Quote:
|
Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour
Jim, I sure would like to see some pix of your Lotus. Post some in a new thread if you dare do it here!
|
Hi,
No Dare to it. Porsche is a Great Performance Car, Lotus is a Great Performance Car.
Porsche has a Great Racing Heritage, Lotus has a Great Racing Heritage.
In fact, Lotus was, until the last few years, the winningest Manufacturer in Formula 1 as a percentage of Wins/Starts. They had such Great Drivers as: Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Mario Andretti, Martin Donnelly, Jackie Icxs, Emmerson Fitipaldi, Nikki Lauda, Mikka Hakkinen and Ayrton Senna. Lotus has also won at LeMans and Indianapolis 500. The STP Turbine Powered Indy Racers were a Lotus Chassis, the Type 56B. Lotus was the 1st Manufacturer to use a mid-engined design - the legendary Type 25 ('62-'65), and the 1st to use aerodynamic Downforce and Wings - the Type 49 ('67-'69).
Lotus Founder, Colin Chapman, was the 1st to design cars using the minimum possible weight to achieve the desired result and coined the phrase
"If you want it to go faster, Add Lightness!". Lotus design philosophy was to have each of their race cars contain the
minimum required to finish the race - they wanted their cars to die on the Victory Lap, any more, and the car was not at maximum efficiency. Unfortunately, they sometimes miscalculated this and Lotus also holds the Dubious record of having lost the greatest number of Gran Prixs while leading on the Final Lap - 11 (9 due to mechanical DNF's).
My 1985 Mid-Year Lotus Turbo Esprit is 1 of 61 built as Test Mules for Lotus Engineering. It contains Suspension Components, Brakes and Tranny which were not added to Production Cars until the 1988 Model Year. Lotus produced 200 Production Models of the 1985 Lotus Turbo Esprit with about a third coming to the US. Each car is Hand-Built.
Loving one does not preclude love for the other. I love them both, and fortunately have room for both in
my garage.
Here's a little better pic than the one I posted earlier... enjoy!
Happy Motoring!...Jim'99