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Ah, Lotus. Is there anything you can’t do" I mean, beyond economic solvency, a sound business model, sourcing power plants with a modicum of reliability, and obtaining gearboxes with more than a passing glace of trustworthiness"
I kid, I kid! That’s the Lotus of old.
Nowadays, they produce things like the Lotus Evora Sport 410 – and great googly-moogly is this thing a ride!
Stubborn Innovations
Back when Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman was running things, Lotus Cars Ltd. (Hethel, England) was a place of extremes. Chassis construction methods nicked from jet fighter designs combined with engines sourced from fire fighting water pumps. Suspensions so feather-like and responsive the cars couldn’t do anything but grip; mingled with transmissions so lightweight and insubstantial they had the lifespan of a fruit fly. There was no middle ground. It was all brilliance amalgamated with absurdity.
Don’t get me wrong, Chapman was an outright genius when it came to chassis design and set up, and he is still one of the all-time great automotive engineering innovators. But he was also maddeningly cheap, mean-spirited when it came to the company checkbook, and pretty chuckle-headed when it came to choosing sub-contractors and parts suppliers.
Winds of Change
Today, things are very, very different. They kept the good stuff – the fanatical obsession with weight savings, benchmark ride and hand...