New Future Concept Lotus 4x4

[Mark A]

I understand what you are saying but that isn't a market sector that people would choose Lotus.

 

You reference off-road enthusiasts and fast off-roaders, in that marketplace you have a few levels of what people are interested in. You have the extreme off-road where they are winching cars over gullys and rock crawing etc, pretty slow speed stuff, usually done in either old landies/Shoguns etc (and a few suzuki samurai's), and in the US they will use quite new cars. You then have the Hill rallies, these are specialist home built machines for the most part (I know a few guys who used to race), there are the 'production' vehicles but these are quite heavily modified to suit what the people do. Then there are the recreational users, these are people who do a bit of green laning and fording etc but never doing anything too extreme, I do a bit of this in whatever my current lease vehicle happens to be (see below). I probably push this further than most, and for this ground clearance is an important factor so you don't drown out in water or get stuck, because these tend to be new cars and the owners don't want too much damage (other than the odd scrape underneath).

 

 

Withing these areas you have Land Rovers, Mitsibushi's, Toyota's, Nissan's, at the recreational side (The X5's, Cayennes, XC90's etc don't work), The older landies and Bowlers at the more extreme side (and Hummers in the US) and the Simbugini etc on the rally stuff. Have a look at this site for some pictures of what people race with http://www.cautionovercrest.com/. This is where the Bowler originates.

 

The problems with off-road driving nowadays is that it's becomming more and more difficult so the type of usage you envisage is not something that you can really do in Europe anymore, in the US and Australia etc then yes, perhaps even somewhere like Russia (although driving conditions are very severe over there).

 

For the this type of vehicle the most important thing is the mechanical bits underneath, and if your course is anything like the one at Cov Uni that I almost did about 18 years ago then your project won't really cover this (hence why I did engineering instead).

 

Ultimately your are doing a design project and I'm sure it will look great but think you will struggle to justify it in the marketplace as a Lotus.

[Neil]

Firstly, you deserve some credit for actually joining a forum like this and approaching people on here for information. You also appear brave for suggesting a Lotus 4X4 to a bunch or hardened Lotus fans!

 

I can understand some of the less than enthusiastic comments as at first glance the idea of a Lotus 4X4 seems pretty daft (verging on offensive). The design concepts for Lotus cars and most 4X4's are at opposite ends of the spectrum and the sort of people who are interested in either are very rarely interested in both - Personally I can't stand 4X4's unless it's something liken an old Landy being abused by a farmer. Don't take this the wrong way, but I could understand why bods from Lotus might not get back to you on this one - it isn't a market sector that Lotus really want to get involved in (in fact I'd got as far as saying that they probably want to stay as far away from it as possible!)

 

Having said that I think I can see what you are trying to achieve here, something like the vehicles used in the Dakar Rally. I suppose it sort of fits the Lotus design philosophy of lightweight and fast, albeit in a very different form. I can't say I know too much about this type of vehicle however I can't imagine that there are many places in the UK where that sort of vehicle could be used to it's full potential - maybe I'm wrong. I also think the risk here is that you'd basically end up re-drawing the Bowler with a little green and yellow badge on the front.

 

If I may I'd like to make a suggstion. I don't know if you read EVO magazine, but there have been several letters over the past few months about people having to change their Elise for a 4 door/4 seater car and complaining about the distinct lack of any suitable cars on the market that offer the same thrills and driving pleasures as an Elise - there's definately a gap in the market as I haven't got a clue what I'd change mine for should the need arrive. The prospect of a 4 door/4 seater (proper seats, not 2+2) Lotus is a little more palatable and might offer you a good scope for a design which could be interesting yet still different from anything already available. I'd love to see a 4 seater Lotus that offers Elise type driving satisfaction without having to pay Aston sort of money.

 

Well, that's my 2 pennies worth anyway (and some!)

 

Good luck with the project, like I said - you deserve credit for coming on here and asking the enthusiasts. I look forward to seeing your work in a car mag in the future.

 

P.S. If it looks like an X5 or a Q7 with a Lotus badge on the front I'm going to send you a flaming turd in the post

[Dixie]

A paris - dakkar elise type thing would be cool. The chasis would be able to accomodate it. the esprit V8 stuck in the back. Some big off road tyres. I rekon it'd be cool!!!

 

any photo shop boffs got a spare 10 mins to knock one up?

[dan_sydd]

Thanks for the comments, it all helps my project.

The course i am doing is very similar to what Coventry do, so we do only look at design, and making a pleasing form, we dont really look at the engineering side of things and that doesnt really interest me! I wanted to do a Lotus offroad because of what i feel Lotus is about, i havent really looked at where and when it will be used which only accounts for a small part of my project content. I love the theory of 'performance through leightweight', 'more is less', 'change the rules' etc and wanted to almost apply this to a new vehicle for Lotus. Also i think an extreme buggy style Lotus would be cool to not only look at but fun to design and model. Loads of students do the typical sports car stuff and iv done a few projects like that before so wanted to do something different. I still like my idea of a Lotus offroad car, a super leightweight fast, big tyres and high profile thing that appeals to anyone who wants to drive a car on the road but also have the ability to experience offroad driving, weather it be amateur offroad courses or rally style events, it could be more of an allround thing for people to get into offroad driving. But i do realise, that especially in this country, the offroad scene has very specific vehicles for different types of events etc.

Generally, I wanted to get more of an idea about why people buy a Lotus from using this forum more than anything, and try to see if i can apply that to my project to see if it would be accepted. I do appreciate all the comments so far everyone, thanks.

I have a few early renderings on my webpage but its changed a lot now, i'l try to update my early clay modelling pics soon but it still a brown buck at the mo so doesnt look anything special unless your standing next to it appreciating the surfacing! Anyway the website is http://www.openfolio.com/users/n072815 then click on Lotus Project.

 

Thanks, Dan.

[Zip Boing Arial Whoop]

KTM........ Design an Trackday car... I remember a KTM as a motocross bike, but they can design a track car... Crossover thinking.

 

So a lightweight, performance, driver orientated 4x4, weekend car, chassis and, crucially, suspension and handling by Hethel, does it seem so far fetched.

 

Go for it and let me know how it goes.

 

Zip

 

Firstly, you deserve some credit for actually joining a forum like this and approaching people on here for information. You also appear brave for suggesting a Lotus 4X4 to a bunch or hardened Lotus fans!

 

I can understand some of the less than enthusiastic comments as at first glance the idea of a Lotus 4X4 seems pretty daft (verging on offensive). The design concepts for Lotus cars and most 4X4's are at opposite ends of the spectrum and the sort of people who are interested in either are very rarely interested in both - Personally I can't stand 4X4's unless it's something liken an old Landy being abused by a farmer. Don't take this the wrong way, but I could understand why bods from Lotus might not get back to you on this one - it isn't a market sector that Lotus really want to get involved in (in fact I'd got as far as saying that they probably want to stay as far away from it as possible!)

 

Having said that I think I can see what you are trying to achieve here, something like the vehicles used in the Dakar Rally. I suppose it sort of fits the Lotus design philosophy of lightweight and fast, albeit in a very different form. I can't say I know too much about this type of vehicle however I can't imagine that there are many places in the UK where that sort of vehicle could be used to it's full potential - maybe I'm wrong. I also think the risk here is that you'd basically end up re-drawing the Bowler with a little green and yellow badge on the front.

 

If I may I'd like to make a suggstion. I don't know if you read EVO magazine, but there have been several letters over the past few months about people having to change their Elise for a 4 door/4 seater car and complaining about the distinct lack of any suitable cars on the market that offer the same thrills and driving pleasures as an Elise - there's definately a gap in the market as I haven't got a clue what I'd change mine for should the need arrive. The prospect of a 4 door/4 seater (proper seats, not 2+2) Lotus is a little more palatable and might offer you a good scope for a design which could be interesting yet still different from anything already available. I'd love to see a 4 seater Lotus that offers Elise type driving satisfaction without having to pay Aston sort of money.

 

Well, that's my 2 pennies worth anyway (and some!)

 

Good luck with the project, like I said - you deserve credit for coming on here and asking the enthusiasts. I look forward to seeing your work in a car mag in the future.

 

P.S. If it looks like an X5 or a Q7 with a Lotus badge on the front I'm going to send you a flaming turd in the post

 

Wow you have me on a role... I have to sell my Elise to pay for an MPV .. Cause of 'Family Commitments'.

 

But, I think you are way of the mark from the orginal thread. Lotus won't and can't compete in the Cayenne market. Let BMW, Porsche, Volvo, Audi, have the pretend off-road market, what about a 4x4 that you can drive to work, tail slide in the wet and go green laneing on weekends. If you need a 7 seater this won't be the car for you.

 

Zip.

 

(2nd bottle of Shiraz open)

[Steve J]

How about a true "performance through light weight" car, and design one that flies about 50 ft in the air?

 

Future of personal transport has to go up, as the ground is getting too conjested. Bet you'll be the only one who "changes the rules" instead of designing ground going sports cars Look at the impact the S1 Esprit had when in the Bond flick it changed the normal element of travel to go under the sea

[dan_sydd]

http://static.blogo.it/autoblog/ktm_m2.jpg

Is this the KTM thing u were on about Zip?

 

I dont want it to be a vehicle that is similar to a Porsche or Volvo etc, but more of an extreme leightweight performance offroad vehicle. It would be cool to have a car that you could drive to work then take it to an offroad course at the weekend for some funfilled antics, sort of a different take on track days. With driving supposedly in the future becoming much more of a boring thing, speed limits, black box's in our cars so our speed can be monitered and drive by wire technology etc, it takes away the fun that a car offers. Especially cars like Lotus who are made to be about driving experience and exhileration. Track days and driving experiences in a controlled and non-public-road environment are where we will soon get our thrills from ( this info is from a lecture we had from a top bloke in F1 and future safety of cars etc who was saying how in the next 10-20 years it'l ALL change!) So i think if there is gonna be a rise in track days, offroad events etc for amateurs who wanna get a quick driving thrill, Lotus or similar companies would be a good car to own. Average Joe in a Mondeo or Vectra cant take his/her car offroad or around a track at the weekend! Maybe i'm trying too hard to justify the fact that i wanna design a cool as f**k Lotus! At the end of the day i want it to look good cos thats what people look at first when they see a car, the first impression is the most important.

 

Thanks for the positive comments!

[jeffers]

Lotus 4x4 = Bowler Wildcat IMO

[Zip Boing Arial Whoop]

http://static.blogo.it/autoblog/ktm_m2.jpg

Is this the KTM thing u were on about Zip?

 

I dont want it to be a vehicle that is similar to a Porsche or Volvo etc, but more of an extreme leightweight performance offroad vehicle. It would be cool to have a car that you could drive to work then take it to an offroad course at the weekend for some funfilled antics, sort of a different take on track days. With driving supposedly in the future becoming much more of a boring thing, speed limits, black box's in our cars so our speed can be monitered and drive by wire technology etc, it takes away the fun that a car offers. Especially cars like Lotus who are made to be about driving experience and exhileration. Track days and driving experiences in a controlled and non-public-road environment are where we will soon get our thrills from ( this info is from a lecture we had from a top bloke in F1 and future safety of cars etc who was saying how in the next 10-20 years it'l ALL change!) So i think if there is gonna be a rise in track days, offroad events etc for amateurs who wanna get a quick driving thrill, Lotus or similar companies would be a good car to own. Average Joe in a Mondeo or Vectra cant take his/her car offroad or around a track at the weekend! Maybe i'm trying too hard to justify the fact that i wanna design a cool as f**k Lotus! At the end of the day i want it to look good cos thats what people look at first when they see a car, the first impression is the most important.

 

Thanks for the positive comments!

Bit more ifo on the KTM

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/204597/ktm_xbow.html

 

I have to honest, I like your idea.

 

Zip