DarrylV8

Nigel, Collect the car 29th March just over a week to wait

Not sure if this is an age thing! We have always owned manuals, but at the end of 2012 we purchased a brand new 1400 VRS with the 7speed fully auto / paddleshift / sequential stick shift, to make driving through Nottingham on a Monday morning/Friday evening a bit more bearable, the days in between we use the Elise. On the open stretch between home and the outskirts of Nottingham, the sequential change up/down is very good and quick (with no double up or down shifts), especially as the car is a Skoda! TBH if the Evora S IPS downshift had been a bit more communitive we may have considered the Sports Racer version as a second car, we did ask the factory if the new roadster was getting the IPS version early in 2014 as we would have (probably) gone for the paddleshift option but we will make do with the manual we just won’t be using the roadster during rush hour.

"For the few who know the difference." yep like that; when we do collect the V6 roadster it will be our 3rd brandnew Lotus in less than 4 years, and therefore not sure if we are mad or the cars are just brilliant and are we want; or possibly both!

Jonny, is your last line applicable to YOU?

will the 200 include our V6 or are we talking end of 2013? Bibs using your numbers are we talking 4000 units or UK accounting for 10% definitely looking much better for Lotus, really pleased DRB saw [in Lotus] what we all know of our favourite marque; bloody excellent cars, excellent workforce and people wanting to own the product

not sure why we are expecting the Evora replacement to only cost £5K more than the Evora S sports racer that it will replace as its bench mark the Exige in coupe/roadster guise with any kit is £60K Lotus need to have a top end car (Esprit, Elan, Evora or ???) with the quality that is to be expected now, at the proper price; the Evora face lift needs to fill in, in the meantime, but seriously can't see the Lotus range leader to be less than £100K indeed I will be amazed

does Massa not come with Santander money I may be wrong (not for the first time) but thought I had read £18M

good job we have ordered the Exige then, and no i've never driven a boxster let alone a porsche, we both know what we want, and TBH cost is not usually an overriding issue not sure were the depreciation figures come our Cup 260 lost 27% in just over 3.5years our 3rd new Lotus since 2010 and yes the wait is hurting

well wide of the mark matey..............it just wouldent be marque we ALL love if it ran smoothly

all in the great Lotus tradition hand to mouth good to know some of the bygone issues are still at Lotus; road car division or race car yes I know its only Lotus F1 team by name; but some things just don't change...

don't mind a Lexus V8 although i would prefer a TATA backed JLR V8 engine; but would be very disappointed with anything from BMW TBH

BMW the company that got the best bits of Rover group; and then s*it on the rest of the (British) workers....then sold Land Rover and made an even bigger killing. God i hope not

more good news "or does that just mean new variants of existing models?"; after the last couple of years that is a result well worth waiting for over the next year or so Lotus have ground to make up and hopefully prove the doubters wrong with some interesting models on the platform that has served Lotus well over the last decade and a half and move MJK's legacy onwards..... yes a convertible Evora would be so good Mr Aslam

yep dissapointing end to the season, dare i say the race was more interesting with the stewards handing out yellow cards; perhaps we can have joker cards next season to be issued to RBR cars, each race team to decide on which lap and each team gets one joker card for the season

yes i agree with your points, just wish i had paid more attention to the article instead of jumping in with both feet and eyes closed

oops i misread the Lotus page on the LA motorshow "This car is equipped with the, new for model year 2014, Black Package, giving the Evora a more aggressive style." in which case is there R&D money for the Elise/Exige carbon fibre tub, or dare i say on resurrecting the Esprit?

so if £3M per month wages bill we can assume a healthy profit this year from 2000+ units; towards 2014 version of a facelifted Evora and Elise/Exige range?

Stirling, I may be a little older than you, well i definately go back a little further (1981 for my first Esprit). And yes I have changed my tune, I forget how many emails I have sent to DRB/Lotus asking how much longer till we get news of the new Esprit, or Mark Fullalove or the PR department and NOTHING, did the CEO say he was going to let Bibs know only this summer and what have we Lotus fans heard NOTHING. Although I agree I would also like to know what new cars Lotus are going to bring out before they actually roll off the production line, I can also see the argument from the DRB side why let the competition know what you may or may not be working on, I'm sure there are pro's and con's for both arguments, and what would us Lotus fans think if after another promise of 2 new cars in two years does not happen, what would the feeling be then?? It was not that long ago that DB stated 5 new cars in five years in Paris, most of us sceptical at that, yet now we want to know eveything that is going on at the factory. DRB can't win they tell us what they feel (say 3 cars in five years) is acheivable and we have a major incident and it puts them back years and they only bring one new car out for example, or they say nothing and bring out a peach of a car every year. If you do get a McClaren next year hopefully you will be back when the next new Lotus car is with us. Speach over now awaiting the noose

A four month waiting list for the new Exige V6 Roadster Ben would confirm Thomas and Lotus/DRB are right. Yes of course I would like to think I would know what car I may buy in 2 years time, but it is now that we wanted a new Lotus and unfortunately we have to wait for the privalidge. If Lotus had stated this summer that mid 2014 a new V8 Esprit/Elan would be available then we would have waited for this; which is obviously not what Lotus needs at this time! Yes we have waited for news on the long awaited Esprit, but having driven both the coupe and roadster version of the V6 we were happy to place an order for a new car, yes we have looked at the Audi R8, Noble, Alfa 4C and Ginetta G60 but..........

Stefan, we have been discussing this with LMS and Pro Alloy, there is fuel vapour smell from the 70ltr fuel cell and is not really recommended on a road car the standard steel Lotus tank (38ltrs) weighs in at 11kg the pro alloy 60ltr "endurance" tank weighs 8.6kg the pro alloy 54ltr "long range" tank weighs 6.65kg we are going for the 54ltr tank this is easier for LMS to install, so the install cost is much better hope the above helps

how heavy is the standard system?

Well done Romain P17 to 3rd and yet another podium finish oh well done Seb on another WDC

apart from the wheels that is the car deposit etc done yesterday really cant thank Guy (SMC) enough for his patience with us firstly looking at the coupe then changing our mind before settling on the roadster cant wait till next January/February for the roadster to be parked on the drive

Yes exceptional cars (Lotus) especially the later V6 cars, did i not mention we have V6 roadster on order, IMO the best Lotus so far (but i am going to say that) ok Jonny best soft top Lotus yet!! Stirling V you need to keep the faith, much more to come from Lotus