Thread: Report: New Lotus CEO Has Sights Set on Ferrari

Lotus’s new CEO and Proton, the company in charge of British sports car maker, have announced their ambitions to increase the company’s profile and have it compete with exotic Italian automakers. In a recent interview Proton Holdings managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said that the launch of the new Evora model was the start of big things to come.

New Lotus CEO Dany Bahar highlighted the company’s branding potential, with its long history in motorsorts, of being an innovitve engineering company and of builing driver-oriented sorts cars. “Lotus was mentioned in the same sentence as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati in the 1970s-1990s. Then, it got closed into a corner. We believe it’s the right time to bring Lotus back to where it was,” he said.

Bahar, recently joined Lotus after heading up the sales department at Ferrari, where he was also responsible for marketing and branding initiatives. Lotus is also making a big push to get back into motorsports with the recent announcement that it would return to Formula 1. At the Frankfurt Auto Show in September, Lotus also unveiled the new Evora Tye 124 endurance racer (pictured above), as well as plans to field a two-car team at the Nürburgring 24 hour race next year.

In the realm of production cars, Lotus has said it is working on a new flagship model along the lines of the Iconic Lotus Esprit, that would rival Italian exotics.

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Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir

I thought I had a long name....

Originally Posted by KandyRedCoi

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I really want to see what they can come up with. Lotus has always been pretty firm about building light weight cars, I wonder what they can do to keep that tradition going specially with big powerplants and more weight.

^i was thinking the same thing, i like that fact that they are a niche car company...but i guess for them to get big and make tons of $$$ they need to diversify their models to be able to compete with the big boys (porsche, ferrari etc.)

i just hope they dont loose their "Chapmanesque" approach

If you are a fan of Lotus, this has to be encouraging news. For the past 10 years Lotus only spoke of getting themselves back on their feet which they have done. Now they want to get the legendary name back to the forefront of racing which dominated for many years. Racing Innovation=Lotus and Ferrari tried to play catch up. I am excited to hear of this confidence in what they are doing!
Jason

Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir


Holy shit man, is all that necessary?

I think they will do well. Handling is their specialty

will be interesting to see how this pans out??

New Lotus CEO Dany Bahar highlighted the company’s branding potential, with its long history in motorsorts, of being an innovitve engineering company and of builing driver-oriented sorts cars. “Lotus was mentioned in the same sentence as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati in the 1970s-1990s. Then, it got closed into a corner. We believe it’s the right time to bring Lotus back to where it was,” he said.

I hope they do this carefully. The Lotus of today is far better than the Lotus of the 70s-90s. Lotus has always been an innovative and respected racing and sports car manufacturer. I hope they continue to concentrate on hardcore sports cars and not dilute the dna. I look forward to seeing what they come up with for the Esprit successor.

^well said!

They are back in Formula 1 powered by Cosworth. So watch out now.