob will bring the tooling for the Saturn/Opel Sky with him!