LotusLeftLotusRight

We've booked into the hotel also. It will be nice to get away from the pesky kids for a night. Might visit the Brooklands museum on the Saturday afternoon, have dinner in the hotel and then head off to MBW after breakfast.

Can someone please add me? 63. LotusLeftLotusRight - Evora Ta.

There's a second reference too. The car on the left is RHD and the car on the right is LHD. Makes getting in/out the driver's seats easier when parked in the garage!

You can forgive TG the odd blip every now and then, but it just seems to be getting progressively worse, series by series, show by show. Last night was just awful. How many times are they going to buy an (overpriced) old banger each and fill the show with them breaking down, crashing etc.? Funny the first time, but not really five or six times later: they can keep that sort of stuff for the Xmas DVD. I used to not want the show to end, but these days it just seems to drag on and on. They clearly ran out of fresh ideas some time ago. Trouble is, if I give up watching it, you can bet your life that the next show will be the best ever! Not sure they can build a whole series around the single feature on the McLaren P1, although I'm sure they'll try.

Wasn't something official posted on here that said their average payment dates had "improved" from 155 days to 152 days LATE! So you invoice something to Lotus Cars today the likelihood is you won't get paid until end March + 152 days! In fact today being 31st of Jan, they'd probably consider it a Feb delivery any pay you a month later than that! I can fully understand why suppliers refuse to put up with that. Lotus is a tiny player in the automotive world, so why should suppliers do them any more favours? 1200 cars per year is hardly a strong bargaining position for Lotus. EDIT: just checked in "Lotus in 2014" thread. Telegraph article: actually worse than I said: payments in 2013 average 155 days late, compared to average 154 days late in 2012.

"Underperforming suppliers" = "Unpaid suppliers" 2012: 168 million loss from about 1045 vehicles = 160,000 loss per vehicle! So does anyone want to stump up the near 200 grand required for Lotus to make any profit on an Elise? 2014: 40 cars per week = 2000 cars per year, so how come they think 45 - 50 cars per week = 1800 - 2000 cars per year?

Looks like all the talk this year will be about the front of the car, rather than the back end or tyres. Add the odd blown turbo into the mix and a number of front wing failures and it could level the playing field slightly. Unless Red Bull's quota of mishaps only befalls their Australian driver, of course.

You wouldn't want to be shunted up the exhaust pipe by one of those dangly things. Fnarr, Fnarr, ooh er missus... etc.

Still can't see the Lotus badge. Looks like they've reverted to Renault. Maybe they'll be adopted by the TheRenaultForums? EDIT: I see they've hidden it on the extra after-thought bit!

Where's the Lotus badge?

Not seen them hanging around our local multi-storey. Maybe it's too cold and smelly. Still looks like they did a good job on that head gasket.

I shouldn't think Eric or his bank manager's too bothered. Co-Chairman/Team Principal: 2 for the price of 1!

I accept that water ingress is a known Evora issue to remedy, but I have yet to own a car, steel or fibre-glass, that doesn't steam up its windscreen after you get in when it's cold and wet outside, even if the interior is bone dry.

Isn't the windscreen misting up the same as when you get into any car on a cold and wet day though? It's quite common to see a steamed-up MPV being navigated to school by a mum peering through the porthole she's just made with a wipe of her glove. In fact my wife's hatchback often has a thick layer of condensation on the inside of the windscreen before anyone gets in. It's probably a combination of climate, today's gigantic windscreens and the absorbed moisture from the wet shoes of the various family members who travel in it.

I would think that would be a question for the local dealer you were talking to. Did you put it to him?

It's curious how the "name" LOTUS has been seen on TV by around 500 Million people each year emblazoned on a front-running F1 car and yet it still seems that few of them make the connection to the road cars. Yes of course we know that the F1 car should actually have "RENAULT" written on it and that "LOTUS" should be on the "CATERHAM" etc., but I doubt many of these half billion viewers know that. Lotus cars seemed to have managed to achieve the opposite of the old saying "Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday"

My Renault 5 Turbo 2 had one. Fitted by a company in London in the 1980s: the sticker was still on it with their "01..." telephone number. You can see it here. Rather than a proper metal sliding sunroof (like my Integrale above), it was only a tinted glass tilt affair. After washing the car, you had to do a few miles of spirited motoring before you opened it, otherwise you and your passenger would get a lap full of water. Even then it was wise to drive with a chamois leather on your lap. In reality it was quite handy, because with both it and the rear side windows open, you got a through-put of fresh air to clear the engine fumes from the cabin. It also helped hold up with sagging headlining until I had that professionally replaced. However, come re-sale time the sunroof was a real no-no. Some potential buyers were even factoring in the cost of fitting a whole new roof panel on what was otherwise a pretty mint example of the marque. The same goes for the seats: having put up with the useless R5 GTL sourced originals for a few years, I decided to bin them off and get some grippy new Corbeau sports recliners, prior to our honeymoon trip to Corsica. This made the driving experience infinitely better, with the seat holding you in place rather than having to hang on to the steering wheel when cornering. Nevertheless, come re-sale time, once again this was a major black mark against the car. Still it sold at a lower price in the end (to a guy who drove it all the way back from Luton Airport to Madrid), so I hope he enjoyed it. Just goes to show that you should only modify your car if you're prepared to significantly reduce its value, or can reinstate it prior to sale.

BBC website report says this is just a "show nose" for the publicity photograph and initial testing. I think we can expect something far uglier come Race 1.

New Evora reg. eeny, meeny, miney, mo...

I was surprised to discover that none of the major UK broadcasters are covering the event this year. No BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5, Sky or even new boy BT Sport. I can only see it listed on Eurosport: that's a niche channel that I don't think anyone has watched since the 1990s!

OK probably JLR then.

Has the BBC News website used a photo of a Lotus worker and V6 to illustrate the UK's booming economy in 2014 (according to the IMF at least)? I'd post up the link, but I never seem to manage that on TLF.

Am I reading that right? The highest altitude the spacecraft has achieved to date on test flights is now 71,000 feet? But they are still expecting to take passengers up to around 350,000 feet before the end of this year? Apparently they haven't even been granted a licence to carry passengers. Maybe I'll just hold on to my deposit for a few more months...

Well if the supply of original style headlamps has dried up, maybe Lotus will be forced to bring out a face-lift Evora with a new design of headlamps from another poor mug, sorry, supplier. Either that or see if there's a market out there for a special kind of supercar which you can only drive in the daylight.

That holiday photo must be Costa Teguise, Lanzarote. We stayed in an almost identical villa a couple of years ago. I think we ended up with the ubiquitous Seat Ibiza.