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7 Apr 2012, 23:25 (Ref:3055098) | #26 | |
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The people responsible are the politicians who control Proton. They funded all the Lotus v Lotus, and the slap a Lotus sticker on anything that moves mania. There were two Lotus F1 teams, now none wants to be Lotus! Will they ever stop digging a bigger hole for themselves?
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Cromley: "With the margin Gareth has, he doesn't need to play for sheep stations" |
7 Apr 2012, 23:48 (Ref:3055102) | #27 | ||
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If I had asked my customer what they wanted, they would've said a faster horse. -Henry Ford |
8 Apr 2012, 10:01 (Ref:3055240) | #28 | |
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In Danny Bahr's ambition to drive Lotus up market based on a massive motorsport sticker plan he seems to be destroying what Lotus stands for.
To me Lotus as a road car manufacturer is based on a racing heritage. That heritage was built up on light weight very good handling cars with not necessarily the best engines but one that was well packaged. Lotus was also one of the most innovative car makers in the business. What we see now is a big spending campaign based on putting lotus stickers everywhere with no regard to its heritage. The current car company has been spending this money based on future sales of new cars that will compete in a different market but will those buyers be interested, and dropping the current Elise based cars, that to me were a proper Lotus that I imagine Colin Chapman would have been proud of. At the end of all this I hope there will be a Lotus left for somebody to rebuild into what it should be. |
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8 Apr 2012, 10:27 (Ref:3055252) | #29 | ||
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So Tony Fernandes might end up after all with a "Team Lotus". He still owns the rights for this name, doesn't he? Maybe he should even buy "Lotus Cars". Imagine the headlines: "Caterham buys Lotus".
But I really hope that Bahar won't leave a path of destruction. The Artist formerly known as Toleman might be just fine, thanks to sponsorship by Microsoft and Unilever. But what about the teams in junior formulaes? The whole situation makes me want to shout a big **** you to Lotus Cars and Dani Bahar. |
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8 Apr 2012, 10:45 (Ref:3055266) | #30 | |
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I dont think Fernandes owns "Team Lotus" any longer, no.
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8 Apr 2012, 11:49 (Ref:3055304) | #31 | |
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8 Apr 2012, 12:23 (Ref:3055316) | #32 | ||
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So.. why would Proton provide such a large loan to the F1 team, then decide to stop sponsoring the F1 team? Or is the 'loan' actually the settlement for the parting of the ways?
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8 Apr 2012, 13:06 (Ref:3055338) | #33 | ||
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Go figure...
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Show me a man who won't give it to his woman An' I'll show you somebody who will |
8 Apr 2012, 13:09 (Ref:3055339) | #34 | |
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8 Apr 2012, 13:56 (Ref:3055355) | #35 | ||
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If I had asked my customer what they wanted, they would've said a faster horse. -Henry Ford |
8 Apr 2012, 15:02 (Ref:3055377) | #36 | ||
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Quote:
Youngman Lotus http://chinaautoweb.com/2011/02/with...eeding-700000/ |
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Cromley: "With the margin Gareth has, he doesn't need to play for sheep stations" |
8 Apr 2012, 15:42 (Ref:3055388) | #37 | |
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Yeah. We also have Chinese MGs. What's that all about?
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8 Apr 2012, 16:37 (Ref:3055402) | #38 | ||
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8 Apr 2012, 16:57 (Ref:3055406) | #39 | ||
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Our local police had a Lotus Sunbeam painted up as a standard Talbot panda car.
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8 Apr 2012, 17:43 (Ref:3055429) | #40 | ||
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"If you're not winning you're not trying." Colin Chapman. |
8 Apr 2012, 18:13 (Ref:3055442) | #41 | ||
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Apologies for going off topic but in answer-
At international level, in 1980 & '81 an Italian Jolly Club entered car did some rounds of ETCC in Gp2 spec. Apart from that it won the World Rally Championship for Talbot in '81...... Lotus certainly did a lot of work on the development of road versions as the engineers were often to be seen having a play around Norfolk! |
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9 Apr 2012, 00:44 (Ref:3055589) | #42 | |
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9 Apr 2012, 00:52 (Ref:3055594) | #43 | ||
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That's so frickin uncool man! |
9 Apr 2012, 06:55 (Ref:3055651) | #44 | ||
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In all the stories ive read there has been no mention of the 35million loan payment from proton to the F1 team..... this sounds very odd.. both JA and joe saward have never mentioned this ...... dubious id say Tony Fernandas has walked away from all this lotus business as he got a sweetener for his air line from the malaysian government. though id bet hed like to buy the elise production line ....
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9 Apr 2012, 06:56 (Ref:3055652) | #45 | ||
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9 Apr 2012, 08:14 (Ref:3055681) | #46 | ||
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Bahar being under pressure from all angles.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/home/builder_...ahar_1_1343332 Where will this lead? Fernandes picks the company up for £1 and takes on the debt? Moves the Caterham brand into Hethel and makes the Lotus 7 again? Just outside the Hethel airfield boundary is the Hethel Engineering Centre..seperate to Lotus. Caterham cars have their concept design offices in there already along with other companies. Until recently WSR team P1 Motorsport were there too. I agree Lotus should be making lightweight, bottom end sports cars for the masses. This concept of selling cheap Fernandes is a master at...judging by Air Asia growth. |
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9 Apr 2012, 08:32 (Ref:3055689) | #47 | |||
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Quote:
Mr Saward has not mentioned this at all, and in reality he and his blog have been the only ones willing/able to dissect the financial gymnastics that seem to be going on behind the scenes at the Lotii, Force India or anyone else of interest. |
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9 Apr 2012, 10:24 (Ref:3055736) | #48 | |
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Take a look at this and the links from it make for interesting reading. You want to know what is in an F1 factory well the answers are here.
http://www.pitpass.com/45967-The-true-value-of-Lotus-F1 |
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9 Apr 2012, 11:08 (Ref:3055750) | #49 | |
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From the articles in Pitpass I am wondering why is the loan replacing the sponsorship.
The logical explanation is that Proton is trying to get out of Danny Bahar's big spending plans, and by giving the loan instead of sponsorship gives Lotus F1 the time to find alternative backers to help pay off the loan. If Lotus F1 do not pay the loan then we might have a Proton F1 team in a few years time. |
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9 Apr 2012, 11:17 (Ref:3055755) | #50 | |||
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