Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
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The_Rossatron
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Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
Looking forward to hearing about it!
"There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling right now."
Ferrari F355, Fiat Panda 100HP, Rover Mini Cooper
http://www.allflashnocash.com
Ferrari F355, Fiat Panda 100HP, Rover Mini Cooper
http://www.allflashnocash.com
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
Congrats to you all - though I thought one of the founder members of SE should have won 
Hopefully, more of these offers will come through as am sure we would all love to go!
Unless... a block booking purely for SE could be arranged???
Hopefully, more of these offers will come through as am sure we would all love to go!
Unless... a block booking purely for SE could be arranged???
DEL
2020 Lotus Elise - Rob Walker Heritage Edition
2022 Hyundia i10 N-Line
2019 DS3 Crossback
2020 Lotus Elise - Rob Walker Heritage Edition
2022 Hyundia i10 N-Line
2019 DS3 Crossback
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
Del, I think with a bit of coordination a team visit could well be put together.
Whether it gets the "audience with Danny" elements too is harder to say, but in some respects even an updated factory tour with some like-minded buddies could be fun.
bibs or Graeme are the guys you'd need to talk to I guess...
Whether it gets the "audience with Danny" elements too is harder to say, but in some respects even an updated factory tour with some like-minded buddies could be fun.
bibs or Graeme are the guys you'd need to talk to I guess...
http://www.rathmhor.com | Coaching, training, consultancy
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
I would be up for that
2015 Lotus Evora
2023 Skoda Kodiaq Sportline
2023 Skoda Kodiaq Sportline
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
So would I, subject to dates and logistics...about 12 years to the day that I was there last 
http://www.rathmhor.com | Coaching, training, consultancy
Re:Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
5yrs ago for me to do the Scare Yourself Sensible day and back in 99 for the first Stelvio trip.
DEL
2020 Lotus Elise - Rob Walker Heritage Edition
2022 Hyundia i10 N-Line
2019 DS3 Crossback
2020 Lotus Elise - Rob Walker Heritage Edition
2022 Hyundia i10 N-Line
2019 DS3 Crossback
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
j2 lot wrote:I would be up for that
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
Well done Scotty!
SCOTTISH LOTUS SPECIALISTS
0131 629 0159 or 07961445483
0131 629 0159 or 07961445483
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
Cheers guys for this fantstic opportunity. I would be glad to hear any questions you wish me to try and sneak in during the visit. I will obviously take some pictures and post them up following my trip. Other point is if anyone wants anything took down my intention at this time is to drive down and probably take the skoda therefore I should have plenty of room to take something/collect within reason
1999 S1 Elise 111S - Fun Spec
2004 Mercedes Benz CLK 200 - Daily Driver Spec
2004 Mitsubishi Shogun- Dog Transport Spec
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
Obviously Graeme knows many more people than I as he works there but I'd be happy to help if I can. I'm putting something together for TLF later this year hopefully, I'll keep you guys informedcampbell wrote:bibs or Graeme are the guys you'd need to talk to I guess...
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
How did it go then Scotty?
DEL
2020 Lotus Elise - Rob Walker Heritage Edition
2022 Hyundia i10 N-Line
2019 DS3 Crossback
2020 Lotus Elise - Rob Walker Heritage Edition
2022 Hyundia i10 N-Line
2019 DS3 Crossback
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
In short the trip was absolutely epic!
Day One - Tuesday
Me and Holly set off in the Skoda mobile for our 7.5 hour trip down to the hotel we where staying in nearby. Part of the way down we decided that as we left at 7am that we would be at the hotel quite early so decided to think about things we could do on route. We then decided that it would be a good idea to go to Chester Zoo so headed to the zoo and got there at 11am. We spent a few hours wondering round the zoo which was very interesting and departed about 4ish.
We then made our way to our hotel around 5 hours away. On route we spoke to Bibs and agreed to meet up for a beer at the hotel where a few of the guys on the trip where staying. We arrived at our hotel, grabed a burger and chips and then headed over to the hotel and was introduced to a few and had a beer and then set off and managed bed for about midnight after 550 mile trip so we where pretty tired.
Day Two - Wednesday
We got up and fueled up on a full English breakfast before heading over to meet the guys at the factory. I was really excited and could not wait until we arrived to see what was in store. Having never been to the factory I was very curious to how it would be.
We met with the others for the tour in a room in the cream building adjacent to the new track in contruction. A fully FIA approved circuit was being freshly constructed and looked epic. We where introduced to the various representatives from Lotus who would be involved in our tour and awaited Danny Bahar's arrival for an introduction and a quick Q&A session.
Danny Bahar arrived and took a seat in front of the group and gave a talk on the plans for the next few years and following this was a Q&A session. I seen some people taking video so when I find that I will post it up for anyone interested as I am writing this purely from memory. The jist of the talk was that Lotus where lossing money for the last 10-15 years and it was getting to the stage that the losses would be unsustainable therefore they had to draw up plans to change the company to a profit making organisation.
They are not looking to change the current offerings or the company DNA but looking to add a range of cars which they believe and hope will turn the company, make some profit which can only be a good thing. Also main point that kept coming up in his talk is that "this is lightweight". His interpretation is not to miss out things on the car to make it lightweight but to have all the necessary items but design them to be lightweight in comparasion to the competition. They have focused on increasing the quality as best as they can and are now doing the interiors through a outside company who make Audi, BMW etc interiors and looking at them they definatately are in a different class to what I am used to in my S1.
He said that they will always make the Elise / Exige / Evora type cars and the price will be the same although he said that yes the elise may be a bit heavier than in the past and a bit bigger dimensions but the cars will have 300 hp and at the same price, how can this be a bad thing?
He explained that the new cars, they have tried to make as modular as possible so the cars can share up to 75%, I think, in commonaility of parts.
On the whole, after the talk I think its a good thing he is doing as really they had no option. They can't continue how they are as they are losing money and therefore I think its better that a plan is in place to try and turn this around, even although some enthausists don't agree with it, but its either they try something different or they won't be there in the future. The huge investment made in the buildings/track/development of the new cars can only be a good sign of the company developing and moving forward. They are really focused on improving the quality of the products and will be introducing standards for dealers etc and looking at the product as a whole making improvements where they can. They want to listen and involve the enthausists who are members of all the clubs and trying to share the vision which they hope everyone will appreciate.
Next the group was split into two, one half for the track and the other half for factory tour. I was for the factory tour so we made our way over.
The first part we entered looked like the final part of the line after the cars had been through the water test machine. We only had half an hour to be shown round so when asked what particular areas we wanted to see, people agreed to see the painting process as very rarely do people see this and as the workers where off we could.
As we made our way to the painting booth I grabbed a few snaps of cars in various stages.
We arrived at the painting area where the parts where fitted to a jig as shown below.
We then made our way up to the paint booths where the colour and clear coat are applied. Process takes around 20 minutes for red and as low as 13 minutes for silver to apply the colour and all done by hand. They say this is more accurate than robots and the painters can be plus or minus two microns all over the car.
We then past where the chasis where all stored.
We then where taking up they began adding to the chasis, wiring looms, seatbelts etc
Then further up the line the body panels appeared on the cars.
Then we went back through to the water testing and the final part of the assembly line.
We then met the guys to all go to classic team lotus.
We where showing a short video showing the history of lotus in F1 before being taking through to be shown the old drawings by chapman etc.
An old timing sheet in its housing the protect it from the rain.
A then a look round the garage to see the cars currently in being rebuild/fixed/set up for the next race.
We then made our way to the design studio.
Danny Bahar white Esprit
We where then given a presentation on the new designs and shown the new cars. No camera where allowed past this point but I am sure you will have seen all the pictures from the Paris show. In the flesh I thought they looked good and just hope that they do sell at the price they are hoping to achieve.
We then went back to track where I got a shot in a 1.6 Elise club racer round half of the new track as the other half was still under contruction. Absolutely epic fun and found the car very capable for such a small engine. Next was the fun part where Martin Donnelly took me round and was absolutely epic! I can not believe how he managed to through the car round the track, breathtaking!!!
We then all headed over to Oxfordshire to our hotel nearer the Renault F1 factory. We met for dinner at 8.15pm after arriving at 8.10pm and had a good chat with various lotus enthausists, some from Belgium and other from America etc.
Day 3 - Thursday
We met at 8.30am in the car park for our drive over to the factory. The factory had parts which looked like something for a James Bond film with one department building being underground.
We met in the Museum part for a quick chat, look about before our tour.
We then were taken through to be shown the super computer used for running the CFD analysis which is used to check the aerodynamics of the various designs.
We then where shown the car which I believe was from 2006
We then had our cameras taken before the tour as no pictures where to be allowed. We were first shown the exhaust systems being manufactured.
These where a work of art, the guys where obviously highly skilled producing these. The exhaust system would be used for the Sat/Sun and then on the next race Friday practice before being replaced by new system.
We then were shown round the CNC machining area where was vast in comparasion to what I was expecting.
We then were shown round the composites and how these where put together. I was suprized how strong some of the material was in comparison to the lightness.
Following this we were taking to a hydraulic jig where they set the car up. The car sat on this jig and the pads under the wheels simulated the impacts occuring on that particular car. Data from sensors in the car would be sent from the practise and uploaded and simulated. They then would adjust the car as necessary feeding the recommended set up back to the race engineer before being refined by driver/race engineer.
We then where shown the wind tunnel where the 60% models would be tested. The CFD was used for most of the design as this gave then much better view of what the air is doing round the car but the more accurate results are seen in the wind tunnel.
We then where taken to the final bit of the factory where they were working on Heidfeld and Petrovs car. It was surreal seeing the mechanics working away getting the cars preped for Turkey.
The main benefit of this visit for me was the realisation of the number of people involved to have two cars racing. I believe there was around 550 people, working there all to provide two cars to these drivers. Its hard to appreciate when you are watching the race that every single one of these people make it possible. From the guy machining each little small component, to the guy welding the exhaust, to the guy running CFD's refining the aerodynamics in the design etc.
All in all the few days was a truely epic trip! I apologise for the quick fire summary without too much detail but I hope the number of pictures help tell the story. I will try and add to this as I get some spare time and if anyone has and questions or queries I will be happy to attempt to answers.
Big thanks to Bibs for making this all possible and big thanks to the moderators for giving me this opportunity, really cant express how great the experience was, just like a dream
Day One - Tuesday
Me and Holly set off in the Skoda mobile for our 7.5 hour trip down to the hotel we where staying in nearby. Part of the way down we decided that as we left at 7am that we would be at the hotel quite early so decided to think about things we could do on route. We then decided that it would be a good idea to go to Chester Zoo so headed to the zoo and got there at 11am. We spent a few hours wondering round the zoo which was very interesting and departed about 4ish.
We then made our way to our hotel around 5 hours away. On route we spoke to Bibs and agreed to meet up for a beer at the hotel where a few of the guys on the trip where staying. We arrived at our hotel, grabed a burger and chips and then headed over to the hotel and was introduced to a few and had a beer and then set off and managed bed for about midnight after 550 mile trip so we where pretty tired.
Day Two - Wednesday
We got up and fueled up on a full English breakfast before heading over to meet the guys at the factory. I was really excited and could not wait until we arrived to see what was in store. Having never been to the factory I was very curious to how it would be.
We met with the others for the tour in a room in the cream building adjacent to the new track in contruction. A fully FIA approved circuit was being freshly constructed and looked epic. We where introduced to the various representatives from Lotus who would be involved in our tour and awaited Danny Bahar's arrival for an introduction and a quick Q&A session.
Danny Bahar arrived and took a seat in front of the group and gave a talk on the plans for the next few years and following this was a Q&A session. I seen some people taking video so when I find that I will post it up for anyone interested as I am writing this purely from memory. The jist of the talk was that Lotus where lossing money for the last 10-15 years and it was getting to the stage that the losses would be unsustainable therefore they had to draw up plans to change the company to a profit making organisation.
They are not looking to change the current offerings or the company DNA but looking to add a range of cars which they believe and hope will turn the company, make some profit which can only be a good thing. Also main point that kept coming up in his talk is that "this is lightweight". His interpretation is not to miss out things on the car to make it lightweight but to have all the necessary items but design them to be lightweight in comparasion to the competition. They have focused on increasing the quality as best as they can and are now doing the interiors through a outside company who make Audi, BMW etc interiors and looking at them they definatately are in a different class to what I am used to in my S1.
He said that they will always make the Elise / Exige / Evora type cars and the price will be the same although he said that yes the elise may be a bit heavier than in the past and a bit bigger dimensions but the cars will have 300 hp and at the same price, how can this be a bad thing?
He explained that the new cars, they have tried to make as modular as possible so the cars can share up to 75%, I think, in commonaility of parts.
On the whole, after the talk I think its a good thing he is doing as really they had no option. They can't continue how they are as they are losing money and therefore I think its better that a plan is in place to try and turn this around, even although some enthausists don't agree with it, but its either they try something different or they won't be there in the future. The huge investment made in the buildings/track/development of the new cars can only be a good sign of the company developing and moving forward. They are really focused on improving the quality of the products and will be introducing standards for dealers etc and looking at the product as a whole making improvements where they can. They want to listen and involve the enthausists who are members of all the clubs and trying to share the vision which they hope everyone will appreciate.
Next the group was split into two, one half for the track and the other half for factory tour. I was for the factory tour so we made our way over.
The first part we entered looked like the final part of the line after the cars had been through the water test machine. We only had half an hour to be shown round so when asked what particular areas we wanted to see, people agreed to see the painting process as very rarely do people see this and as the workers where off we could.
As we made our way to the painting booth I grabbed a few snaps of cars in various stages.
We arrived at the painting area where the parts where fitted to a jig as shown below.
We then made our way up to the paint booths where the colour and clear coat are applied. Process takes around 20 minutes for red and as low as 13 minutes for silver to apply the colour and all done by hand. They say this is more accurate than robots and the painters can be plus or minus two microns all over the car.
We then past where the chasis where all stored.
We then where taking up they began adding to the chasis, wiring looms, seatbelts etc
Then further up the line the body panels appeared on the cars.
Then we went back through to the water testing and the final part of the assembly line.
We then met the guys to all go to classic team lotus.
We where showing a short video showing the history of lotus in F1 before being taking through to be shown the old drawings by chapman etc.
An old timing sheet in its housing the protect it from the rain.
A then a look round the garage to see the cars currently in being rebuild/fixed/set up for the next race.
We then made our way to the design studio.
Danny Bahar white Esprit
We where then given a presentation on the new designs and shown the new cars. No camera where allowed past this point but I am sure you will have seen all the pictures from the Paris show. In the flesh I thought they looked good and just hope that they do sell at the price they are hoping to achieve.
We then went back to track where I got a shot in a 1.6 Elise club racer round half of the new track as the other half was still under contruction. Absolutely epic fun and found the car very capable for such a small engine. Next was the fun part where Martin Donnelly took me round and was absolutely epic! I can not believe how he managed to through the car round the track, breathtaking!!!
We then all headed over to Oxfordshire to our hotel nearer the Renault F1 factory. We met for dinner at 8.15pm after arriving at 8.10pm and had a good chat with various lotus enthausists, some from Belgium and other from America etc.
Day 3 - Thursday
We met at 8.30am in the car park for our drive over to the factory. The factory had parts which looked like something for a James Bond film with one department building being underground.
We met in the Museum part for a quick chat, look about before our tour.
We then were taken through to be shown the super computer used for running the CFD analysis which is used to check the aerodynamics of the various designs.
We then where shown the car which I believe was from 2006
We then had our cameras taken before the tour as no pictures where to be allowed. We were first shown the exhaust systems being manufactured.
These where a work of art, the guys where obviously highly skilled producing these. The exhaust system would be used for the Sat/Sun and then on the next race Friday practice before being replaced by new system.
We then were shown round the CNC machining area where was vast in comparasion to what I was expecting.
We then were shown round the composites and how these where put together. I was suprized how strong some of the material was in comparison to the lightness.
Following this we were taking to a hydraulic jig where they set the car up. The car sat on this jig and the pads under the wheels simulated the impacts occuring on that particular car. Data from sensors in the car would be sent from the practise and uploaded and simulated. They then would adjust the car as necessary feeding the recommended set up back to the race engineer before being refined by driver/race engineer.
We then where shown the wind tunnel where the 60% models would be tested. The CFD was used for most of the design as this gave then much better view of what the air is doing round the car but the more accurate results are seen in the wind tunnel.
We then where taken to the final bit of the factory where they were working on Heidfeld and Petrovs car. It was surreal seeing the mechanics working away getting the cars preped for Turkey.
The main benefit of this visit for me was the realisation of the number of people involved to have two cars racing. I believe there was around 550 people, working there all to provide two cars to these drivers. Its hard to appreciate when you are watching the race that every single one of these people make it possible. From the guy machining each little small component, to the guy welding the exhaust, to the guy running CFD's refining the aerodynamics in the design etc.
All in all the few days was a truely epic trip! I apologise for the quick fire summary without too much detail but I hope the number of pictures help tell the story. I will try and add to this as I get some spare time and if anyone has and questions or queries I will be happy to attempt to answers.
Big thanks to Bibs for making this all possible and big thanks to the moderators for giving me this opportunity, really cant express how great the experience was, just like a dream
1999 S1 Elise 111S - Fun Spec
2004 Mercedes Benz CLK 200 - Daily Driver Spec
2004 Mitsubishi Shogun- Dog Transport Spec
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
Epic trip Scott. Thanks for sharing. - a chance of a lifetime experience to see so much in one trip.
2015 Lotus Evora
2023 Skoda Kodiaq Sportline
2023 Skoda Kodiaq Sportline
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BiggestNizzy
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Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
Great write up and thanks for sharing.
I am a little dubious of the 4 micron limit though
I am a little dubious of the 4 micron limit though
Sent from my ZX SPECTRUM +2A
Re: Lotus factories special visit - 27th April
Good write up and plenty of pics mate
Sounds such a good trip.
Loving that Matt black loti!
Calypso Red S1 111s