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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Lotus Renault GP R31

  Technical Specifications Chassis Moulded carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb composite monocoque, manufactured by Lotus Renault GP and designed for maximum strength with minimum weight. RS27-2011 V8 engine installed as a fully-stressed member. Front suspension Carbon fibre top and bottom wishbones operate an inboard rocker via a pushrod system. This is connected to a torsion bar and damper units which are mounted inside the front of the monocoque. Aluminium uprights and OZ machined magnesium wheels. Rear suspension Carbon fibre top and bottom wishbones with pull rod operated torsion springs and transverse-mounted damper units mounted in the top of the gearbox casing. Aluminium uprights and OZ machined magnesium wheels. Transmission...

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Renault F1 team to be renamed Lotus Renault GP in 2011

Proton's decision to buy into the Renault team and promote its Lotus brand is the latest development in ambitious plans for future expansion by Lotus. The Renault car company has sold its remaining shares in the eponymous Formula 1 team, which will be renamed Lotus Renault in 2011. The chief executive officer of Group Lotus, Dany Bahar, said: "I can think of no better platform for automotive brand communications than motorsport and F1 is the very pinnacle of open-wheel racing. "We're well aware that there has been a lot of controversy around the usage of our brand in F1 and I'm delighted to be able to formally clarify our position once and for all: we are Lotus and we are back." Renault was left with a 25% shareholding in the team...

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Paris motor show: Lotus unveils five new models

Don’t stop and think for a moment that the Lotus City Car Concept and the Lotus Elite revealed before this are the only two cars that Lotus have in store for the public at Paris 2010 – in fact Lotus has unleashed a massive onslaught of new cars, all styled with the new Lotus design language. Here are all the five cars in brief while we upload the rest of the stories for you. Our man on the ground Danny will be back soon with live photos from the motorshow floor as well. Lotus Esprit – 2 seater, mid engined, rear wheel drive, powered by force inducted 5.0 litre V8 making 620 PS and 720Nm, redline at 8,500rpm, 0 to 100km/h in 3.4 seconds, 7-speed twin clutch transmission. Hybrid KERS system optional. Spring 2013 debut. Lotus Elan – 2+2 seater,...

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Lotus announces new management team and a new Proton/Lotus model

GA_googleFillSlot("Content_Medium_468"); Highlights: The new car will be introduced in about 18-24 months and will be sold as a 5-door Proton in Malaysia and will be sold as a 3-door Lotus in other markets around the world. It will be based on the Proton Emas concept that was shown in Geneva earlier this year but “heavily modified for daily use.” In a joint press conference yesterday afternoon, both Proton Holdings Berhad and Group Lotus announced future business and product plans for the respective companies. Speaking at the conference were Dato Syed Zainal, Managing Director of Proton, Dato Mohamad Nazmi, Chairman of Proton and Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus. The press conference was also held to introduce a new management team at...

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Lotus Exige S

14th September 2011 Cat: Lotus Exige Lotus unveiled the all-new Exige S in Frankfurt, since the ultimate lightweight good performance sportscar. The Exige S achieves its great performance through lightness, and big power to weight ratio. The targeted weight just for this car is around 1080 kg, and it’s got 350 PS to transport that weight around. The revolutionary Exige also has a race car body kit fro maximum downforce and features good performance bespoke tyre package with Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tyres as standard. A Lotus DPM (Dynamic Performance Management) switch allows the motorist to switch between three driving modes: Touring, Sport and DPM off. Also you can order the Race Pack option which addds a Race mode on the driving settings,...

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Meet the people behind the car

Behind every great car is a team of dedicated individuals and they don’t come more passionate than the team at Lotus. From Design to Technical to Testing, each area at Lotus prides itself on having the cream of the automotive crop. What you see on the road are the direct results of their blood, sweat and tears – here you’ll get an insight into their worlds in their words. The only way to pass the test is to take the test... Lotus’ Testing Guru Matt Becker on putting the Exige S through it’s paces Here his point of view : Extreme conditions result in extreme performance...we just finished a great testing session at the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife track, which most people think of as the world’s toughest track, and the Exige S dealt with...

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Lotus CEO sets out 'British Porsche' strategy

Author: Dave Leggett A confident Dany Bahar acknowledges the plan to revive Lotus is 'super-ambitious' Lotus Group CEO Dany Bahar has set out a medium-term growth strategy to revive the Proton-owned unit and return it to profitability. Bahar told journalists in London that he would like to see Lotus become a 'British Porsche' rather than take on Ferrari, with the brand built up through motorsports activities and a raft of new models, racing and selling cars in every sports segment. He also expressed a preference for Lotus to do more to develop its own engines. "We have plans underway to think about our own engine family in our road car programmes for the future," he said."The fact that we have announced that we will be...

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Lotus History

  Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics.It also owns the engineering consultancy Lotus Engineering, which has facilities in the United Kingdom, United States, Malaysia and China. By 1982 the company was experiencing severe financial difficulties and Chapman sought additional capital from outside sources. The crisis resulted principally from the fact that only a handful of Lotus cars were sold each year in the world's largest market, the US. These problems were solved by a young law professor and investment banking consultant,...

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