-eztrader-

Would personally love to see a Lotus Evija with "just" a 550 hp n/a engine. Sign me up

groundhog

The Lotus 420 Cup was excellent, weighed 1100kg and was super dialled - the build quality, however wasn't there. So not sure how they are going to be able to produce the Evija to a reasonable standard. Sadly I think it'll end up being a "show bag" looks great on the outside but is **** on the inside.

Chris3963

Geeky have transformed Volvo spectacularly . They will do the same with Lotus.

SSO

I think the current situation gives Merc the perfect excuse to walk away from the Project One and they will likely take it. A $1mil+ Lotus was never going to be a good idea, no matter how great the design. On the Pininfaria Battista, I think it would have had more of a chance if they had dropped a V12 in the back.

Guest89

Agreed on all points, in particular the Project One. I saw the car over two years ago at Amelia Island (and it wasn’t brand new then)!

Meanwhile: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-d...-idUSKCN2243IH

ipse dixit

TAch Miami

At the 2018 Amelia, I thought the Mercedes One was already sold out at $2.7 mil so they should be going ahead with the run. It does look a bit dated already. The Lotus from this years Amelia could be a tough sell at $2.5 mil, but did look good.

ipse dixit

With the exception of Pagani, the marques with strong corporate backing will not pull back on special halo 1M+ offerings.

hf1

If stock markets take the recent lows and go lower from there, none of these will be made.

fskof

I haven’t seen this posted.

A interesting opinion on the future of Mclaren

SSO

I would not put much stock in what he says. Call it tabloid youtubeism.

Guest89

https://investors.mclaren.com/sites/...ion-fy2019.pdf

McLaren 2019 financial results; I have not read it yet, but will later today

Guest89

I watched the video, and I think he makes some interesting points (he’s in the UK):

McLaren ramped up production and proliferation of a model line quickly

He claims that McLaren pushes cars to dealers to collect cash for them and punch them as sold units

He discusses the Elva production number embarrassment, as we have in this thread; also discusses an apparent identity crisis in the brand’s corporate strategy - are they a manufacturer of mass produced but still exotic cars that are capable (reliable) enough to be operated as a primary vehicle / daily driver? Or are they a purveyor of high end automotive art (i.e., “hypercars” - P1, Senna, Speedtail, Elva all in a relatively short period) that competes with Koenigsegg, Pagani, etc.?

He discusses customer disappointment with resale value (hard to retain people in the brand if secondary values are soft ... it gets expensive to lose six figures on a car every time you buy one!)

He discusses the reluctance of finance companies to work with McLaren surrounding inflated “Guaranteed Future Values” devised to move units (I believe this is a UK-specific scheme)

The headline title is somewhat clickbait, but he does a measured job of presenting some apparent strategic shortcomings - I enjoyed watching it

SSO

Title is definitely click bait. Everything he discusses/presents as fact was probably pulled from various threads on pistonheads. A bit of its true, a lot of its opinion, and his fact checking is abysmal (see his comment about Ferrari and 399 Enzos). He clearly doesn't have any inside information nor has he done any in-depth research.

Jimmy-D

Probably got some of his info from this thread