Lotus and GM

[Baritone Black]

Does anyone know the exact relationship between GM and Lotus? I ask because of the obvious similarity between the Opel Speedster and the Lotus Elise.

[Sepecat]

I thought I heard on Top Gear that Lotus was owned by a Malaysian Company? :confused:

[Cheyenne]

Controlling interest in Lotus is currently held by a Malaysian automaker called Proton. Somewhere between 45 and 60%, evidently, with the rest of the stock privately held (supposedly at least 20% or so by Lotus admins).

EDIT: In 1986, General Motors purchased all shares of Lotus Group which included all divisions within Lotus. As a subsidiary entity, Lotus Cars purchased the Millbrook Proving Grounds, an automotive test center. In 1993, Bugatti purchased Lotus from GM, except GM held onto ownership of the Millbrook facility as a division of Lotus &(

In 1996, Proton of Malaysia entered into an agreement with Artioli of Bugatti to purchase Lotus. It's rumored that Artioli holds 20% interest in Lotus Group, Proton somewhere between 40 and 60%, and the rest is privately held, with a significant amount of the remaining held by Lotus officials. General Motors is still listed as a Lotus Technology Partner (and indeed, Lotus still makes constant use of the Millbrook facility), but Proton frowns on the relationship because of competitive interests.

[Justin Martin]

GM used to own Lotus back in the late '80s/early '90s. They were then bought out by Romano Artioli, who also owned Bugatti at that time. Romano's granddaughter is named "Elise", which is where the Elise name came from. ;) Proton bought out Lotus after the Bugatti mess went under.

Lotus also had a strong relationship with Toyota in the early '80s, Toyota owned a fair bit of Lotus stock, and many Toyota parts were used in the Lotus Excel. It was publically acknowledged that Lotus was heavily involved with the development Mk1 MR2. Possibly even more than "heavily involved", since it's been rumored that the MR2 was originally designed entirely by Lotus to be a Lotus, then Toyota bought the design from them. But that's another story...

Anyway, since GM no longer owns Lotus, i'd guess the relationship that exists between Lotus and GM right now are the same as they had with Toyota and many other companies, simply an engineering (and manufacturing) collaboration.


EDIT: heh, didn't read Chey's edit. There's the explanation....

[FeZ]

After the death of Colin Chapman Lotus was owned by GM.
http://www.gglotus.org/ggrace/ggfaq/general.html

Lotus build the fantastic Lotus Omega/Carlton for Opel/Vauxhall

http://www.fast-autos.net/spotlight/vauxhalllotuscarlton.html

[Baritone Black]

What? &(

Ok, let me try reading through that again. :help:

Well, I did ask for the exact relationship. :clown:

[chris]

And Romano Artioli was a feisty character. But he kept Lotus going, and was ultimately the one who realised the fantastic Elise.

Lotus was always ring-fenced IIRC by a group of holding companies and immune from creditors of Bugatti.

Artioli's other claim to fame was the EB110 Bugatti, a high-tech quad-turbo 3.5L short-stroke V12 technological fire-ball. Extremely high tech, and very fast. There was also a stillborn but very sleek EB112 super-saloon.

The EB110, although not so highly recognised or famous today blended quite astonishing acceleration (only just slight slower across 1000m than a Mclaren F1) with quite reasonable refinement. Not a bad machine at all. Like others at the time, it was hit badly by the recession. All up, something near 200 EB110's were built I think.

But the more interesting bits were the feuds between Artioli and the board. Plenty of excitement there. ;) The team photograph being a memorable one. :D The board members were all photographed standing on the steps with Artioli. It was all friendly and happy. They thought he'd capitulated. Only to find the photo distributed with the caption "Artioli says goodbye to his departing board"! ^_^ Very cunning. :)

Lotus continued on, Bugatti Automobili S.p.a went under, and its bankruptcy assets were purchased by Jochen Dauer, who continued to build more EB110's in an improved form, while also offering service. His firm, renowned for its street-legal 962 ended the EB110 saga with a pair of specials, with upwards of 645hp (705hp with another upgrade).

[VQ]

The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is another example, Quad overhead cam 350 alloy V8.

[blackice111288]

thats an all chevy built motor, i thought.

[VQ]

nah, lotus designed it, might have been us made, but uk redesigned.

[Frank N. O.]

Yes indeed, Lotus designed, designation LT-5 (also note the bore, stroke and volume is different from the LT-1 and later LT-4). Furthermore the engine was assembled by Mercury Marine :D

Frank

[VQ]

To bad that wasn't going to be the new generation Chev V8, instead of the LS1, not that the LS1 is a bad motor, i mean OHV means it's compact and the LS2 is even smaller and lighter, but it would at least shutup people who say ohv is dinosaur technology, I mean who cares, it makes an engine compact and roller rockrs make it as efficent as sohc.