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David
There’ll be a diesel production Lotus before the decade is done…
See HERE for an early example. They did an Elise/VX220 based 1.3litre record car a few years ago and have been doing diesel engine control systems for ages for other people. Call me mad if you like but…
Imagine…all that torque
Would be nice to see someone like VW put the money into Lotus to get a good range of cars out.
Esprit
S3 Exige
S3 Elise
GT tourer (Europa that you didn’t need to spend � 6-7 putting it right)
VW/Audi engines for everyone with 300bhp or more
Suspect the reality is that VW are more interested in protons factories, cheap labour and outputs in the import duty rife far eastern market rather than our favourite little plastic cars.
Suppose they may be interested in the R&D section also but can’t see the value to them of Lotus Cars - especially now that Porsche own a large slice of the VW pie !
Call me a synci if you will but …
from bloomberg news yesterday:
"
Proton Shares Post Their Biggest Decline in Six Weeks (Update3)
(Adds General Motors comment in sixth paragraph.)
By Angus Whitley
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) – Shares of Proton Holdings Bhd., a
state-run Malaysian carmaker seeking a partnership, posted their
biggest decline in six weeks after the government denied a report
that said Volkswagen AG had agreed to buy a stake in the company
The stock dropped 5.2 percent. Proton shares had jumped 13
percent on Jan. 26, after Dpa-AFX said Volkswagen, Europe’s
largest carmaker, planned to buy 51 percent of Proton’s car-
making unit."
Did this ever happen?
no.
The story was always confused anyway. VW were after a share of a Proton Factory, not Proton itself.