World’s fastest Lotus?
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Another Electric Lotus
Detroit Electric Comes Back From The Dead To Make Yet Another Electric Lotus
Story by Travis Okulski
Without even making an electric car themselves, Lotus has inadvertently made quite a few over the years. First there was the Tesla Roadster. Then Chrysler had the Europa based Circuit EV. There was a Detroit Electric-branded Elise a few years back. And now Detroit Electric is attempting a comeback with a limited edition sports car. And yes, it’s another Lotus.
It does make sense that they’d use a Lotus. The lightweight construction will keep the weight reasonable after the heavy electric drivetrain is added. Also, Detroit Electric is run by former Lotus man Albert Lam, which gives them an inside line to the cars. The puzzle pieces keep coming together.
The Lotus used this time looks to be the brand new Exige S.
A stock Exige S has a supercharged Toyota V6 which is good for 350 horsepower and some spine tingling good times behind the wheel.
The Detroit Electric version will have electric motors (duh) in place of the V6. They are yet to say what the power or weight gain will be, but I imagine they want it to be fast.
Another sticking point is the platform in itself: The Exige is not street legal in the USA because its airbags don’t meet stringent federal regulations. If they replace the airbags and add an electric drivetrain, the Detroit Electric car will be a good hunk more expensive than the $75,000 Exige.
Detroit Electric has some aggressive plans for how they’re going to restart the company. They’re planning on building a facility in Michigan that can produce 2,500 cars each year. The Electric Exige will be officially unveiled in Michigan next month and then sent to Shanghai.
More power to them, hope it works out.
Lakeside Round 1 Black Truck
Allan and Alice fly in from Bowen on Friday night and Gus (son in law) and Diane (daughter) pick them up and drop them off at our place about 2300. Out of bed at 0430 have brekkie and off to Lakeside. Had real nice weather for the last week but is now hot as hell at 33C, not good for racing old cars.
Allan qualified 11th in a 24 car field. Race 1 he came 7th and the leading 3 cars keep racing after an yellow escort hit the fence and the red flag came out so they were black flagged and disqualified at the end of the race so he came 4th. The disqualified cars were not allowed to run in race 2 so Allan is on the second row of the grid. Looks real good with Craig Thomson’s Lotus Cortina and Ken Nelson and Greg Wakefield’s Mini Cooper S side by side on the grid. AHHHHH JUST LIKE THE OLD DAYS. Allan came 3rd. We broke the extractor pipe where it bolts onto the head so we rushed into the local SuperCheap store just before closing time and bought some gook to bind it up. Peter and Graham did all the repairs. Well done boys. My hands are too big to get in under the extractors and the alternator.
Race 3 Sunday morning and off they go with the rolling start and the red mini beats Allan at the drop of the flag. Allan gets in front of the mini and as they come onto the straight the mini loses control and hits the fence and bounces back onto the track, Ian in the Datsun 1600 T-bones the mini and Moose in the EH tosses it sideways and Gilley in the yellow Datsun 1600 does the same and they both come together. Not good at all. Greg Wakefield in the mini ended up with a few bruises and scratches but the car is buggered. Moose, Ian and Gilley are also OK. They re-run the race and Allan came 6th. He also came 6th in the last race.
We had half of the family there on the weekend, Allan and Alice, Diane and Gus with our grandson Ross, Leila my wife which was her first visit to a race track in 14 years, Peter, Graham and our Chief chef and lunch provider Mike Sullivan. Silver service at the race track, we had quite a few of the boys giving us a bit of stick about the red carpet service. Well done Mike, see you at the next one I hope.
Saundo (Grumpy Grandad)
Lotus 2013
Lotus 2013 – Lotus National Gathering
Club Lotus Australia is delighted to announce the launch of the next Lotus Nationals, to be held over Anzac Day weekend 25-28 April 2013 in our nation’s capital, Canberra to coincide with the Centenary of Canberra (1913-2013) – see link for full details: http://www.lotus2013.com.au/t0.asp
Lotus triumphant in F1
Kimi Raikkonen wins 2013 Australian Grand Prix for Lotus
KIMI Raikkonen has shocked Fernando Alonso to steal an epic Australian Grand Prix victory as Mark Webber’s history of failure in Melbourne continued with a start-line mistake.
In one of the great races staged at Albert Park, Lotus driver Raikkonen defied fading rubber, his age, and the big guns of the sport. The Finn defeated Ferrari giant Alonso to win his second Australian Grand Prix with a shock two-stop strategy.
After Webber’s dream of winning the Australian Grand Prix was crushed on the opening lap when the Red Bull driver missed the start and sunk from the front row to seventh, Raikkonen – known as the Flying Finn – survived a late onslaught from Alonso and Sebastian Vettel to win by more than 12 seconds.
On another day of high-drama after Saturday’s qualification cancellation, Alonso and Vettel appeared to be hurtling towards a two-man showdown following their third and final stop. But Raikkonen refused to pit and hung on with burnt rubber to snare a great Albert Park win. The second-oldest driver on the grid behind 36-year-old Webber, Raikkonen, 33, admitted he thought a race win was beyond him after qualifying in seventh place earlier in the day.
“I had doubts before the race because I didn’t know how the race would go,” Raikkonen said.
“But I knew I had a good car and didn’t give up hope. I was a bit disappointed after qualifying. I made a mistake and I didn’t get it right. But it was still 10 places better than last year and not a complete disaster. I knew my car was quite good and it was feeling good all week. I knew if we could make the front tyres last, it would be fine. It was the first race so we didn’t know what would happen, but I survived.”
Chris Gabriel’s Melbourne Formula 1 photos
Gatton Sprints
After having coffee with the boys in Ipswich on Friday morning I take off to Gatton which is 45 minutes west of Ipswich in the drizzling rain. Good excuse to fit the new $1000 set of race tyres instead of the baldy ones. My youngest son Andrew has taken on driving duties as Allan is now in Bowen. Allan is going to fly down for the 6 rounds of the Black Truck series this year.
I take the corty off the trailer and drive into the pits and the clutch master cylinder dies. Have not driven the car since the Noosa Hill climb in October 2012. Not a good start to the weekend. Down to Auto One in Gatton after lunch and pick up a new one and we are off again.
Ken Otto who is one of the local lads from Gatton brought down his standard Mk1 Gt corty he bought about 3 months ago to give us all a bit of a look. Very clean machine. It is exactly the same model and colour he bought new in 1965. He is just like me living in the past. Good bloke I might add.
Racing started at 0900 on Saturday and finished at 1700 with every one getting 5 runs. Sunday it started at 0730 and finished at 1510 with another 5 runs making 10 in total. Not too bad for $180 entry fee.
On Andrew’s second run he got a bit out of control on corner one and missed the concrete by only inches.
My mate Dave Waddington in his Lotus Cortina cleaned up the tyre barrier and so did his mate in a real nice red Mk1 Escort in exactly the same place.
There were 8 cars in our class and only 5 finished. Andrew got 3rd in class. Look out Allan he is after your driving job. Pictured below is Andrew holding the trophy, grandson Ross and son-in-law Gus.
On Sunday my mate Mike Sullivan drove all the way up from Brisbane with lunch for us all. Prawns, ham, chicken and bits and pieces. One of the best pit crew I have ever had. He does this for most race meetings.
We have had a cracked block in this car for 4 years between the 2 welsh plugs behind the alternator. We have mainly been doing 1 lap sprints and have to top up the radiator after every run. We put a tube of silastic on the block before going this weekend and on the last run we ended up with a bit of water in the oil so it will be taken out this week and a another block fitted.
That’s it for now, till the next race meeting next weekend, Round 1 of the Black Truck Series at Lakeside in the blue and white car. See ya.
Saundo
Lotus Cortina Mk1: A history Part 2
The process to make other Lotus-Cortinas more mainstream and reliable was underway.
This appealing van version of the Ford Anglia (above) was never sold here probably because its imported cost would have been too close to the local Falcon panel van. However, it was good enough for the Lotus-Cortina to wear its rear bumpers at the front. Those hubcaps look familiar too! (Image: kitfoster.com)
The Second Lotus-Cortina Mk I
In October 1964, a Lotus-Cortina was revealed with the wide grille facelift, new instrument panel with round instruments and the latest Aeroflow face-level ventilation with its exit vents on the C-pillars.
After the bonnet Consul badge was switched to Cortina, it was arguably the first Lotus-Cortina as technically the earlier cars were Lotus-Consul Cortinas! Ford had previously launched and promoted the Cortina as part of the Consul family to highlight its family car focus. Thanks largely to the Lotus connection, the Cortina now had its own identity.
Cortina GT seats replaced the bespoke Lotus items. Because the new instrument panel was designed to be easily upgraded with extra gauges for the Cortina GT, the Lotus instruments no longer required a special dash. However, the instruments did feature a special satin silver surround and the dash was painted black. To match this, the steering wheel centre badge was changed from yellow and green to black and silver.
The centre console and centre armrest/bin plus the umbrella handbrake continued, all missing from the GT cabin. Front quarter vents and rear side glass were now fixed thanks to the Aeroflow system unless optioned otherwise. Under the bonnet, little had changed except the brake booster was moved to the front of the engine bay for left hand drive.
Later in 1965, a centre badge celebrating Lotus achievements at Indianapolis was added to the centre console.
From July 1965, the Cortina GT rear axle was fitted after Ford added radius rods to its leaf spring rear end. As soon as race teams found the change made no difference to lap times, the rear bracing could be deleted which freed up the boot after the spare was returned to its LHS rear corner well.
Late in 1965, the new gearbox from the Corsair V4 was fitted and regarded as the best for road use. Its indirect ratios were closer to the original Elan gearbox but with a better spread.
Freed from fluttering and easily damaged aluminium panels, an excessively tall first gear that chewed up clutches in traffic, a body shell that highlighted resonances and a rear suspension design that kept eating its way through diffs and threatened the rear body structure over anything other than smooth roads, the Lotus-Cortina was ready to be enjoyed as a road car.
At this point, the Lotus-Cortina was exported to the US timed perfectly to cash in on recent Lotus Indianapolis victories.
Australian exposure to the Lotus-Cortina road car was very limited and long after it was first seen in the UK. After Harry Firth couldn’t join Norm Beechey and Peter Manton as the Neptune Cortina driver because of Ford development commitments, the Wheels cover car was quickly pressed into service as the Neptune team’s Cortina. It was then developed into the fastest Lotus-Cortina in the world in the hands of Jim McKeown.
After the Lotus-Cortina Mk I (and the Elan by association) had achieved its brief of adding glitter to the Cortina badge, it was time for all parties to move on. Lotus had grown to such an extent that it now had to relocate its production facilities at Hethel to meet demand for its own ever-expanding road car range.
The durability and quality gap that existed between Ford’s own Cortina GT and the Lotus-Cortina and the warranty claims that came with this were no longer acceptable. The model was dropped from late 1966 until March 1967.
The next Lotus-Cortina, based on the Mark II, was a very different car built by Ford. Yet its soul was still by Lotus after engine manufacture was switched from JAP to the new Lotus facility then delivered straight to Ford.
Lotus had enough on its plate as a manufacturer after the Elan range was expanded to include a new four seater coupe. The new mid-engine Europa would soon feature a twin-cam engine option. It made sense for Lotus to look after these unprecedented engine volumes and leave the final assembly of the Lotus-Cortina to Ford.
And once the Lotus-Cortina Mark II had run its course, Ford could then transfer the Lotus drivetrain to the new Escort as soon as it was the Escort’s turn to have its name in lights.
Reference: Ford Cortina, The Complete History by Russell Hayes
See Ford & Lotus Cortina History on YouTube
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Christmas Dinner – Nov 2012
Christmas Dinner at New Farm Deli on Saturday 24 November 2012.
