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Automotive Exceptionalism

Pastorbottle
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The Dino 246 GT was a beautiful car, dad had one so perhaps I’m biased, it was the first car I ever drove, I was about 13 when Dad took me out to a deserted stretch of road, and gave me a lesson in the Dino!
Great bragging rights that……..the first car I drove was a Dino!
I’ll put up a pic of Dad with the Dino when I get home.
I had an off road go cart at the age of seven so I did have an idea of how to drive.
The car was purchased to become a racecar, in the production sports category, it was to replace the MGs that my family were racing which whilst competitive in their class weren’t up to the 911s and V8 Bolwells that had come into the competition.
Once Dad had got hold of it, he loved it too much to ruin it by tuning it into a racer, he then decided perhaps a Corvette would be the answer, but then a total change of plan, saw a move into the series production category, which was at the time the most popular racing category in the country. Racing muscle car sedans specially homologated for the category by the manufacturers.

Now for the benefit of those of you (most I’d say) that have no idea what a Bolwell is they were a locally built Ford V8 powered lightweight sports car a bit like a Corvette in concept.
IMG_0492.jpeg
 
MRC
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Pastorbottle Pastorbottle
E
Let’s face it Lotus always made cars that went like a scolded cat, had magnificent dynamics and stunning looks, but reliably, robustness and assembly quality were never their strong suit.
.

Yeah! Reliability & robustness so bad that I drove one of mine for just short of 1/4 million miles with only one stop on the road -- I had worn out the ignition switch....
 
davidswiss
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For sheer speed and aerodynamics the Austin 7 is the tops. Here it is on the hillclimb at Brooklands a few weeks ago.
001-79446.JPG 004-fd92e.JPG
 
BLOW UP
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Pastorbottle Pastorbottle
Exactly how another useless stupid SUV is a move in the right direction quite escapes me….. like all of these softcock-roaders, with their ugly as a hatful of arseholes styling, total lack of off road ability, and compromised dynamics, the damned things are too busy trying to cover all the bases they fail to cover any properly.

Yeah they’ll sell them, but at the cost of diluting the brand essence, and given the market must be pretty well saturated, will they sell enough to justify the development costs? The sort of people that will buy them aren’t you usual hardcore Lotus enthusiasts who will forgive silly niggling faults, because they love the car and understand that it’s an impractical toy, no this new demographic of buyers will scream blue bloody murder, because the damned cigarette lighter socket doesn’t work, or the bloody cup holder has fallen off again!
If they don’t spend enough time and money on developing the design properly, they will drown in warranty costs and their reputation will suffer irreparable damage with this buyer demographic.
Let’s face it Lotus always made cars that went like a scolded cat, had magnificent dynamics and stunning looks, but reliably, robustness and assembly quality were never their strong suit.
If they haven’t got their sums right, they won’t get repeat buyers.
And Lotus may join the loooooong list of British car brands that are but a memory…….due to reputation damage and warranty issues caused by selling products that were rushed onto the market and weren’t properly developed because the damned bean counters wouldn’t spend any money on making it work properly.

We could say the same about Aston Martin with their new SUV, Ferrari with their new SUV, Maserati, Lamborghini, Porsche etc.. and on and on.. They all seem to be doing pretty well out of that market though it's not a market that I'm particularly interested in, Lotus are spending a lot of time and effort on quality control, and the SUV will likely share a platform with another manufacturer, they have strong links with Mercedes AMG and Toyota in the current lineup. I actually really hope they succeed and I do wish them the best; they are a very unique brand who have never made particularly great quality road cars it's always really been about added lightness and handling, but looking at what they're now doing, it seems they're really trying their utmost to change all of that.
Edited:
 
Pastorbottle
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BLOW UP BLOW UP
We could say the same about Aston Martin with their new SUV, Ferrari with their new SUV, Maserati, Lamborghini, Porsche etc.. and on and on.. They all seem to be doing pretty well out of that market though it's not a market that I'm particularly interested in, they're spending a lot of time and effort on quality control, and the SUV will likely share a platform with another manufacturer, they have strong links with Mercedes AMG and Toyota in the current lineup. I actually really hope they succeed and I do wish them the best; they are a very unique brand who have never made particularly great quality road cars it's always really been about added lightness and handling, but looking at what they're now doing, it seems they're really trying their utmost to change all of that.
Brands such as Ferrari etc, are known to all, a bit like Rolex in the brand awareness stakes, these are badges that are often purchased for the prestige of the brand with no real interest in the car itself, they’ll never drive it to anywhere near it’s potential. Now with a brand like Lotus that only really has enthusiast appeal, and is probably almost unknown to non car enthusiasts, a SUV is going to be a hard sell in what is a very crowded marketplace with every man and his dog trying to make and sell SUVs. Not everyone can be a winner.
If they don’t get it right first time there will be no second chances.
 
spacemission
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Group b or anything else?

5c385c5597408.jpg
 
dsio
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
You should enjoy this...


Screenshot_20230828_150439_YouTube.jpg
That actually seems like the first genuine competitor to Singer, sounds absolutely epic and going to 11k is awesome but wonder how much it will end up being
 
vbrad26
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Pastorbottle Pastorbottle
Brands such as Ferrari etc, are known to all, a bit like Rolex in the brand awareness stakes, these are badges that are often purchased for the prestige of the brand with no real interest in the car itself, they’ll never drive it to anywhere near it’s potential. Now with a brand like Lotus that only really has enthusiast appeal, and is probably almost unknown to non car enthusiasts, a SUV is going to be a hard sell in what is a very crowded marketplace with every man and his dog trying to make and sell SUVs. Not everyone can be a winner.
If they don’t get it right first time there will be no second chances.

I'm going to use Porsche for my example.
I remember my distaste for the Cayenne and eventually the Macan as well when they were first released.
But then I realized, Porsche is probably (hopefully) making a killing on these things.
Which in turn will (hopefully) fund their development/production of the more hardcore stuff.
Even with their (and others) push to the EV market. I wouldn't say it dilutes the brand, necessarily. Soccer moms will eat that shit up.
As long as they keep pumping out cars with The letters G,T, R and S...I'm fine.
 
rob#1
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Watch my Whisky Watch my Whisky
It probably broke down and the owner had no other choice!

Yep, that would explain why it was parked in the bus stop, as the hill up from there is quite steep. Having owned a few British cars it wouldn’t surprise me that it just conked out 🙄
 
vbrad26
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That was my immediate thought haha. But only joking of course....
 
abrod520
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dsio dsio
That actually seems like the first genuine competitor to Singer, sounds absolutely epic and going to 11k is awesome but wonder how much it will end up being

I think the Singer is endlessly more luxurious - this one seems to have a different point altogether. Tuthill rallies GT3 Cup cars and this seems to be almost designed for road rallies
 
abrod520
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vbrad26 vbrad26
I'm going to use Porsche for my example.
I remember my distaste for the Cayenne and eventually the Macan as well when they were first released.
But then I realized, Porsche is probably (hopefully) making a killing on these things.
Which in turn will (hopefully) fund their development/production of the more hardcore stuff.

That and the fact that when the first Cayenne came out, it was also 100% Porsche. Almost as offroadable as a Hummer, faster to 60 than many sports cars of its time. The thing was insane.
That was before these companies realized things like that didn't matter, only the badge did. Now they mail them in - except for Porsche which decided that since the Macan was a smaller size, it should not only be fast but be as agile than some sports cars.
 
dsio
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abrod520 abrod520
I think the Singer is endlessly more luxurious - this one seems to have a different point altogether. Tuthill rallies GT3 Cup cars and this seems to be almost designed for road rallies
The current Singer in production the DLS, is very similar to this and much more of a GT car than a comfortable sunday cars and coffee type of vehicle, performance and setup wise its a pretty decent match, but then the previous Singers definitely were a bit more that way.
 
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