Lotus Elite News

In a repeat of the MG Rover fiasco, they fear up to 1,400 UK jobs could be lost and the 60-year-old business exported lock, stock and barrel to the communist People’s Republic.Lotus was sold 16 years ago to Malaysian car-maker Proton which developed and nurtured the firm.This year, it was on the brink of a massive £500million expansion when a new and bigger set of Malaysian owners – the industrial conglomerate DRB-Hicom – took it over.This business, however, is said to have little interest in making Lotus cars and has appointed City firm KPMG to find a potential Chinese buyer, Parliament has been told.DRB-Hicom insists no decision has been taken on Lotus’s future. But it will not rule out a sell-off.Lotus chief executive Dany Bahar, on a pay and bonus package worth £1.2million, had his employment extended in December, just a month before the Malaysian deal was revealed.It now includes a controversial bonus clause worth millions of pounds in the event of a sell-off which MPs were told means he is ‘incentivised to sell Lotus’.Conservative MP for South Norfolk Richard Bacon told Parliament up to 1,400 British jobs are at risk if the UK factory in Hethel, Norfolk, is dismantled and production moved to the Far East.Ministers pledged to ‘keep Lotus in Britain’ when Mr Bacon was granted a Commons’ debate on the issue late on Tuesday. Mr Bacon said: ‘The fact that KPMG has been appointed with a mandate to sell Group Lotus to the Chinese is not an encouraging sign.’Business Secretary Vince Cable raised concerns with Mr Bahar on Tuesday – less than a day after the car boss’s return from Beijing where he unveiled a new model specifically for China. The company has struggled to make a profit in recent years and it recorded pre-tax losses of £26.1million last year.Mr Bacon said industry experts have warned him of a ‘worst case scenario’ in which Group Lotus would be put into administration, allowing a Chinese buyer to acquire it cheaply – as happened when MG Rover collapsed in 2005, with the loss of 6,000 jobs. A rump of production was eventually resumed at the Longbridge plant two years later.Lotus strenuously denied suggestions that a ‘fire sale’ strategy was being contemplated, or that it could be put into administration, but bosses have not ruled out selling the firm.Group Lotus has ambitious five-year expansion plan for the Hethel plant, which would create 1,000 new jobs, and the Government rubber-stamped a £10million taxpayer-funded grant last year.But that regional growth fund grant is now on hold while Lotus’s new Malaysian owner decides its future.Prospective bidders are likely to include China Youngman, which has been Lotus’s importer in China for the last five year.Business Minister Mark Prisk said Lotus ‘must remain in Britain’, adding: ‘Ministers at the very highest level are taking this matter very seriously. We are working to make sure the new owners understand Norfolk is the home of Lotus.’The Government remains ready to press ahead with its £10million grant to Lotus – but only if the expansion plans for the UK go ahead.Norfolk Council leader Derrick Murphy said: ‘It is important we continue to press the case for the company as so many livelihoods depend on Lotus being based here in Norfolk.’Lotus said: ‘Dany Bahar remains totally committed to Lotus. His over-riding priority is securing the future of the company and protecting its employees.’E FOR ELITELotus was founded in 1952 by car engineer Colin Chapman with the help of a £50 loan from his wife HazelHis initials still form part of the marque’s badgeThe Lotus name is said to come from Chapman’s nickname for his wifeMost models begin with an E – a tradition started with the Lotus Eleven. Chapman liked the way the letter soundedHe died of a heart attack aged 54 in 1982. 

It was love at first sight."They were light years ahead of the opposition," says Geertsma, now 70."They were lighter, had four disc brakes, a wheel in each corner, independent suspension and a stiff chassis. Lotus was first in many areas with fibreglass bumpers, Formula 1 ground effects, monocoque chassis and the engine as part of the car itself."During the '50s and '60s, Geertsma saw Lotus founder and engineer Colin Chapman driving an Elise and legendary F1 driver Jim Clark in a Lotus 25 at the circuit. It's little wonder, then, that the Ipswich businessman got into racing Lotuses after he migrated to Australia."I had my leg amputated from cancer in 1957, so when I got into racing in 1994 I went looking for race car drivers," he says."We had a Lotus 18 Formula Junior with several different drivers, but the best was Jerry Perkins, brother of Larry. Terry and Larry raced in Europe. Larry won the Formula 3 championship and Terry had won the Copenhagen race. Terry always put in 10 out of 10 in performance whenever he got behind the wheel and they are both very good mechanics."The racing team folded in 2007, but Geertsma's love affair with Lotus has persisted off the track. He bought his first road-going Lotus, a 1960 Elite he picked up in Melbourne in 1985 for $19,000."I thought, 'What have you done, you idiot?'," he says.The original car with chassis number 1082 was a Lotus demonstrator with a Maxima body which was destroyed in June 1960 in north Wales when Lotus sales manager Ian McLeod drove head on into a bus. McLeod was severely injured while passenger and Canadian motoring journalist Tom Davenport died on impact.The current car uses the gearbox and a few other parts from the original but now has chassis number 1449 with a Bristol body. It is powered by a four-cylinder 1216cc engine with a lightweight alloy head and block.Lotus rated power at a tiny 56kW and torque at 104Nm, but because the fibreglass monocoque vehicle only weighed about 660kg, it was super-quick and nimble.It's now worth about $75,000 and Geertsma wouldn't part with it."I'd sell my family before I'd sell the Elite," he says. "The Elite is Chapman's first road-going car. It's virtually a race car for the road. You could just put a number on the side, race it and be a winner."He also had a 1977 Porsche 911 which he crashed and burnt. In 1990, he replaced the Porsche with a 1967 Lotus Elan SE he bought in Sydney for $17,500. It is now worth about $40,000."It was partly restored, but it wasn't a good job, so I had to start the restoration again from the beginning," he says.He replaced the gearbox with a four-speed box from an MG Magnette, but the rest is standard. It is powered by a 1558cc four-cylinder cast-iron block and alloy-head engine with 78kW and 146Nm.Geertsma says it's not only more powerful than the Elite, but smaller in every dimension and weighs only about 640kg."I'll be keeping these cars for the kids," he says.

It's the Elite, a long-overdue successor to the Esprit, that promises true supercar performance with a pricetag in the $300,000-plus range. The car is a front-engined 2+2 coupe that is also being developed as a hardtop convertible. Deliveries are not expected until 2014. The Elite was dreamed up and developed by the team of ex-Ferrari staff who now control Lotus, led by managing director Dany Bahar. It's a massive step up from the road racer Elise and part of a plan to turn Lotus into a super-luxury brand to rival Ferrari and Lamborghini. "There will always be those who believe that Lotus should stick to small sports cars, but we didn't take the decision to design something like the Elite lightly. It's based on months of careful research and planning," says Bahar, "It's worth noting this sector has been very successful for us in the past, and now the Elite raises the benchmark higher still. Make no mistake, there's a definite market requirement for the Elite - it's the ultimate sports car feel with comfort and space." The Elite is expected to be followed by at least two other new models, also up and beyond the Elise. Lotus is not going fully public with details on the car until the first day of the Paris Motor Show but has released some teaser information. "There's no denying that the Elite is breathtakingly beautiful to look at, but its so much more than that: it's a car that over-delivers in all other aspects as well," Bahar says. "One could say it's a car of perfect contradictions; it's compact yet spacious, high performing yet low emitting, lightweight yet still reassuringly solid.'' The car has a 5-litre V8 engine - perhaps from Lexus - with 450 kiloWatts of power and 720 Newton-metres of torque, good enough for a top speed of 315km/h and a 0-100km/h sprint time below four seconds. There is also a model with an optional hybrid system, using a Formula One-style Kinetic Energy Recovery System, although Lotus says the CO2 emission of the regular car is still only 215 grams/kilometre.