News: Life in Lotus yet?

  

Legendary sports car maker Lotus has been through the mill more than most over the past 24 months, with a takeover of its parent firm, the Malaysian car maker Proton, seemingly threatening its very existence.

With the acrimonious departure of high-flying (and quite possibly mad) former boss Dany Bahar, and the fact that Proton's new owner, DRB-HiCom, had stopped investment in crucial new models the like upcoming new Esprit,  it did seems as if Colin Chapman's company was on its last legs. The announcement late last year that Renault was to go into partnership with Caterham to develop a new range of sports cars seems to be the sound of nails being hammered into Lotus' coffin.

But, this week, there came news that all was not yet lost and that Lotus, despite having seen its heartland UK sales fall to just 137 cars last year, might not be for the chopping block after all.

Executive chairman of Proton, Dato' Sri Haji Mohd Khamil, issued a statement this week that seemed to offer some hope for a future for Lotus... ‘The Exige and Elise cars represent the best that Lotus has to offer right now, and I can truly say that the best is yet to come,' he said. 

'For Lotus to remain competitive and relevant, it will be necessary for us to introduce more and more exciting products to our customers in the future. We have many times affirmed our commitment to the future of this brand, and with the launch of Malaysia's first Lotus Flagship Showroom today, we are again reiterating our commitment to the future of Lotus.'

Does that mean that investment in the badly-needed Esprit will be cut, in favour of developing a new line of Elise and Esige models? Or do some shreds of Dany Bahar's ambitious (crazy?) five-new-models plan still exist? We'll have to wait and see, but at least this isn't goodbye. For now.

News: Renault & Caterham team up to revive Alpine

Renault is going ahead with its revival of the classic Alpine sports car brand, and it's bringing in sports car specialists (and burgeoning F1 team) Caterham to help it out.

The Alpines which came from the original factory in the French seaside town of Dieppe were rallying legends back in the seventies, especially the achingly pretty A110 (pictured, bottom) which won the Monte Carlo Rally. The Alpine team was also instrumental in Renault's 1978 Le Mans 24hrs win, even though by then, the process to turn independent Alpine into wholly-Renault-owned RenaultSport had already begun.

Alpine's days as a road car maker ended in the mid-nineties when the little-seen A610, a rival for the Porsche 911, went out of production and the brand has been dormant since, even though its Dieppe home-base has still been busy with RenaultSport projects, including the much-loved hot versions of the Clio and Megane.

Now though, the Alpine badge is going to be revived for a series of road cars, which Renault teased earlier this year with a concept, based on the Dezir sports car concept (above). And to help it get future Alpines designed and into production, Renault has brought Caterham on board.

Caterham is well known to motoring enthusiasts as the makers of the long-lived Caterham 7 sports car, a no-frills, back-to-basics two-seater that generally regarded as one of the best-to-drive, and fastest, cars around. The two companies, Renault and Caterham, already have a connection as Caterham's Formula One team uses Renault F1 engines. Caterham was bought last year by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes, who owns the Air Asia airline and who brought the Lotus name back into Formula One three years ago, only to buy up Caterham following a gruelling court battle that saw Lotus Cars take the name back off him. Now, Caterham doesn't just have its small sports car factory and its F1 team, it also has CTI, Caterham Technologies International, which is the bit that Renault is interested in – CTI's expertise in low-volume designs and carbon-fibre construction is just the ticket to get Alpine back on the road.

So what can we expect? Well, Alpine's traditions are based around mid-or-rear-engined sports cars, using relatively simple, low-powered (compared to some of the competition) Renault engines and majoring on light weight and agility. The hefty-looking concept version, which was based around the engine and chassis of a Megane race car, will likely not make it through to production.

“This innovative partnership with Caterham embodies a longstanding ambition: the creation of a sports car with the Alpine DNA. It carries both opportunities for the Dieppe plant and the development of its historic know-how" said Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault.

“I have not felt as excited about a new venture since I launched AirAsia in 2001 and I want to thank Carlos Ghosn and Carlos Tavares and everyone in our new Renault family for having the belief in Caterham Group to create this partnership" said Tony Fernandes. "Many people doubted us 11 years ago when we launched our airline and I am sure that there will be doubters again this time, but we will not fail your trust. We know the markets we are going into and, particularly in my playground in Asia, there is a huge opportunity to replicate the AirAsia model and give consumers access to exciting, affordable products that marry our interests in F1 and technology and help make their dreams come true.”