If We Were the Boss: Lotus Cars

As consummate car people, we spend a lot of time naively thinking about what we would do if, instead of publicly drooling over cars while making clever comments about them, we were actually in charge of the design process. We might not be educated in transportation design or business management (or even journalism for some of us... including your author) but we sure as hell know cars.

Given Lotus' recent firing of the much unloved Danny Bahar, the scrapping of the insane business plan that tried to turn the company into a Ferrari rival, and the constant rumors that parent company Proton is considering selling the Lotus brand, we've been thinking.

This is our totally uneducated, fantastical, and probably impractical plan for the company.

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Lotus' cars are awesome in spite of the engines. The Elise's engine comes from America's favorite kind of bland, the Toyota Corolla, and the Evora's hails from the ever so sexy Toyota Sienna minivan. Even though both of these power-plants do the trick, there are much better, and much more marketable, options out there.

We think we'd start stuffing Cosworth-tuned Ford engines in there. Cosworth's take on the 2.3L Duratec is one of the best damn four-pots in the world, as it manages to take a healthy 280hp out of a fairly small engine. 121.73hp per litre is nothing short of awesome; that's damn close to the specific output of the Ferrari 458, which is the best in the world for a naturally aspirated engine. There's a great four-cylinder for the line up, but that's not the coolest thing here.

Just imagine if one did the same mods to the 3.7L Duratec V6 that's seen in the Mustang. If the same sort of power could be extracted from this engine we'd be talking about a naturally aspirated 450hp V6. Hell yeah.

Apart from the plebeian Toyota engines, the only problem with the Elise and Exige is that the cars aren't legal for sale in the USA anymore, due to an airbag regulation. Being Americans, we'd fix that as fast as we would a violently malfunctioning septic tank. And we all know that that's something one would want to fix quickly.

Between that and the fact that the Elise just inherited a 280hp I4 and the Exige found itself powered by a 450hp V6, we'd have a pair of winners in the garage. We know the motoring press would go nuts over these, because we are the motoring press.

While the old Excel was a fastback coupe, we envision a new version as sleek shooting brake. One of the difficulties facing automakers at the moment is the increasingly stringent fuel economy standards placed upon them by the world's governments. One way to help increase the company's average is to offer a tiny hatchback with a tiny engine. However, rather than doing something incredibly lame like making the Aston Martin Cygnet, we think Lotus should take on the Subaru STI and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

Imagine a featherweight, AWD, two-door, shooting brake with a tiny twin-turbo four-pot and suspension that's designed to take on not just asphalt, but dirt and ice as well. This thing would need to be in the World Rally Championship as well. If there were a WRC car that actually resembled its street version fans would line up at the dealerships. Combining the lightness that is Colin Chapman's legacy, rally car levels of fun, and the practicality of a hatchback for around $40,000 would surely result in a hot seller.

A lot of people love Lotus, but don't take their cars to the track, and therefore have absolutely no use for an Elise. The most marketable kind of sports car is something simple (Chapman approves), front engined, rear-wheel drive, and open to the air.

We think if Lotus made a modern take on the classic British roadster people would snap them up like they were proverbial hot-cakes. Around $40,000-$47,500 sounds about right for this sort of car. Think of it as a faster, better handling Mazda Miata for a guy with more money and way more style.

It's halo car time. At this point, Lotus has a number of options running from the $40,000s to the $80,000s, but there's no one car that stands out as the one that will be the desktop image of every 12 year old boy. We need a $120,000, mid-engined supercar to go head to head with cars like the Audi R8. Maserati is also looking at bringing a new car into this segment. We think that given the lust that mid-engined exotics inspire, there are a lot of rich people who aren't mega-rich people who would jump at the chance to own this sort of car.

You know... we're willing to bet that Cosworth could do some very cool things to Ford's 5.0L V8 Coyote engine.

Let's face the music. If a premium car company doesn't offer an SUV, it's not competitive. Sadly, if Lotus is to grow, this isn't an "if" it's a "how." There is, however, a way to make an SUV and not totally sell out and cause Colin Chapman to rise from his grave and seek vengeance.

The trick would be to design it for motorsport, and then make a civilian version. If Lotus successfully competed in grueling races like the Baja 1000 and the Dakar rally in a sleek, two-door, lightweight SUV, people would ask for a road-ready version to be made. Imagine a small two door, four seat SUV that was more like the Local Motors Rally Fighter and Bowler EXR than anything else. That would sell, it wouldn't alienate Lotus' faithful, and it would allow Mr. Chapman to rest in peace.

Endeavor is definintely better than Estonia; we'll go with that until we have some marketing people on payroll.

There you have it. In some strange parallel universe where Complex owns Lotus we've turned it into a car company with six Cosworth powered sports cars in the line up, made the world's most desirable cars, introduced a horde of awesome race cars, and sacrificed either the Rides channel or our journalistic integrity.

So what do you say? Should we or should we not be in charge of Lotus?