- The Esprit was discontinued in 2004.
- The company's new management wants to return the firm to junior-supercar territory.
- The Esprit's replacement will likely use a larger version of the chassis that forms the basis for the Evora.
HETHEL, England — Lotus has effectively confirmed that it will replace its Esprit supercar, which was discontinued in 2004, with a teaser counting down the days to an announcement and probable reveal at this fall's Paris auto show.
The company has been working on a replacement for the long-lived fiberglass-bodied supercar for several years, but work stopped during the development of its midengine V6 Evora coupe. However, the arrival of a new management team, led by former Ferrari commercial boss Danny Bahar, has seen the spawning of a new and more ambitious plan for the firm, which is to return to the junior-supercar league once occupied by the Esprit, and possibly into price territory upscale of that.
A Lotus spokesman stressed that despite the move upmarket, "lightweight structures and engineering efficiency remain core to Lotus." The company's cars, after all, have been designed for excellent power-to-weight ratios from the company's birth. The 1975 Esprit was built around a steel backbone clothed with a fiberglass composite shell, but its replacement will likely use an enlarged version of the extruded and bonded aluminum chassis from the Evora, which was designed to allow stretches in width and length to create larger models.
It's not yet clear whether the new Esprit's body will be fabricated from fiberglass or carbon fiber, but Lotus certainly needs to move to a material more sophisticated than glass-reinforced plastic, which always compromised the high-tech image of the Esprit even though it pioneered new technologies during its long life. Also unknown is the new Esprit's power unit, although it would be a surprise if the British company moved away from Toyota, with which it has an excellent relationship as a supplier of powertrains and components.
The new Esprit — or a concept version of it — will be the first Lotus designed under the creative leadership of Donato Coco, formerly of Ferrari and Citroen, who took over from Russell Carr as chief designer under Bahar.
Inside Line says: The revitalization and re-imaging of Lotus should move to the next level with the announcement of a new Esprit. — Richard Bremner, Correspondent
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dansmith says:
08:04 PM, 08/25/2010
LOTUS EVORA S:
THIS CAR LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT BE MY FIRST EXOTIC. THE DIRECT TIE IN WITH TOYOTA IS THE CLINCHER. THAT SHOULD MEAN THAT GETTING REPLACEMENT PARTS AND SERVICE WON'T BE TOO MUCH OF AN ADVENTURE. AND THANK GOD I ALREADY UNDERSTAND THAT A MACHINE LIKE THIS ISN'T INTENDED TO BE A DAILY DRIVER. IF YOU'RE TRYING TO FIT SEVEN BAGS OF GROCERIES INTO THE BACK SEAT, YOU'VE ALREADY MADE AT LEAST THREE CRITICAL MISTAKES; AND EVEN BUYING THE CAR IN THE FIRST PLACE, MAY HAVE BEEN ONE OF THEM.
lotusshell says:
08:03 AM, 07/21/2010
Jeremy_c I totally agree, they had a huge cult following back in the 70's 80's. But I have to disagree with your last point.
"They may go the way of Ascari or Pagani, a small boutique car company making hundreds of cars each year. Very sad really."
That's the stage they are at now. The elise is doing very very well for them. With thousands sold worldwide, this is giving them the revenue to expand the lineup. Also don't forget that lotus is really more of an engineering company than a auto manufacturer. They have tons of other projects for other car companies. They have recently developed a lot of the steering / handleing bits on the latest Corvette zr1 and GT-R.
In terms of creating "world beating cars", im not sure they need / want to. From a branding perspective they can really feed off the fact they have a great racing heritage and very well known company philosophy, Better performance through less weight. With these two very key items in place, they can compete with Porsche / Ferrari on a very different level.
There is one key idea about cars as a whole that I think people sometimes forget. It's not about getting from 0 - 60 the fastest, or turning a corner the tightest. It's about how the cars integrate into your lifestyle, and how they make you feel. And that's where lotus has been extremely successfull.
cmike2780 says:
07:56 AM, 07/21/2010
"they just won't be able to produce world beating cars"
What rock have you been under? The Elise & Exige are one of the best handling cars in world. Sports cars are niche market to begin with. You can't go by sales figures alone. I guess the 1,200 hp Hennessey Venom GT isn't enough for you.
Lotus isn't an auto giant and likely won't be, neither is Ferrari. Mass market usually kills these companies anyways, where performance is overshadowed by profit margins.
jeremy_c says:
08:51 PM, 07/20/2010
Who owns Lotus now? I can't even remember. seems like everyone owned them one time or another. With a work environment like that, you think the engineers can do a good job?
I was a huge Lotus fan in the 70s and 80s but they are fast becoming irrelevant. Nowadays without a huge sum of money to invest in a chasis, computer and testing, they just won't be able to produce world beating cars. They may go the way of Ascari or Pagani, a small boutique car company making hundreds of cars each year. Very sad really.
stephen987 says:
03:18 PM, 07/20/2010
The Esprit was never a really well-sorted car. It went through a lot of evolution in its 30-year history, largely because the company rarely had the money for a real replacement. By its retirement date, it was more out of fashion than the last MGBs were.
I'm not sure that a "new Esprit" would be a halo car at all. The Elise and its derivatives are responsible for the company's success, and to bring in a "new Esprit" would be like Jaguar offering us a "new XJ-S" or Mazda introducing a long-awaited successor to the Cosmo.
lotusshell says:
02:26 PM, 07/20/2010
I am a huge lotus fan, and i'm really excited to see what they come up with. However, I do feel that I've read this article about 10 times now. It seems every 2 or three months lotus confirms that they are making an Esprit placement. For a while there was even concept car images floating around. Now it seems all this has been dropped and they are now again "officially" saying there will be a replacement. They need to get a PR team to sort this out. Lotus needs to be more careful about it's communications.