There's not a recent thread so here's to a pipe dream of Lotus coming back to F1. Geely has the money to do it if they wanted to.
Would it be a new team or a returning team? Andretti should buy Alpha Tauri...that would get him on the grid even starting somewhere in this season.
why? what is there to gain? you can't do it like you could in the 50's and early 60's - for the fun of it.
Toyota and Honda both tried it, it didn't work. If Lotus wanted to use it to sell cars, they can simply sponsor a team or buy a percentage of an existing team and rebadge it. The LAST thing you should do is get into something and suck at it. Team Haas got into it - how are they doing?
$150M/year is not too much for Lotus parent Geely. Andretti can pair up with Lotus as they look for a partner. Team Lotus is a legendary F1 team, Andretti has history with Lotus and Geely has battery tech that could be used in the power train. If Andretti are going to build their center in Indianapolis with their indycar facilities, very little chance they can convince people to move to the US. Lotus can base it in the UK. Lots of synergies. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Sorry, you are correct. I seem to be doing that more lately. ANYWAY, I will let you and Octonion slug it out over post #5.
I would love to have Lotus back in F-1 but sadly it's just moved on. Lotus under Colin Chapman was an amazing story- ultra competitive and always at the forefront fo design. Sadly his road cars sucked... on a good day. they were beautiful, and sometimes very quick ... but terrible workmanship and build quality ... we had 2 and they were disappointing cars! I was a guest at Lotus the last time they were in F-1 when Grosjean finished 2nd at COTA...
I find the story of Lotus fascinating. Which two Loti did you have? I'd love to hear more about your first hand experiences. Joe
You mean a pump and dump? Stroll controls AM and owns the racing team. He's only doing it as a tax scheme and a method to drive up AM's stock in the short term so he can make cash on it, and as a laughably expensive vanity project that he can palm the costs of to shareholders.
Why so much hate for Stroll? Its across the board in the media and among individuals. Maybe I do not have the full picture but he is just another billionaire going about doing pretty much what every billionaire does. AML did £1.38 billion in revenue in 2022 which includes roughly £220 million from the Valkyrie. They still have more Valkyries to sell. When that slows down, the Valhalla will fill in the gap. What if they hit £2bn of revenue by 2024? If he is making bank and in the process we get some nice cars and the brand stays alive, what is not to like in that scenario? On the other hand, people who have invested in AML, should do their homework. Unless I am investor who pores over their financial statements and earnings calls, I am not going to judge them. If there was no oil money, there won't be F1 to talk about. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is a major shareholder in AML. I am sure they've done their DD.
Sorry, this is a Lotus thread, but if I wanted a team to go back to F1 is BWM. After Ferrari, that is my favorite team.
Early Lotus road cars were brilliant cars, loaded down with dog engines and transmissions. The handling qualities of a Europa were simply undeniable, If any car ever deserved 2× the HP this was it.
Maybe when F1 goes all electric—aren’t all Loti electric, or expected to be electric? I suppose they should join Formula E.
We had - my dad had - a 1970 Europa S2 with the Renault engine. the mechanicals were always pretty good, routine oil change etc... the Solex Carb was crap... eventually I changed it out for a Webber - and it just made the car run so much better, smoother, easier to start etc... the major issue with the Europa was that the build quality was terrible. For Instance: He bought the car brand new in 1969 (My70) and had it until 1994. only covered 36K miles, and about 15 k were put on by me. however during that time we had the following go wrong: With broken Gear shift linkage the t crossover simply cracked in half. Broker Throttle cable - 3-4 times - a kink in the metal sheath between the firewall and engine bay The drivers door sagged from day 1 - but got progressively worse... requiring a complex and painful repair, as the rod was literally held in place by two thick sandpaper rings... The front right turn signal literally fell out while he was driving ( covered under warranty) the battery would discharge = bad ground from the factory the rubber pipe connector to the radiator cracked - and had to replace the whole line - and found a pair of sunglasses left in there from the factory the electrical wiring to the front fan would burn out all the time - so it would overheat.... turned out to be a crossed bare wire with the chassis silencer in the back fell off the mounting = had to be re-welded. The choke cable got stuck open - so had to be disconnected - and re-plumbed - that was a huge pita. gauges would intermittently work for years and then stop, and then work again... So it was mostly small things- but it would leave you stranded .. and take days to figure out what was going on - this was way before any internet... so finding info in Western PA was terrible. He had a 1980 Esprit - 2.2 na car... in black with tan interior non JPS. it was a nice car, a bit better than the Europa in build quality - but the mechanicals was finicky. he bought that used - from a local doctor, who had it for a 1.5 years, and bought a Ferrari. - so with in 3 months of buying it - the rubber connector to the carb inlet on the fuel side split spraying gas all over the engine - lucky no fire, but what a mess... oil drain plug was stuck on - had to be drilled out and new one tapped in... not fun inboard brakes would overheat in hot weather traffic - or the warning light would come on indicating brake failure... learned it was usually a wire or something soldered fell off Gear stick literally cracked at the ball joint - had to have that brazed together. and tons of electric gremlins with fans and AC... it would get cold then stop working and then start to drip all over the interior ... like Ferrari 308's do.... but on the drivers side. ... drive one with a wet foot.... the worst was self inflicted - I backed the car over top a concrete block - and cracked the left side right under the gas tank. ... ugg,,, that was a bad day... I still remember my dad screaming at me. needless to say we had the car till I was 17 and he bought another Porsche.
I agree. I loved the Europa when driving it.... keeping it going was a constant struggle. I keep toying with the idea of buying one and putting in a Honda K engine ... that car with 150 - 200 Hp would be amazing.... take an s2 - subtle flares, and put in all honda or toyota running gear and electrics - make it look like a Gt47... amazing. I saw the car that chip foose did on overhauling at Jay Lenno's garage and it was beautiful and had almost 450 hp.... crazy.
I had a Fiat X1/9 with 120 HP............10.5 pistons, 36 DCNF carbs, 4-into-1 headers, <ahem> Ohio legal exhaust,.....at 1700 pounds.......should have gone with the 40 DCOEs.........
