Lotus CEO Mike Kimberley reveals some of Lotus Cars’ future plans in an interview with Autocar. Kimberley says Lotus is aiming to increase it’s annual production to 8,000 units in the next five year’s time, which is double the current levels. This increase is to be spearheaded by sales of the Lotus Elise and the Lotus Europa, as well as the new Lotus Esprit powered by a BMW V8 engine coming in late 2007.
Kimberley also hints that Lotus might be producing more tuned cars using donor cars by other manufacturers. Some Lotus-tuned donor cars are the Lotus Cortina based on a Ford Cortina and the recent Lotus Carlton based on the Vauxhall Carlton pictured above. I’m sure many of you remember what Lotus did to an old Lada Riva in an episode of Top Gear. If you’ve missed it, the video is available here.
The Vauxhall Carlton originally had a 3.0 litre inline-6 DOHC engine. Lotus increased the stroke of the engine to 3.6 litres, and bolted on two Garrett T25 turbochargers with a water-to-air intercooler to give the engine 377 horsepower at 5,200 rpm with 557Nm of torque at 4,200rpm. They mated this to a ZF 6-speed stick shift from the Chevrolet Corvette ZF-1. The result was the Lotus Carlton. It did 0-100 in 5.2 seconds and had a 283km/h top speed.
Of course in tandem with the increased power, the suspension and brakes were upgraded. A family sedan which could go really really fast, ala BMW M5 style.
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nice dev from lotus. will these guy tuned satria neo too? hmmm….
Lotus had turned into something like Brabus? tuning other cars to better performance? Lets hope Lotus can do well in their productions as well…
i would like to see LOTUS WALK THE WALK! engtaokia, i saw some related articles that Lotus is working on it already. Lets keep our finger crossed!
Yah my uncle used to have a Lotus Carlton, was a pretty popular car in UK for those with money and mid-life crisis…but still wanted something practical.
Holy shit it was powerful.
Hope they do well. The Europa is so sexy.
Wahlaueh…
i must say Fxxx to P1… so stupid & never fully utilise Lotus KAO KAO for the tuning (engine & suspension). Just do some minor suspension tuning… then claim…tuned by Lotus…. shame on P1… Atleast… wira tune to 110hp…upgrade stoping power , safety features & suspension….then advertise KAO JAO….sure will boost the sale again lah… like wira Aeroback SE…
…. a bit off topic… think of P1…related…. forgot to give comment on this. Well done Lotus. I think the production rate is quite slow to produce 8000 units annually.
hey kody, what's up with the P1 bashing? pls dont give out of topic comments here..
this car is very powerful and yeah..its so famous in uk…
kody said,
June 29, 2006 @ 3:53 pm
I think the production rate is quite slow to produce 8000 units annually.
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Think again…8000 units for mass production is very slow. But Lotus is not a mass production company. All it's cars are hand built. To build 8000 cars a year by hand is phenomenal. The current maximum rate is about 6000 units a year…that is if they go all out in producing cars. Try going on their manufacturing line, it's frickin amazing to see.
yeah…ure rite…for a handmade car…8000 units a year…it is increadible….
I think 8000 cars is quite good for such a small specialty carmaker. Anyone got the sales numbers? If I'm not mistaken, Lotus production line is currently working on a reduced week so I guess sales aren't that good.
damn…was slow by a few minutes :p
wow.. where do you get information like this? i would love to be able to get info like that as well.. you know someone working in the lotus plant in hethel?
"Lotus production line is currently working on a reduced week so I guess sales aren’t that good."
kody: "Just do some minor suspension tuning… then claim…tuned by Lotus…. shame on P1"
so what exactly do you know that lotus does for proton, that made you come to the conclusion that only minor suspension tuning is involved?
e.g. for wira 1500cc Aeroback SE, just change the suspension to 1600cc wira… ekzos system upgrade a bit….
Relax…men…. just some comments… :)
anything to do wif proton ?
lolz !
Relax. I speculated that P1 will produce certain car chasis here at Malaysia using apx platform and then give to them to be assembled at UK. Thats why the production can be increased to 8000. Mits GTO maybe. APX=Eorupa, Ultimate(p1/prm), GTO(maybe),SUV
Btw, Paul why certain videos cannot be viewed?
shikamaru5314 said,
June 29, 2006 @ 8:53 pm
Relax. I speculated that P1 will produce certain car chasis here at Malaysia using apx platform and then give to them to be assembled at UK. Thats why the production can be increased to 8000. Mits GTO maybe. APX=Eorupa, Ultimate(p1/prm), GTO(maybe),SUV
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Your speculation doesn't make sense. Fisrt off, Proton's tanjung Malim plant is totally underutilised, why should they give assembly work to Lotus UK? In fact Proton initially wanted to assemble the Esprit in Malaysia. (Proton even has another plant in Indonesia which is underutilised as well fyi). Secondly, labour rates in UK are much much higher than in Malaysia. Which means, unless it is an actual Lotus product, there's no way Proton are going to allow manufacturing to take place in UK.
honda_driver, its not an insider kind of story. I read it in some publications. I did a search and managed to get a link though annoyingly the article does not have a date.
http://www.autocarmag.com/news_article.asp?na_id=…
The production estimate is 2500 cars a year of the aluminium or composite skinned car, which is crucial to Lotus, which is currently running its Hethel operation on a three-day week.
you might find this interesting too
Link
Lotus is also likely to revise its U.S. sales targets for the Elise and Exige, to cut excess stocks, which reached “600 to 700†unsold cars earlier this year, according to a well-placed source.
well basically…think about it yea…proton's have bad rep….i mean lotus is a company wit racing heritage,…its a bad combination in a business sense..well ya see….jus becoz ur own a company does not mean u can use it..its basically lots of business issues here…if proton makes the lotus unbashedly mass market ..it will lose its value it had bulit up over ther years..i mean think about it…. a 70 k souped up proton that has everythin in it tuned by lotus…well…those top earners around da world wit deep pockets will stop turnin to lotus for their need fer speed coz any other normal person gets acess to da same bloody thing even if they pay half a million…this is why proton has not been utilizin lotus to da max…its business suicide….lotus will lose its value…proton will enjoy sales but will be blamed around da world for makin the brand mass market and we know how discernin the west press are..so its double blow….it be good for us but it ends there….and i u were thinkin…hey!…gm did that to chevorlet and made it mass market by puttin the badge of dawoo cars…well firstly…besides uncle sam and its poeple..many people are still cluless about that brand and secondly ITS GM….they just have the resources and poeple to turn a brand in that manner…THIS IS WHY PROTON IS NOT USIN LOTUS LIKE ALL U POEPLE OUT THERE WANT THEM TOO…IT HAS VERY BAD AFTER EFFECTS….THATS JUST REALITY I GUESS…
Could it be that Proton can't afford to pay for Lotus' services? I mean Lotus has to be able to survive by itself as a company and I don't think they can do that if Proton keeps leeching off their resources.
thanks for all the info from the guys who replied me.. btw, on the contrary guys.. lotus is the one that has no money, and proton is funding their survival.. dont forget that the reason they got bought up in the first place is, coz they were going bankrupt. they have the brains, and the technology, but they are even worst off than proton in terms of business sense..
hhhmm..theyre jz harapkan their elise only…the esprit is too old to compete with others…they should release the new esprit a.s.a.p to compete with other local brand like aston martin,tvr and bentley…
jtshin said,
June 29, 2006 @ 2:52 pm
Lotus had turned into something like Brabus? tuning other cars to better performance? Lets hope Lotus can do well in their productions as well…
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Lotus has been tuning cars for other manufacturers fo a long time . The Lotus Cortina iin the article came out in the 60's. The Carlton in question came out 80's
I'm just real glad I traded in my Waja for a brand new 1.8 Civic…
did u guys ever know the Europa S panels are made in Malaysia………………
Malaysian workers' wages are low, so is the productivities. Do you think that if we pay Japanese wages and will get Japaneses quality ? I hardly think so. More money means more time to sit in mamak shop and talk rubbish.
Any comments on the quality of Lotuses built in Malaysia compared to those built in UK ?