Skip to main content

drive

Chinese giant Geely looks to lift up Lotus like it did Volvo, and that's great news for the hedonist in all of us

The Lotus Exige S1 is a bantamweight screamer, weighing just 780 kilograms and powered by a Rover four-cylinder engine making nearly 200 horsepower.

What we have here is "lots of trouble, usually serious."

Steve Reed's Lotus Exige S1 is a bantamweight screamer, weighing just 780 kilograms and powered by a Rover four-cylinder engine making nearly 200 horsepower. It's tiny. It's orange. It has an enormous spoiler. I love it.

Getting in and out of this furious wasp is about as graceful as climbing into a mailbox. I'm a middling 5 foot 11, and emerging from the cockpit produces a jumble of limbs, like a calf being born, and because I'm not as flexible as I used to be, with much the same groaning soundtrack.

But, sweet mother of acceleration, once you're in an Exige, you're at the controls of a car that makes anything short of a Ferrari F40 look like a pickup truck. You can change direction by flexing a single knuckle. Steering feel is world class. There's so little weight to the thing, it feels like you're a leaf on the wind.

Of course, it's not exactly refined. There is no radio, lots of exposed metal, a worryingly large fire extinguisher mounted by the passenger seat and roll-up windows that you can't reach with the five-point racing harness on. Rear visibility is terrible, the idle is lumpy, it's incredibly loud and have I mentioned the Cirque du Soleil performance required to get out?

The Exige makes anything short of a Ferrari F40 look like a pickup truck.

To the uninitiated, the news that Chinese automotive giant Geely recently spent £51-million ($86.7-million) buying a majority stake in Lotus may come as a surprise. Surely, cars such as this Exige are track specials, of interest only to the most hard-core racers. How many could it have possibly sold? A hundred?

Er, no, actually. In point of fact, Lotus only sold eight of these Series 1 Exiges. And yes, Reed is something of a track-rat, with plenty of experience hucking two-stroke sportsbikes around Calabogie.

From the outside, Geely's investment looks like a mystery. From behind the wheel, however, it makes a great deal of sense.

First, let's talk about what Geely's purchase means for Lotus by looking at what it has already done with Volvo. An established and well-loved brand, Volvo fell behind as a luxury brand and, in 2009, was recording losses in the millions.

Arguably, a lot of people whose parents owned a Volvo 240 wagon are now driving their children around in a Subaru Forester. However, when Geely purchased Volvo in 2010, it sparked something of a renaissance.

Its secret? Buoy the brand with infusions of cash, and let the engineers get on with things. This non-interference policy has worked wonders for Volvo, with the brand hitting sales records in 2016, and preparing to further bolster its image with range-wide electrification (both pure EV and hybrid).

While an everyday buyer may not want to squeeze into a tiny, ridiculous British sportscar like the, Lotus also provides invaluable services as a consulting firm.

Where Lotus is concerned, an injection of funds will allow for a new Elise, the little roadster that best embodies the brand's ideals. It'll also allow further development of the Evora, a 2+2, mid-engined rival to the Porsche 911.

Then there's what a healthy Lotus means to you, the everyday buyer who wouldn't be caught dead trying to squeeze into a tiny, ridiculous British sportscar. Along with producing its own cars, Lotus provides invaluable services as a consulting firm.

Consider the Genesis full-size sedan. When it debuted, reviewers praised the comfortable ride and bang-for-the-buck value, but hated its lifeless steering. When the reworked version arrived, Lotus had been called in to help tune the electric power steering. The reborn Genesis was no four-doored Exige, but it was a more pleasant car to drive.

Just as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Jaguar and Land Rover all do, running a restoration shop or reissuing classic cars can be an extremely profitable sideline.

Perhaps a little of that Lotus magic might find its way into your next compact car or crossover, without you even knowing. More importantly, let's take a look at a better-known Lotus collaboration: the original Tesla Roadster.

Based on an Elise, the Roadster blazed the path for Tesla's brand image by touting the performance potential of a battery-powered car. Suddenly, electric vehicles weren't only for the environmentally minded, but for those interested in power.

With emissions requirements gradually forcing most auto makers toward electrification, it seems likely that Lotus could be behind some of the first properly light and fun-to-drive electric vehicles. In the meantime, its expertise at cutting weight will help others hit emissions targets while improving performance.

There's also the thought that Lotus could focus not just on the future, but dig up a few of its greatest hits from a storied past. Just as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Jaguar and Land Rover all do, running a restoration shop or reissuing classic cars can be an extremely profitable sideline.

Who wouldn't want to drive a factory-fresh Esprit, just like the one that piloted by James Bond? Lotus might not be able to get it to turn into a submarine, but you'd get most of the movie-star experience.

Lastly, there is one more important reason why we should all be happy to see Lotus get the boost it needs to survive, and it has nothing to do with the car industry. It has to do with the essence of living.

My drive in Reed's Exige marks one week since the passing of another Lotus fan, my friend David Ellis. The owner of a rare, factory-built 1969 Super Seven, Ellis was much like his car: a compact ball of energy, sparking with life.

The rare, factory-built 1969 Lotus Super Seven is like a compact ball of energy, sparking with life.

He drove his little car regularly, and regularly participated in long-distance classic car rallies; you'd often see his little yellow car blasting through the curves, no matter the weather.

I had the chance to drive his car a couple of times, and found it exhilarating in a way in a way few other cars can replicate. Despite a humble 84 horsepower produced by the 1600cc Ford Crossflow, the Seven always felt like it was flying.

A trick of the airflow blasted air in one nostril and sucked it out the other, creating a sort of combustion-powered neti pot. Honda Civics loomed like zeppelins. The road was a handsbreadth away. It was at once terrifying and wonderful.

There was no room in that little car for distractions, no time but the present, no sensation but the immediate. The Exige feels the same way, a brisk antidote to our brave new world's constant electronic bombardment.

While they are not, perhaps, a sane choice for the day-to-day, a drive in a Lotus is always something special. It contains the essential ingredients to a life well-lived, in the all-too-brief time we have: simplify, and add lightness.


Shopping for a new car? Check out the new Globe Drive Build and Price Tool to see the latest discounts, rebates and rates on new cars, trucks and SUVs. Click here to get your price.