Lotus is building a 4x4? WTF??

[mercury maid]

Well apparently lotus has released new info on their plans. I know they're building a mad car like the Esprit but they're also making a 7-seater 4x4. This is a company founded on building light cars! What's next? A Ferrari crossover? A Lamborghini minivan?

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/n...t-replacement/

[Fairlane]

ten bucks says that the 7 seat crossover will actually be labelled as a Proton. The Malaysians have been calling the shots at Lotus for a while now.

[xbgs351]

I far prefer the Lotus 63, back from the days when F1 wasn't !@#$% up by Bernie and Colin Chapman was all about minimilisation.

.

[Rev28K]

There was hype about the extendable platform being able to be scaled up for a lot of purposes, I guess a 4WD is one of them. There have already been FWD Lotuses (and plans for that to be extended in to a 2+2 version) and a 2+2 (Eclat and Excel (funnily enough I always have a mental picture of this when people say that they drive and Excel rather than the Hyundai that they actually drive)). They already softened up the public a bit with their 4WD Elise april fools day joke – look here under Lotus AFD http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2006_03...p_archive.html. I guess that means that at least the new sports cars will be able to uses a 4WD platform painlessly.

Lamborghini have already made a 4WD (LMA 002) and Ital Design showed a V12 Lambo people mover years ago (Columbus). If Porsche can do a 4WD and a 4 door sedan (Lotus had proposed the Etna years ago) then a Lotus 4WD is a possibility to.

(didn't advances in tyre technology make the Lotus 4wd a bit redundant (wikepedia refes to it as a 56B) same as the 6 wheelers (4 front for Tyrell and I think 4 back for Williams)?)

[xbgs351]

Wasn't the 56B turbine powered?

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by Fairlane

ten bucks says that the 7 seat crossover will actually be labelled as a Proton. The Malaysians have been calling the shots at Lotus for a while now.

Malaysia Government is cashed up ... if PROTON (Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional) didn't sell any cars for the next 10 years ... they'd still be in a black.

Proton (Malaysian Government) bought out Lotus ... hence the handling by Lotus on the GTi models (good marketing to sell it ... seeing the the Lotus handling package was on the Satria XLi and Persona XLi as well ... not just the GTi)

[Rev28K]

Originally Posted by xbgs351

Wasn't the 56B turbine powered?

I think so. I’m not well versed in the minutiae of early F1 Lotus. I knew about that there were turbine and 4WD versions but not their model designations. It looks like one of the turbine cars was resurrected as an F1 car. Here is what I could find on the net:

Source: http://www.forix.com/8w/4wd69.html

Quote:
The staunchest supporter of 4wd in Europe was Colin Chapman. His love affair began when he replaced Granatelli's cumbersome, home built turbine racer with his Lotus 56 in 1968. Of the five cars built, three were wrecked during the month and two ran away with the race but retired. For the following year Chapman deviced two designs, the 63 GP car and the 64 Indycar, both being failures. However, one of the surviving 56s was later modified for F1 use and ran as 56B, also without much success. That was the end of the line of 4wd Lotuses.


Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_63

Quote:
The four wheel drive technology returned into F1 with the Lotus 56B in 1971.


As the Lotus 56 for Indy 500 (and later F1), the 63 chassis was designed around a four wheel drive system. This was no revolution at the time, as four wheel drive had been used on the Ferguson Research Ltd. F1 that won in Oulton Park in 1961. Also, the Matra MS84 scored points with Johnny Servoz-Gavin, which no other 4WD F1 car did, as McLaren and Cosworth did not race their 4WD designs. The 63 was an evolution of the 49, but featured wedge shaped rear bodywork and integrated wings, which would be used to great effect in the Lotus 72.

[outback_ute]

Originally Posted by Rev28K

Lamborghini have already made a 4WD (LMA 002) and Ital Design showed a V12 Lambo people mover years ago (Columbus). If Porsche can do a 4WD and a 4 door sedan (Lotus had proposed the Etna years ago) then a Lotus 4WD is a possibility to.

Lamborghini & Porsche have also built tractors...

[xbgs351]

Originally Posted by outback_ute

Lamborghini & Porsche have also built tractors...

...and Ferguson have built race cars.

[Rev28K]

Had a vague half memory of this before surfing the web.

Do you want to have a contest on old F1 trivia (looks like you'd win)?

The turbine cars were interesting weren't they (Lotus Indy, BRM, Rover Le Mans, etc). Where do you think we'd be now without Bernie and Max's meddling? Something like the Porsche 917s in Can Am - something so dominant (and expensive) and powerful that no-one else can win and crowd numbers dwindle? Imagine the money that Toyota could throw at an "open" formula?

[nb_351]

sounds a bit like ferrari now anyway... lol although its been getting better lately...