Lotus CEO Danny Bahar signs new four year contract with Lotus

The word is out that Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus, has signed a fresh four-year contract following a meeting with parent company Proton last week. His original contract was due to expire next year. “The Proton dedication to our plans has always been solid, and the decision to extend my contract a year early is a signal of that commitment,” Bahar said. The ex-Ferrari man came into Lotus back in October 2009. He then formulated an ambitious five-year business plan that was unveiled for the world to see at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. At the French capital, Lotus brought out a full range of sports cars that it will use to challenge the likes of Porsche. Besides the fantastic five, which ranged from the next Elise to a Aston Rapide style four-door,...

Read more »

Lotus happy for Raikkonen to take risks

   Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus team have ruled out reining in the 2007 Formula One world champion after the Finn crashed and hurt his wrist while competing in a snowmobile race at the weekend. Memories of Robert Kubica's near-fatal rally accident last February are still raw at the former Renault outfit, with the Pole yet to get back in the cockpit after missing the entire 2011 season. However Lotus Group CEO Dany Bahar, whose Malaysian-owned sportscar company are now the renamed team's title sponsors, made clear today that racing drivers could never be wrapped in cotton wool."It is part of our job to do things that are risky, we do it commercially and corporately, Kimi does it in his own life," he told reporters at a lunch. "I like...

Read more »

Lotus hope new line-up heralds return to top in F1

Lotus aim to be back at the top in Formula One within three years, team principal Eric Boullier said today after announcing France's Romain Grosjean would partner Kimi Raikkonen next season.The team were constructors champions as Renault in 2005 and 2006, with Fernando Alonso also winning the drivers' crowns, but have not won a race since 2008 and finished a distant fifth overall this year. Both their 2012 drivers will be making comebacks, with 2007 world champion Raikkonen returning after two years in world rallying. Grosjean, the 2011 champion in the GP2 support series, started seven races with Renault in 2009 without scoring a point. "We've changed our two drivers, which is not fashionable but corresponds to owners Genii's desire to...

Read more »

Lotus goes hybrid

Buy a base model, new-era Lotus and it’ll be a hybrid. Go for the hardcore version and it’ll strip out the electric motor and plenty more besides to offer a lightweight, utterly focused sports machine. That was the message from boss Dany Bahar yesterday as he revealed more about the future line up, which starts in 2013 with the launch of the V8 Esprit at the Geneva Motor Show. “There is one powertrain, with two configurations. One is hybrid and the sporting variants are non-hybrid. That is the same approach for every car,” Bahar said. He admitted the sporting variant might actually put out less horsepower once you’d taken away the 74KW (100hp) electric motor, despite a hike in power of the V8 (he mentioned a figure of 640bhp), but he promised...

Read more »

Factory-Approved Mansory Lotus Evora Due At Geneva

"Is it always wise to customise?" said the Lotus press release that landed in the PH virtual in-tray the other day. Well, um, probably not if you choose to do it with Mansory. But that's exactly what Lotus has done.This is the Mansory-tweaked Evora, Lotus having teamed up with the German tuner to create a rather special concept for the Geneva show. The strange thing is, considering Mansory's epic reputation for creating automotive monstrosities (you can see some of our 'favourites' at the bottom of this article), Mansory seems to have been impressively restrained. Dare we say we quite like it. Lotus is keeping quiet on the exact details of its Geneva show 'star', but it is most definite that this is not a freshened-up version of the Evora. "Let's...

Read more »

Lotus Finally Gets Government Cash

£10m from Regional Growth Fund helps to safeguard Hethel's future Lotus has finally managed to secure a cash injection from the government's Regional Growth Fund (RGF), having previously failed to convince the government that it was worthy of support. Originally Lotus was looking for £27.5 million, but Proton, the firm's Malaysian parent company, has since reduced that figure to £10 million. That's also expected to be backed up by an estimated £200m of its own money over the next decade that will help Lotus realise its ambitious product plans. Crucially, the RGF money will also help to ensure that the manufacture of Lotus products remain in the UK for the foreseeable future. "This is great news for all those concerned about Group Lotus moving...

Read more »

Sweeter for Lotus Renault to win in Sepang – Proton

The Formula 1 World Championship kicked off with much fanfare last weekend and now the eyes are switched towards our shores when the Petronas Malaysia F1 GP kicks . As expected, it will be surely an interesting contest with 3 teams expected to fly the Malaysian flag. Deemed as the veteran is Petronas who will be racing under the Petronas Mercedes team label with 7 time world champion Michael Schumacher in the team. And then there is the rookie team last year under the stewardship of Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes, the 1Malaysia Racing Team who had previously raced under Lotus Racing and has since changed its name to Team Lotus after the withdrawal of sponsorship from Proton who will be up on the track under Lotus Renault Racing. Of all the...

Read more »