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[extract] Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar has been fired. This comes as no surprise as he was recently suspended from work in May due to a complaint made against him by the company's ultimate holding company, DRB-HICOM Berhad. The complaint was basically for his misuse of the bleeding company funds, i.e flying around in a private jet and renovating his house in England. This also comes as no surprise as Group Lotus has a new owner

Oh No. The Lotus group, makers of the Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora is rumoured to be in trouble. It seems that DRB-Hicom, the Malaysian conglomerate that owns Group Lotus' parent company, Proton may want to free itself from the wrangles of trying to turn around the sports car company. According to industry followers, notably F1 reporter Joe Saward, the management of DRB-Hicom somehow does not think that owning Lotus makes financial sense and may sell off its stake in Lotus to China Youngman, a company that already has ties with Proton. This news comes after the Lotus F1 team terminated a sponsorship agreement with Group Lotus but also stated that it had struck a five-year deal with Lotus

As expected the company that builds Lotus cars for the road has won the High Court battle over the use of the Lotus name in Formula 1. The legal tussle began sometime ago when both Group Lotus and 1 Malaysia Racing Team a.k.a. Team Lotus, run by AirAsia head honcho Tony Fernandes basically parted ways when Group Lotus claimed that Team Lotus had breached the Lotus name (as 'Team Lotus' confusingly) licensing agreement. However, Justice Peter Smith, the presiding jugde over this matter had also ruled that Team Lotus also retained the right to race in Formula One under its existing name. That basically means that Group Lotus can continue racing through its sponsorship of the Renault team (or in full the Lotus-Renault GP team) and Team Lotus continues as Team Lotus Anyway, other judgments awarded was the right for Group Lotus to use the black and gold livery. This basically means that Team Lotus must stick to their current British Racing Green and yellow livery. Team Lotus was instructed to pay Group Lotus for damages on the breach of the licensing agreement. How much has not been stated. So Team Lotus cannot use anything related to Group Lotus or in that whether it has any relation to the road-going cars that Lotus builds as Group Lotus was also adjudged in the same matter that they have the right to continue to use the Lotus name on road cars. Group Lotus may have won this battle but this basically means that there will still be two Lotus named teams racing in Formula 1. So they are mounting an appeal on the matter

[extract] And suddenly out of the blue, Tony Fernandes, the Malaysian businessman who runs AirAsia airlines and that deep in turmoil F 1 team called Team Lotus, has bought Caterham. Caterham is renowned for their version of the Lotus Super 7, a very back to basics type of sports car that offers handling and performance in a package that often weighs less than 600kg. I was surprised to actually hear that Caterham needed new investors, especially since the brand has quite a following in the UK. I suppose a following isn