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[extract] Recently we have heard that Malaysian carmaker Proton has been sold to DRB Hicom. As a result of the sale there was talk that the new owners may divest itself of performance car manufacturer Lotus, which is owned by Proton. However, during a recent interview Lotus CEO Dany Bahar has told Autocar magazine that he has explained Lotus' five-year plan to DRB Hicom and he basically has been given the green light to carry on with the programme that he has pushed for. The programme is currently in its second year and Mr Bahar had pointed out that there is a newly designed gearbox is in the midst of dyno testing while the new in-house V8 engine is up and running. He also stated that Lotus has scheduled to run the supercar prototypes by May of this year (this is probably the prototype for the upcoming Lotus Esprit). What this basically means is that Proton has already pumped in a large wad of cash into Lotus and in Mr Bahar's words,

[extract] When Proton acquired Lotus in 1996, many felt that it is hard to see something or anything with regards to the collaboration between the two companies. Lotus has always been an automaker which specialises in sports and racing cars while Proton builds economical sedans and hatchbacks. Perhaps it was an ideal business moment for Proton to acquire Lotus at that time and over the years; we could see that Proton has used Lotus

If you are a James Bond fan and will be visiting the United Kingdom in 2012, then this piece of news might interest you. The Bond in Motion exhibition is going to take place from January 2012 at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum. It will hold the largest display of vehicles from the James Bond movies. Next year (2012) marks the 50th anniversary of the first ever James Bond movie, Dr. No. and to commemorate this special anniversary, the Beaulieu National Motor Museum and EON Productions will put 50 of the most famous vehicles featured in the James Bond movie series (EON Productions is the film production company that produces the James Bond movies). Starting from 18th of January 2012 right through December 2012, the exhibition will give visitors to the museum the opportunity to get up close and personal with not only the cars but also with other vehicles, such as boats, trucks, motorcycles, etc. from the Bond movies. Some of the cars exhibited will be the Aston Martin DB5, driven by Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan in Goldfinger, Thunderball and Goldeneye. It will be joined by the Lotus Esprit S1 that turned into a submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me. Also will be featured are the newer Aston Martin models that was used in the recent James Bond movies. Other than the cars from the Bond movies, vehicles like the Bede Acrostar jet from Octopussy will be displayed too. The Beaulieu National Motor Museum is located in Hampshire, England and if you require more information about the exhibition or the venue, you may check at the link below. Beaulieu National Motor Museum website

[extract] In September last year Lotus revealed a new Lotus Esprit. Lotus promised that it will be the ultimate supercar and they have kept true to Lotus

Sometime in early August I happened to bump into some chaps from Lotus Cars Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. They were in the midst of acclimatizing the Lotus Evora IPS for our tropical weather and they were ind enough to inform me of some of Lotus' future plans as well as the Lotus Evora IPS itself. The 2011 Lotus Evora IPS (Intelligent Precision Shift) is Lotus' first automatic since the 1980s and it is basically the entry level Evora with its 276bhp V6 engine (courtesy of Toyota) coupled with a 6 speed torque convertor automatic transmission instead of the usual 6 speed manual. It has been on sale over in Europe but it is still being tweaked for the tropics. The guys from Lotus had informed me that they just completed a round trip from Kuala Lumpur to Kuantan and back. The main focus of attention is the new automatic transmission unit whereby they have to ensure everything works well in our hot and very humid local weather. It gave me a chance to give the Evora IPS a once over and from what I can tell, the car is easier to live with than its Elise, Exige and to an extent, the Lotus Europa. It is a properly sized sports car for most people (including larger sized guys and gals) and is well equipped without that totally spare, track day special look of the Elise and the Exige. With the automatic transmission, you can actually use it for your commuting to work too. The only drawback is that if you like to have your morning coffee on the run it may be a problem as it somehow still lacks cupholders. The Lotus Evora IPS is also part of Lotus' plan to capture the North American market. They seem to love automatics and this should jumpstart sales over there. Even track day favourites like the Elise and Exige which seems to be selling decently well in this region gets sidelined because the Americans aren't too bothered to shift gears by themselves. Anyway, Lotus seems to be back on track especially after announcing their business plan at the earlier Paris Motor Show. The Lotus Esprit is confirmed for launch and will eventually get its own bespoke Lotus designed and engineered V8 engine instead of an engine from Toyota. It will be back to the good ol' days of the 1990s Lotus Esprit V8. A period when Lotus still made their own engines instead of going into survival mode. I was informed of this personally by one of the guys whom I had a chat with that day. It has been 15 years since Proton took over Lotus and this is basically the first time they seem to be serious in turning Lotus into something special. I suppose they blokes over there finally realised that there should be some serious return of investment instead of just sticking 'Suspension by Lotus' badges on normal Protons. The other piece of news was that the upcoming Lotus Elan is put on hold as it is too close in size and purpose as the Evora. The Evora itself is fairly new in the market and Lotus intends to keep it around for a few years longer albeit with a facelift that should make it look similar to the new Lotus styling that you can see in the new Esprit and Elan pictured herein. I suppose this is logical as the haven't actually sold too many of them around yet. Now add the fact that the Lotus Evora IPS is still fresh and still undergoing tropical weather testing , the Lotus Elan should be one of the last of the new Lotus Concept cars to be launched