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if we talk about the most miserable sports car brand in the world, it must be lotus. even its name has been taken away by others.

a few days ago, after more than two years of hard work, lotus finally got its own name back from a parts supplier called "lotus", and it is no longer the transliteration of "lotus".

but i think that just taking back the name won't solve the problem. lotus right now is not worthy of the title of "lotus" for the time being.

for ordinary people, they only remember that lotus cars are expensive, that they sell display cars as new cars, and that lotus's blind date event worth tens of millions of dollars is a capital verification event. but for car fans, the lotus that used to perform fancy tricks in competitions is gone, and now they are just living off their past capital.

as a car enthusiast, i would like to take the opportunity of lotus' name change to discuss with you how they, once invincible in the racing field, have become what they are today.

when it comes to lotus, what may impress everyone most is the passionate car repair video of jacky, the speed partner.

but there is a very important reason why repairing the car is so difficult. in order to achieve extreme lightness, the entire frame of this car is made of aluminum alloy. in addition, in pursuit of aerodynamic design (0.3cd), the cabin layout is very compact. it looks cool, but it is as difficult to repair as french cars.

but,the research on lightweight and aerodynamics is the skill that lotus has relied on for 76 years.

speaking of this, we have to mention their founder, colin chapman.

my buddy showed his pursuit of speed very early on.

in 1945, he drove a panther 350cc to study at the school of structural engineering at the university of london. however, as a teenage boy full of energy and vigor, he soon became too successful. for his safety, his parents bought him a morris 8 tourer, but this car only had 8 horsepower and was definitely not powerful.

Panther 350cc

Morris 8 Tourer

so chapman played with modified cars in college, joined the air force to fly planes, and studied systematically.aerodynamicsaviation knowledge.

during his service, chapman would drive his modified car to participate in some local small competitions because the threshold for racing was low at the time, and joined a club that specialized in austin 7.

Austin 7

and this is where the dream begins.

because austin's car is cheap and fun, just like today's fit. so the club is a gathering of talents, such as gt40 designer eric broadley, xjr and r8c designer tony southgate, mclaren f1 designer gordon murray, etc. it's a whole racing hall of fame.

ford gt40 on the left, audi r8c in the middle, mclaren f1 on the right

swipe left

chapman has accumulated importantautomobile related knowledge, and met the future chief engineer of lotus: mike costin, laying a solid foundation for the glory of lotus. we will talk about this later.

after demobilization, he went to englandaluminum companyas an engineer, i started a life of going to work in the morning and going to my father-in-law's garage to play with racing cars with my girlfriend in the evening.

chapman's girlfriend hazel and her partners, the allen brothers, are repairing a car

at this point, the seven dragon balls are complete.lightweight aluminum + automobile knowledge + aerodynamics, what kind of chemical reaction will occur?

in 1951, chapman brought out his third modified car, mark iii. unlike the previous mark i and ii, this car was completely dedicated to the track, as you can see from its shape.the all-aluminum streamlined body weighs only 29.5 kg, about the same as a bag of rice., which immediately set it apart from those bloated "bathtub" models of the same period.

left: the racing car of that year, right: mark ⅲ

from then on, lotus became unstoppable, with more and more people coming to them to order cars, and some companies even began to imitate their models. so in 1952, lotus company was officially established.

lotus logo

following their experience in racing, they soon launched the best-selling product, mark 7, which has been a best-seller for 20 years.

this is a road-legal racing car with no roof or doors. it is very straightforward. because of a loophole in british law, people can buy parts separately and assemble them at home to avoid consumption tax. coupled with lotus' lightweight concept, the whole car weighs only 387 kilograms.if you buy a big lego set, who wouldn’t be confused?

the car was an unprecedented success, with more than 2,500 units sold. it is still in production today.

caterham bought the rights and is still selling the models

at the same time, lotus also launched its first coupe, the elite, which also took the lightweight route, weighing only 503.5kg. the most outrageous thing is thatits drag coefficient is only 0.29, which is ridiculously low even now. you have to know that there were no computer simulations or wind tunnels back then., all hand-drawn by engineer frank costin.

Elite

this car and its successor, the pop-up headlight elan, have influenced the design of countless subsequent coupes. the world's best-selling convertible sports car, the mazda mx-5, can be said to have been inspired by it.

1962 elan

thanks to its ultra-light weight, the elite swept the gt1.3 category championship in those years with its displacement of only 1216cc when the ferrari 250 gto swept the le mans gt3.0 category championship. it was even faster than the porsche 718 in the gt1.6 category, and it steadily surpassed its competitors such as arrow, ferrari and porsche in the le mans thermal efficiency award.

from the above, we can see thatlotus has never emphasized power, but relies on aerodynamics and lightweight to play with thrust-to-weight ratio, and the limited-displacement f1 became the best place to demonstrate lotus' technology.

in 1958, lotus officially entered f1. however, their performance was not ideal at the beginning. as a newcomer, they had not yet developed a car suitable for f1.

what to do? chapman gave the answer:genius ideas and connections。

chapman drew inspiration from airplanes and revolutionized the lotus 25 by adoptingmonocoque chassis, which is the whole middle shell of the modern f1. the opponents back then used several steel pipes welded together. lotus connected the chassis and body into one. just think about it and you will know that this is much stronger, right?

lotus 25 three views

f1 monocoque

he also borrowed the mid-engine of the cooper, yes, the cooper of my mini cooper. our mini owners' ancestors were also rich.innovative use of lying sitting position, the weight distribution of the whole vehicle is more reasonable and the wind resistance is lower.

after losing to this car, f1 champion john cooper asked chapman in surprise: "where did you hide the chassis???"

the racing god clark also drove the lotus 25 to the podium 18 times in 3 years, successfully won the championship in the 1963 and 65 seasons, and became the youngest f1 champion at that time.

clark driving the lotus 25 (after color restoration)

in 1966, the lotus 25 was exhausted, and f1 also changed the rules to allow for more powerful engines. lotus, which had no engine development capabilities, could only look for new engines, and chapman began to mobilize his extensive network of contacts.

remember mike costin, the lotus engineering director we mentioned earlier? in 1958, he used his spare time to establish the famous cosworth company and worked part-time to research high-performance engines to earn extra money.

chapman not only did not mind his subordinates doing side business, but also introduced him to ford's european director walter hayes. ford bought their technology and solved cosworth's funding problem. thus, the legendary f1 engine dfv was born.since 1968, almost every year's f1 champion has used this engine。

dfv engine wins championship during service

the 3.0l v8 dfv can reliably output 400 horsepower, and a good horse deserves a good saddle. the lotus 49, which was equipped with a dfv engine for the first time, once again changed f1.it bolts the engine to the chassis, everyone becomes a whole and bears the force together, the body rigidity becomes higher, and it is invincible in twisting places such as bends.

lotus 49

finally, this0-100 km/h in 2.6 seconds, top speed 353 km/h the monster won the dutch grand prix on its debut.

after that, lotus has made various revolutionary moves, such as the lotus 72 with built-in brake discs, wedge-shaped front, and side box cooling, and the lotus 78 with ground effect inspired by the mosquito fighter.it can be said that the shadow of lotus is everywhere in modern f1.

thanks to the brilliant achievements in f1 events, lotus' civilian cars also continued to sell well. it can be said that the 1960s and 1970s were the golden age of lotus, which accumulated a lot of brand reputation for them.

however, behind the glory, the pig teammate britain came to backstab. (you, britain, really have endless talent in pitting teammates)

in 1982, the founder of delorean automobile, robert delorean, was set up by the u.s. government for prosecution and arrest. delorean automobile went bankrupt. the british government had previously invested in delorean automobile. in order to recover its investment, the british government began an audit of delorean automobile, hoping to get back as much as possible.

delorean dmc (this is the car from back to the future)

lotus had previously helped delorean design the dmc. when the british government discovered that about 17 million pounds of funds were unaccounted for,who cares? just put the pot on the lotus head., and issued a sky-high fine of more than 80 million yuan.

this sudden disaster, coupled with the oil crisis, caused poor sales of high-end sports cars, and lotus could no longer hold on and was about to go bankrupt. britain didn't have many outstanding car companies to begin with, and the government stabbed them in the back. it was really ridiculous.

as various events piled up, mr. chapman died of a sudden heart attack during this period at the age of 58.

the lotus without a leader has lost its vitality, and it will only die a slow death if it continues like this. now it is galio's turn to come on the scene.

baron thatcher, son of mrs. thatcher and racing driverdavid wiggins, an international second-hand car dealer, was invited to take charge of lotus. wiggins was engaged in international trade and brought in several investment companies to help lotus survive. among those who invested in saving lotus, there were clans such as car collector sir anthony bamford. this is the foundation of the luxury brand.

lotus also used a series of political and business relationships to settle a government fine of more than 80 million yuan, which gave it a sigh of relief.

of course, having money is not enough. without core engineers, an automobile company cannot be supported. so in 1986, this group of lotus enthusiasts sold lotus to general motors. the then president of gm europe was also a fan of lotus, and gm generously poured a lot of resources into lotus.

lotus's persistence in lightweighting and aerodynamics sowed the seeds, and it unexpectedly paid off in this way. lotus has really been kept alive to this day by those who love it.

but feelings can’t be eaten.

gm soon discovered that not only was lotus's technology tree different from ours, but it also couldn't be "reset". gm spent more than 50 million us dollars to help lotus build the elan m100, the most powerful front-wheel drive performance car at the time, but the market did not buy it at all, and lotus suffered huge losses.

this hot potato was passed to bugatti's chairman artioli within a few years, but artioli was more like buying a toy to satisfy his addiction. in 1996, after holding lotus for three years, he sold it to malaysia's proton.

however, under his guidance, lotus developed the elise during this period, which was considered to be a return to the right track of rear-wheel drive sports cars.

Elise

however, almost 20 years have passed since mr. chapman passed away and proton took over. elise is just a decentralization of previous racing technology, more like a last gasp.

when proton bought lotus, they treated it more as a technical consultant. at that time, they launched the satria gti tuned by lotus, which was praised by the top gear mole (hammond), but proton, which lacked technical strength, had no way to revive lotus.

Satria GTI

so,lotus's time at proton was more of a lie-down and mixed-up affair., whether it is the subsequent exige or evora, there are no longer many amazing technologies.

we all know the subsequent story. as proton’s business was not doing well, geely took over proton and also brought lotus under its wing.

but geely's lotus, now better known as lotus, is still doing mediocre. it is unclear how much help geely can give to lotus except for funds.

take a look at the gasoline emira that is still on sale now. it weighs 1.46 tons and has a 2.0t 400-horsepower four-cylinder amg engine. a blogger on the internet tested it and said that it is not as good as the corvette c8 in straight lines and not as good as the 718 gts4 on the track. the leader of the keyboard car cult came to the same conclusion. this is different from the previous lotus in terms of tone.

Emira

on the other hand, the pure electric eletre and emeya are good, but they have lost their lightweight (2.6 tons), which makes it difficult for fans to accept them.

foreign fans and car owners are puzzled by lotus' current pure electric road

therefore, last year in 2023, lotus group sold only 6,970 vehicles worldwide, with the chinese market accounting for 46% (3,206 vehicles), which is not an ideal result.

perhaps it is time for lotus to go back and pay her respects to mr. chapman.

in the 76 years since lotus came into being, its car-making philosophy has been very clear: compete in competitions, delegate technology to others, and continue racing when it makes money. it is very pure, and it does not consider too many household aspects of its civilian cars.

so their car models have always been small and beautiful. and small means their cars are not expensive at all!

the best-selling coupe elan was priced at £1,499, and you could save a third of the money by assembling it yourself. at that time, the gdp per capita in the uk was £1,526, so ordinary people could afford it with a little effort. the same goes for elise, which was really cheap at £18,995 (for the exchange rate at the turn of the millennium).

in addition, it has been tuned down from f1. there is a famous saying on the track: "it is better to be ten pounds lighter than ten horsepower more." with excellent control, the rich also like such a big toy that can be used on the track.ordinary people and rich guys get along well with each other, which is why lotus has so many fans.

the several new cars launched by lotus after electrification have more seats and better interiors, but they are no longer lightweight and have no price advantage. how can they be sold when they are not well-known?

therefore, lotus’ top priority is to find its original intention as soon as possible.

and in their latest evija, i vaguely saw that their engineers were also holding back their energy.

the world's lightest pure electric supercar weighs only 1680kg

, lighter than the tesla model 3, with 1704 nm of torque, 2000 horsepower, and a speed of 0-300km/h in just 9 seconds, breaking everyone's imagination. two huge venturi tunnels run through the entire car, with 1800 kg of downforce, it is simply built in the same way as an airplane.

lotus has already taken this car and painted athe world's first record in the new nord, it has been played 1.64 million times on the internet. let’s show you a clip from the new york city film festival so you can understand how outrageous it is.

no acceleration, just that fast

at a time when all electric cars are now 2-ton behemoths, the emergence of breakthrough technology like evija is what we want to see. lotus is gradually regaining its brand value.

now, feng qingfeng, ceo of lotus group and former president of geely research institute, frequently talks about technology and inheritance. he holds track days and test drives. he no longer organizes any weird 50 million blind date events to pursue those superficial high-net-worth individuals.

the luxury of a brand has always been given by the brand, not just the luxury in price.

when lotus' technology becomes accessible to ordinary consumers in the future, that will be the day when lotus blooms again.