Busy Times For Lotus

[DBell]

Let me tell you about Lotus. I saw on Twitter, an important man with Lotus said "we have 7 drivers. 3 women. No Americans." HERE THEY ARE, BOASTING THEY HAVE NO AMERICANS. I tried to warn Randy Bernard about getting into the bed with these Chinese manufacturers and he went and bit. You know Tony George would have let them walk, oh you know he would have defensed this sport to his best ability, because he is a RACER AND AN AMERICAN. NO AMERICANS. What kind of backwards place is this China if they brag about having No Americans? You know I will tell you what, whatever god they're praying to here, he isn't He, the Good Lord, can't even say MERRY CHRISTMAS in this country anymore because we let a Chinese carmaker come in with their CHEAP PLASTIC ENGINE built by 8-year-old children and run in THE GREATEST SPECTACLE IN AUTO RACING, AMERICA'S Indianapolis 500, try to find me an Indianapolis ANYWHERE else in this world, I make you bet you can't! My point here is that Ed Carpenter is a proven winner on this tour and his team doesn't have an engine because these Chinese manufacturers are coming in and making bad contracts and they won't sign an AMERICAN driver and an AMERICAN team because it's some little funny game, LOOK WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, WITHOUT ED CARPENTER, YOU CAN EXPECT MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF INDYCAR FANS TO LEAVE AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE YOU WENT WITH THIS DINKY PLASTIC ENGINES MADE WITH CHEMICALS. You coulda just went with RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM like Ed Carpenter Racing is and said "hey, build an AMERICAN engine, we're talking like, 6 liters at least baby FIRE 'EM UP LET'S GO RACING SHORT TRACK SATURDAY NIGHT JET FIGHTERS IN A GYMNASIUM" and those good people MAKING THINGS IN DETROIT would have given Ed Carpenter something he could give it a real go get those wins but instead we have LOTUS who are told by the Chinese government to never give nothing to no Americans and then BRAG ABOUT IT ON TWITTER surprised they're even allowed to have the Internet in China! It burns me up, BURNS ME UP LIKE ETHANOL IN A COMBUSTION MOTOR.

That's what I think.

Ok, I'll play.

1) Lotus is owned by Proton, a Malaysian company, not a Chinese company.

2) The Lotus engines are made in England,designed by a long time English engine builder named John Judd.

3) IndyCar doesn't have millions and millions of fans, let alone Ed Carpenter. IndyCar has thousands of fans, Carpenter maybe has hundreds.

4) If your BiF, your writing has become more readable.

5) Try rehab, I hear good things.

[methanolHuffer]

Is that a real post, or did I just dream about it?

[FIAT1]

Some heavy smoking going on in neackar land.

[DBell]

Some heavy smoking going on in neackar land.

I checked out his other post in Nascar forum. He's Mr. Mister reincarnated.

[SoCalPVguy]

I'll be honest when I first heard about "lotus" engines by Judd I was extremely skeptical that would answer the bell at all. At least they have made it this far so lets see how the season goes...

[nigelred5]

....was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor????He!! no! lol. I'm not sure If I was more amused or disturbed about that post....

[Jag_Warrior]

Again, I lifted this from the F1 forum. And again, I wonder how the (over) ambitious plans that Lotus/Proton laid out, including those in IndyCar, will be affected by this sale?

On the back of financial uncertainties for Group Lotus, which was recently sold along with parent company Proton to Malaysian automotive conglomerate DRB-Hicom, Lotus F1's team owner Genii Capital has ended its formal relationship with the marque.

So it looks like it wasn't just Group Lotus that was sold, but all of Proton.

Lotus F1 team committed to name despite end of title sponsor deal - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

[Marbles]

This is one messed up brand. The best numbers I could find for sales was 2,700 globally in 2010. Whatever money they are throwing into racing can't be coming out of the car division so I doubt they have little patience for results despite a couple of decades of stagnation. Dropping the Lotus F1 Team (the one that uses Renault engines) is no surprise considering the cost of F1.

As for Judd, they've had modest (that's being kind) success in some racing but for the most part has been a supplier for the "not ready for prime time players" of motorsport all their life. I could see the Lotus badge being dropped and Judd carrying on with a few teams until Honda and GM are comfortable enough to supply the rest.

[Jag_Warrior]

With all of the overinflated motorsport related plans that Lotus was rolling out, I was expecting Joe Heitzler and Kevin Kalkhoven to pop out of a cake at any moment.

In addition to the handful of cars that Lotus sold, Proton did have a "real" car business - though mainly just in Malaysia, I've read. And Lotus was also involved in automotive engineering solutions for other automotive OEM's (the Tesla project was one of the better known ones recently). But even with ALL of that, was it enough to justify being in almost every quasi-major open wheel category known to man? I don't think so.

It would be nice to see a better financed OEM come in and make a go of what Proton/Lotus started though. DRB (the new owner) assembles cars for Volkswagen and Mercedes. I'm not expecting anything from that relationship, and I'm not trying to start a "you read it here first!" rumor... I'm just saying that it would be pretty sweet to have another major OEM involved.

[Phoenixent]

Judd has been or has tried to be part of AOWS several times. Every time was a failure due to lack of money from Lotus and testing. I believe they will be gone in the month of May as they are not up to the task to supply the teams and their engine will not be up to competing against the other two manufacturer. They have almost zero testing time with their teams and that is something that should not be happening or allowed....