Impact on Elans if Lotus Cars were to go under

[richardcox_lotus]

Hi all, been pondering this. In October Lotus Cars registered sales of 2. In November it was.....1.

Now I would be the 1st to agree that current Lotus offerings are a world away from our Elans. But, if Lotus were to cease production of the cars, what effect do you think that would have on how our Elans were viewed, maintained, valued, etc ?

From here in the UK I guess the closest reference point would be that of TVR. A successful firm in the 80s/90s - but since they've failed I just don't see as many old ones around on the road. Have people given up on them ??? Would the same thing happen with our Elans ???

Would they only be driven by people of a certain age, like MGBs ??

Regards
Richard

[Elanintheforest]

I think that they are driven by folks of a certain age already, Richard! The two seaters are certainly out of reach for most young lads, whether or not the 60s Lotus means anything to them. At least the MGB is more affordable.

As for what would happen if Lotus went under, I can't see that it would make any difference at all. Elans belong to an era of innovation, of CABC trying to find every way he could to fund his racing passion, and of course, of relatively cheap, fast sports cars. And they were driven by F1 drivers and many others who had a passion for cars in the 60s and 70s.The current Lotus organisation seems to have absolutely no interest, or even knowledge, of cars it built prior to the 21st century, and rather than trade on a tangible racing lineage just want to push marketing of 'the badge' to it's ludicrous extreme.

In fact, if they went it may well serve the Marque better than their current efforts which only seem to be discrediting the name Lotus.

The exception to that of course is the re-birth of Lotus in F1, which has been incredibly successful....but what has that really to do with the Lotus factory?

I can't see too many parallels with companies like TVR, Marcos etc. Lotus was first and foremost an F1 race team, which happened to make road cars as well. The kudos of their racing activity rubbed off on the road cars, and indeed, their reputation at the time for handling and performance was second to none.

The 'reborn' TVRs of the eighties and 90s were stunning cars, and still have quite a following. But they are now 15 to 30 years old as well, and whilst I was happy commuting in my TVR Griff 500 for a couple of years when it was a new car, I doubt I would be so happy doing so today. But they are about....you can hear them rather than see them! I doubt that the young lads would be driving those either. If a Vauxhall Corsa is about ?2000 a year to insure for an 18 year old, what would a Griff with 0 ? 60 in 4.2 seconds and a top end of 165mph be?

Mark