It seems like a never-ending story. Lotus Cars has agreed another motor racing sponsorship to add to the fleet of cars that will be seen in black and gold this season. At the moment the car company is supporting the Lotus F1 team, a variety of IndyCars, teams in GP2 and GP3, various open-wheelers in Germany, at least one LMP2 car in the WEC and now (in addition to Uncle Tom Cobbley and all) the Alex Job Racing team in the American Le Mans Series. The team will use the Evora GTE. Alex Job Racing is one of the most successful teams in Gt racing in the US and has won ALMS GT series championships in 2004, 2003, 2002; it has twice won the GT class in the Le Mans 24 Hours and has won Sebring no fewer than seven times, the first being back in 1995.
The important question is whether all this sponsorship will result on customers buying Lotus road cars, which is the purpose of the company.
And I thought that their bucket of money had a hole in it.
All this promotional work sounds like part of Dany Bahar’s vision of creating another Ferrari out of Lotus.
For all this to work, at some point they have to increase their production volume and margins to pay for it all.
I would think it would take five years give or take for Lotus to get volume up to say 5000 units per year and someone has to fund the operations until they start to earn enough to stand on their own.
Perhaps someone not yet heard from is behind the scenes writing cheques otherwise I think Mr. Bahar’s tenure at Lotus will be shorter rather than longer
I always thought there is no such thing as a free lunch, much less in F1 and motor sport in general. JPS cigarettes are very popular in Asia and still available in Europe so I can imagine Imperial Tobacco would pay money to Lotus for the black and gold livery.
Interesting thought.
Marlboro uses Ferrari imagery on their cigarettes and merchandise, hence the ground for their sponsorship. Does Imperial Tobacco use Lotus related branding or imagery on their stuff?
Either Lotus have an endless bag of gold, or they are trying to do a Ponzi scheme by getting the money from other investors/sources and placing a sticker on all these motorsports series.
Adam, you’re on the right track, which is all I can say legally, with your last line…better play the lottery this week you might win.
The first bit is a very valid point, because to me those colours mean JPS, so a Lotus of that era but not Lotus themselves.
You wouldn’t expect Jaguar to run purple and white cars today purely as its identifiably a Jag paint scheme from back in the day now would you? So there must be more to it all for the Enstone boys…
I am reminded of one of my customers who entered the BTCC and was prominent in it. One of their staff happened to race in another series as an amateur, and asked for sponsorship, the reply was “Here’s some stickers, put them on your car” no money was forthcoming. The stickers were rejected and a rival manufacturer’s used instead.
Was it Demontweeks who used to have a scheme where you put their decals on your car, then claimed the money if and when it appeared in any coverage?
…that’s an interesting observation… I didn’t think JPS cigs still existed but having just Googled they sure do. I would imagine Imperial Tobacco would fire writs left right and centre at the very idea and I’d certainly distance myself from the suggestion, but it is interesting… I mean… surely not?
Joe didn’t someone in F1 raise this issue last year during the War of The Lotus(es)?
“Joe didn’t someone in F1 raise this issue last year during the War of The Lotus(es)?”
yep – the canadian authorities….
There was discussion on the Williams as well
In this instance how much are they “paying” and how much is “here have a free Evora”?
That’s what I thought!
To be fair, this one involves an actual Lotus car so it’s more than sticker engineering we’ve seen before.
Well interesting…. we have to assume, I guess, that this involves the flow of money outward from Hethel? Meanwhile, from todays Norfolk newspaper, The Eastern Daily Press, we read of a sixty day production slow down at Lotus, and I quote the article:
“One company worker, who did not want to be named, said staff were currently carrying out other duties such as cleaning and painting, and the slowdown was closer to four weeks. “It is the worst it has been for some time,” the worker said.”
I can tell you, first hand, that there are some very bitter folks at the school gates around here… it’s called ‘hours banking’ – so you’re laid off from Lotus right now, paid, but the clock stops on your hours so you ‘owe’ the company the time that you’re off. Fair enough… if… if you’d planned a holiday at home in February.
Full story here… http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/group_lotus_boss_dany_bahar_holds_talks_with_new_malaysian_owners_as_deal_sees_production_slow_down_1_1216215
Meanwhile a Lotus Exec much admired by Joe takes a well publicised second job as a Director of a firm in the entertainment business, I gather some type of business Development role… and uses his Group Lotus email as a contact address… The new owners at Lotus must be very laid back folks.
Full story here: http://countrymusicnewsinternational.blogspot.com/2011/12/mcghee-entertainment-names-gino-rosato.html
So Joe, back to the racing! What’s the story on the Renault, sorry Genii, sorry erm… Lotus… chassis issue?
As far as I can see the only way they (Lotus Cars) are continuing splashing sponsorships about is either just paying for the stickers or they have dug deep into the cellars and found Colin Chapman’s missing millions.
Well spotted Nick!
Mr Rosato will not have gained any respect from the workers in this.
a very expensive way to advertise because its not free, how lotus has all this money is beyond me with their financial history. advertise one team in two different formulas but not this many. Its all starting to look cheap and tacky.
All this and they still haven’t bought even a token share in the F1 team.
This is less of a sponsorship deal, more actually finding someone to run the car they spent a great deal of money developing last year. For once, it’s actually a Lotus, not a rebadge effort.
Joe this extravagance in sponsorship deals has that distinct sound of the other shoe starting to fall to me! Like the dot com boom and bust, all wise people could see it coming, same with the mortgage bubble, it was evident that the US market was not going to be sustainable with all the property flipping going on. Seems the time to open a sweepstakes on the day this all implodes is warranted with a side bet of if the F1 team continues the rest of the season in Black and Gold once the bubble finally lets rip! I hate this for the good people at Enstone who must wince every time another deal is announced. This REALLY is too good to be true. It would be TOO GOOD to be true if the color was red and the brand was Ferrari.
Those Evoras do look tasty. And if I had the money, a Lotus does have the advantage of being a car that says ‘enthusiast’ rather than say, a Porsche or Ferrari, that, to me at least screams ‘I’ve got lots of money and I want the world to know’. But I’m not sure there’s enough likeminded people to keep Lotus Cars in business….
Feels like a house of cards. Could Ferrari afford this level of involvement in so many factory efforts? Details on the various deal should make for an iterating read.
interesting read
it sounds like theyll need to as production at Lotus seems to have gone into a “slow down” mode for 4-6weeks whilst they sort out the fallout from the Proton DRB-Hicom deal, and handle the finances and payments to suppliers that have resulted from it, which all sounds a bit like its going a bit wrong at Hethel
as for the JPS thing, didnt they determine last year no-one actually owns the livery, no-one ever registered the colours or directly a link with motorsport, and Imperial Tobacco were happily putting pictures of F1 style cars on their Asia products anyway and neither Lotault or Loterham could do anything about it, theyd only have a case anyway if they were in the same market, and I doubt Lotus are about to move into the tobacco manufacturing market.
Why not? Sounds like they’ve just about stopped manufacturing cars…
and bought a black paint factory?
I’d LOVE to think we’re all wrong, and genuinely, as a Norfolk bloke through and through I really hope we are. DCLXIV you are of course correct, doh, I was there when they announced it and I filmed the then mock up car, which as I recall had Jarno Trullis name on it.
Some of these deals must be reverse branding, product contras or whatever, but it boils down to one thing – this is marketing and these deals have to sell cars. I’m no expert, but who amongst us, or our German counterparts, is going to be swayed in their choice of £100,000 car by a lower Formula single seater wearing the livery?
JPS Lotus in the good old bad old days made marketing sense, active ride, clever aeros and so on (forgive me if these aren’t the exact Chapman era innovations), well you somehow felt you were getting those on your Europa or Esprit… because they were by Lotus, for Lotus… but this?
On the flip side to all of this sponsorship and where is the cash coming from, these companies that Joe has named, don’t appear on the surface to be stupid and surprisingly are winners, so therefore, should have the deal done up in such a way that they know they will be paid. If they are extremely desperate to go racing and will do so on a promise from Joe’s best mate, well all I can say, you made your bed, now……
Looks familar……
http://www.dailysportscar.com/viewArticle.cfm?articleUID=A6F5870B-1143-FDC9-35BD96044A773D0E
Surely not… is this something that’s already brewing, that’s been announced or another, yes another… deal? Lola-Toyota?, okay there’s a link on the engine front, but I use Canon cameras, they’re a supplier to me but I’m not about to go sponsoring everyone who owns one. Please tell me this livery is a co-incidence. Please….
Can someone pull together a list of 2012 Lotus ‘factory’ deals? and how many of them are engineered with anything that’s been anywhere near Hethel, other than the paint?
What next???
How long until they sponsor me to put black and gold stickers on my skoda to drive to work?
Actually, gotta go the phone’s ringing…..
I don’t know if you should have written “which is the purpose of the company,” or “which should be the purpose of the company.” Perhaps they need a reminder of what it is that they do exactly.
Most of you folk are too young to remember Southern Organs who seemed to sponsor pretty well everything on the British Racing scene in the ’70s, and then disappeared up their own rectums. Wonder if history might repeat itself?
David, you got me there, I was just about walking then. Or rather a very early memory of mine was making myself dizzy running around the garden imagining I was in a race. On my own. Figure of eight around the bird pond, chicanes through the regimented trees. Dear me, I must draw what that circuit looked like! Funny thing is I can’t connect that to being exposed to any motor racing, so where did that come from? Not Scaletrix or anything like that, I hated such toys. That memory just broke now. How kiddies get high, eh, couldn’t sit still for dinner!
But may i beg please what or who were Southern Organs, maybe I think later called National Organs? Always had a fetish for lost names.
yours,
– john
Joe
It makes me so very sad to see Lotus being used and abused in this way by Bahar and whoever it was at Proton who allowed him to do this.
There is probably “commission” in every sordid sponsorship deal that Bahar has sanctioned. I heard from one of the original guys that brought Lotus back to F1 that Bahar offered to sponsor Fernandes’ team $20m pa if he could have 20% commission plus 25% stake in the team ALONG with CEO status. Naturally it was refused and the rest is history.
I have also heard that DRB Hicom want to sell Group Lotus to Fernandes but he is not interested as the debt hole is over £100m that Bahar has created and has this 7 year sponsorship liability to Genii that Bahar signed
Apparently the plan was to sell Proton to the ex Chairman Sellah and then sell Group to Lopez. That didn’t happen and Bahar is now lost but much richer anyway.
DRB HiCom were the oeiginal buyers of Lotus anyway so hope they keep it and get rid of Bahar & co.
I think the debt must be nearer £150m by now if Bahar has actually been paying the team what he was supposed to.
I do not believe that the sponsorship was paid last year, I believe that the start of the deal was delayed as a result of a contractual glitch of some sort. I would love to hear whether this was actually the case, but that is what I heard.
Whoah…Lotus didn’t pay Enstone last year? And was still on the car?
Something smells…
Joe, in terms of Group Lotus’ involvement in the single-seater ladder this year, in addition to F1, Indyar, GP2, GP3, German F3 and German Formula Masters, you forgot that at the grass-roots level below this, Lotus will be officially represented in a works capacity in the FIA CIK World Karting Championships
in partnership with Jefra Racing of Treviso, Italy, the Lotus Racing Karts program is the first factory-backed team in the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship. For the 2012 season it will field two karts – a ‘Colin C30′ and a ‘Jimmy C32′ – in the KF and KZ categories, and will come complete with black and gold livery.
Within Group Lotus for 2012, the 3 racing series of ‘Lotus Racing Karts’, ‘Lotus German F3′ and ‘Lotus Formula Masters’ will form the official Lotus Driver Development program, as Lotus look to replicate the Red Bull Junior Team model in their quest to find Lotus’ next Vettel-esque F1 superstar.
In this vein, Lotus’ new driver development championships seeks to replicate the model/success of the Red Bull Driver Search by collaborating with the leading junior formulae teams and talent-spotters (ART, Motopark Academy, Jefra Racing), just as Red Bull did with their Junior Team program in the mid-late 00s, (collaborating with the likes of Mucke, Motopark, Jenzer, Carlin etc) to unearth and train seriously impressive talent with which to lead their F1 team in years to come to ultimately help them sell more road cars as their strategy has and will continue to be intrinsically linked to motorsport, especially Grand Prix racing.
The junior teams Lotus are collaborating with in 2012 are some of the very best in the business – these arent stupid operations and have unearthed some serious winning talent over the years…many of which will be sitting on the F1 grid this season.
Supporting the junior teams in this way with works sponsorship deals and support, rather than with full in-house factory deals IS THE ”COST-EFFECTIVE” WAY TO DO THINGS! WHY CANT PEOPLE SEE THAT?!
Red Bull did it, Toyota did it, McLaren do it and did it with Mercedes in the 90s/00s painting junior cars in silver colours for the likes of Heidfeld and Hamilton as they came up the ranks……even Ferrari now they have cottoned onto the need for a junior progrm after ‘Badoer-gate’ ran junior driver Marciello in a scarlet painted Tatuus Toyota in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand (image below:)
http://www.raffaelemarciello.com/phpthumb/phpThumb.php?src=/uploads/news/news_pilota/rm-240112-01.jpg&w=540
whats the difference? If Lotus want to be serious winner in the coming years, they are going to need serious superstars, so they HAVE TO invest in junior talent, hence the branding of the real junior formula cars….in these instances, its more about building Lotus talent than purely promoting the road cars.
I still dont get all the hate towards Lotus and branding when we have a Mercedes GP team which bears little or no bloodline to the original Mercedes team (was Brawn/Honda/BAR/Tyrrell) and in their case, it doesnt get questioned at all?
Good on Lotus’ new motorsport strategy – returning the marque to its roots, giving many junior drivers the chance to be supported by a great brand where they may otherwise not had the opportunity/support, giving more cache to the partner teams they are working with in collaborating with an F1 brand etc – looking forward to supporting all the black and gold cars at racetracks in 2012!
————————————————————————————————-
LOTUS RACING KARTS – PRESS RELEASE:
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASES:
http://www.lotuscars.com/news/en/lotus-racing-karts
https://www.facebook.com/#!/lotusracingkarts
OFFICIAL PRESS PHOTOS OF LOTUS KARTS LAUNCH BY BRUNO SENNA:
https://www.facebook.com/lotusracingkarts?sk=photos#!/media/set/?set=a.204510876296626.50331.153345924746455&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/lotusracingkarts?sk=photos#!/media/set/?set=a.222488817832165.54427.153345924746455&type=3
—————————————————————————————————-
LOTUS RACING KARTS – PRESS RELEASE:
Group Lotus is determined to discover new talent with an official entry into the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship 2012.
With the move into karting, Group Lotus becomes the first car manufacturer to have a presence at the entry level of motorsport and provides a very special opportunity for early talent spotting. Some of today’s most famous and successful motorsport personalities cut their teeth in karting – the newly crowned FIA F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel is the perfect example of the benefits of early driver development as are his peers, fellow former World Champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
But Lotus isn’t just interested in spotting the driving talent of the future, the potential to work with young people showing an aptitude for design and engineering is recognised as a very special opportunity for Lotus.
Competing under the ‘Lotus Racing Karts’ banner and forming part of the Lotus Motorsport division, Lotus Racing Karts will field a factory backed team, operated by Jefra Racing out of its headquarters near Treviso, Italy. With a formidable racing pedigree spanning over 40 years, Jefra Racing has competed in many classes of motorsport. Lotus hopes that this invaluable experience teamed with leadership from Team Manager Franc Jerancic will form the basis of a truly competitive team.
And Franc Jerancic is the man to impress – talent spotted and recruited by him will have all the latest homologated material at their disposal, including two new chassis models ‘C30’ and ‘C32’ giving the Lotus Racing Karts team the edge as they take on the CIK-FIA international karting events for KF and KZ categories and the World Karting Championship for KF1 category.
The production of karts and components is licensed by Group Lotus to Wildkart, specialists in aeronautics precision engineering since 1996 and manufacturer of karts since 2002. Today, Wildcart is regarded as an authority in kart chassis and components, providing services and solutions to many karting suppliers and brands. The fit with Group Lotus is enhanced by the mutual commitment to innovation, technology and development.
“Our entry into karting is exciting on many levels” comments Miodrag Kotur, Director of Operations for Lotus Motorsport. “Not only are we nurturing new talent and widening our motorsport programme, but we also have an opportunity to join forces with two world-class specialists. It is exciting to see Lotus Motorsport grow in such an authentic, fresh and exhilarating way”.
Lotus Racing Karts will unveil their 2012 karts at the annual AUTOSPORT International event on the 14th January 2012 at NEC – Birmingham, UK.
For further details on Jefra Racing and Wildcart go to http://www.jefraracing.com and http://www.wildkart.it
For further details on Lotus Racing Karts please email: info@lotusracingkarts.com
Will it sell more cars?
how can you compare companies that make a profit to a company that hasn’t made a profit in years?
If Lotus Cars had yet another year of increased sales and increased profits, everyone would find their steps logical.
But as they yet again fail to make a profit, everyone doubts how they can afford it.
Giuseppe F1
It wasn’t fine fine when Red Bull, Toyota Honda and Mercedes did it and it certainly isnt fine that Chapman’s Lotus with all its rich heritage pays other teams to race in JPS colours.
Either you work for Group Lotus or you are naive at best.
THIS IS A MONEY MAKING EXERCISE and nothing to do with selling cars and nuturing talent lol !
Giuesppe F1 Do you work for Lotus or Bahar?
Very nicely written Giuseppe.
Oh an if you’re still in the office at Hethel best shut the computer down now and get off to the Bird in Hand, or The Pelican in Tacolneston with the rest of the PR Team. Take it easy on the way home to Wymondham (or is it Hempnall) as there’s an unmarked Police car doing the rounds.
Come on, if you’re from Lotus (IF? lol) front us all up and use your name – everyone here would love to give you a platform for genuine honest replies to the points we’ve raised.
This term – “branding” crossed my consciousness quite a while ago now. And I wasn’t too sure about it. Coca-Cola “branded” shirts iirc.
So, it can be a positive thing – spreading the aura of something people like to equally likable things. Apple comes to mind (even if I don’t particularly like that “brand”).
But “brand” as something you sell and trade then stick on a “product”, Just because you’ve got the money for it. UGH!
I’m a Lotus fan since I was, oh, twelve (crap – 50+ years ago!). I have an old Elan +2. I have an emotional attachment to Lotus.
But not this “branded” thing.
i wonder if lotus would give me money to paint my house black and gold as i live on a main road
Keith,
I was thinking along the same lines. The financial part of all these different deals is intriguing but there is no denying that some of the teams involved are serious racing operations. Interesting side show.
Awesome sales skills, this Lotus lot . . Oh, oops, yeah, wrong way around!
At least its a Lotus lol
I can tell you one person making money out of all this…
The person creating the renders of the mock up cars.
It reminds me a little of Shannon, an Italian-Irish investment group that sponsored the Forti F1 team in the mid 1990s. Within a couple of months they also sponsored numerous racing teams in other series, and only a few months later Shannon collapsed and disappeared.
Maybe it’s because I don’t live in the UK, but in the 45 years of my life I have never seen a Lotus road car where it should be: on the road. Yet, it’s there where the money should come from. I do see a Ferrari occasionally.
Hmm, dim memories of them. I thought it was a Irish joke on the Airport, Howard Marks style!
LOL at your “where it should be” comment! Thanks. I now drink my coffee in the other room in case of these events!
With all the non Lotus cars magically becoming Lotuses at least this one actually IS a Lotus!
I’m afraid they are approaching the ‘parody threshold’
To be fair, this is racing an actual Lotus car against the likes of Porche, Ferrari and Corvette etc in the US (a big potential market for Lotus), in a series which does not cost the earth – so you have to say, of all of the Lotus programs, this one alone looks sensible
Just to respond to one of the comments earlier – I don’t think there’s anyone here showing ‘hate’ toward Lotus – it’s exactly the opposite – we (mostly) love Lotus, but I think we’re all fearful that it’s going to end in a dreadful mess, and for me at least – Norfolk born and bred, live a couple of miles from Hethel, have done film work for Lotus and hope to again in future – I really fear for the possible effects on a highly skilled workforce, and the local economy.
When I met Danny Bahar and his team I really did admire what they were planning and on paper it looks like an incredible road car team – but now it all looks frankly, disastrous and scary. I’ll be really, really happy to be proved wrong.
I’ve had experience at the very, very hard end of motorsport sponsorship – at TOMS in F3, and more successfully in bikes at world level, and looking at all these deals, my gut feeling is that it’s just wrong – it doesn’t make any marketing sense either for Lotus, or in some respects the teams themselves.
For me, personally and in branding terms, if I were Lotus, and really did have this level of money to spend, I’d be painting the cars Green and Mustard with big white race number circles on the sides – the black and gold makes no current marketing sense as someone pointed out earlier in the thread.
To draw the point out further – who will be a typical buyer (or rather lease purchaser) for a £100k sportscar? a 30 year old city trader typically? He was 4 years old when the last JPS Lotus F1 car ran. Another purchaser might be wealthy and retired, a lifelong British Sports Car fan…. is he going to buy into the ‘reborn’ colours, or is he, like us, thinking it’s all it bit odd and worried that his new Evora or 2013 Esprit, might have the same support and network of dealerships in 5 years time that his ‘bought new’ TVR lounging at the back of the his garage has now? Lets hope not.
“Will it sell more cars?”……….. – so do Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault have the wrong strategy too? Does Formula Renault 2.0 help Renault sell more cars particulatly, Joe? Or will Fernandes new Caterham karting initiative (once its up and running) help him sell more Caterham 7s? Its the same scenario isnt it? Are you beleagured by those junior initiatives too? And no I do not work for Lotus before you claim I must do. Its called having an opinion
I have never claimed that you work for Lotus, although you do have the passion that seems to suggest there is some connection. Most observers do not get this excited about what a car company does or does not do. You are welcome to believe what you like about Lotus. I think you need to focus on the fact that Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault sell lots of cars. Lotus does not. All of this “brand-building” is being funded from loans. Loans run out. Perhaps the jugglers can find more money, but the reality is that Lotus needs to sell more cars if it is to survive. It is possible that these sponsorships will help, but there are no guarantees. In any case, sponsoring European motor racing is largely preaching to the converted who know about Lotus. The money might be spent more wisely doing some brand-building in Asia. The Caterham business model is centred on the Asian markets where there is new demand. It is logical thinking.
Er.. incidentally it was me who claimed you worked for Lotus Guiseppe F1, kinda tongue in cheek.
Joe is always impartial in that kind of stuff and benignly lets us all use his legendary blog site to shout at each other about matters over which none of us have any control or influence lol.
Actually you’re doing a better job for Lotus than Hethel’s PR, at least on this site!
Hey Giuseppe F1, Setting karting aside, which I commend any manufacturer for supporting and branding (although perhaps NOT with a livery based a cigarette sponsor, and I’m including McLaren West / Hamilton days)…
I kind of think the point that we were all making, which you yourself bear out here, is that Renault Mercedes et al do perhaps have the right policy in lower formula – so FR 2.0 – Renault engined cars selling Renaults – correct me if I’m wrong, but the Mercedes Junior Formula cars, Euro F3, were powered by Mercedes engines, made by Mercedes in a Mercedes factory. The Caterham Academy series use, I believe, Caterhams.
The Ferrari Academy takes their drivers to run in the Ferrari Simulator at Fiorino, and the preferred Junior Formula that the Academy support is Formula Abarth, Tatus chassis with 1.4 litre Turbo Fiat engines, that’s Fiat, the folks who own Ferrari.
Red Bull don’t make road cars so it makes sense for them to brand anything, and they can, without diluting (pun intended) their image, but you must agree, if you picked up a short fat 330ml can branded Red Bull, popped it open and it was Coca-Cola, you’d think that odd wouldn’t you? Would Red Bull branded Coke make you buy Red Bull? No, you’d think, ‘what the hell is this Coke doing in a Red Bull can?’
You’ll note that Red Bull generally buy out the complete branding on cars, bikes, parachutists etc when they’re serious. Who was part of the team who came up with that policy of not diluting the brand image? Especially in motorsport? Dany Bahar.
Now Giuseppe, agree or not, you can see why we all think Lotus stickers on non Lotus products are a bit out of place….
Like Ferrari running their junior driver Marciello in a scarlet painted Tatuus Toyota in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand (image below:) with dual Ferrari/Toyota branding?…
http://www.raffaelemarciello.com/phpthumb/phpThumb.php?src=/uploads/news/news_pilota/rm-240112-01.jpg&w=540
…or the Formula Renault machine Lewis Hamilton piloted for Manor Motorsport in 03 being liveried in Mercedes silver?:
http://www.pitpass.com/images/headlines/drivers/hamilton/2003formularenault400.jpg
We have got the picture. The important thing is not how to brand things. This is easy. The key is knowing how to sell cars. If you have ideas about this I suggest you write to: D Bahar, c/o Group Lotus, Hethel, Norfolk.
Thank you Joe, I rest my case, no sales, no Lotus Cars in Hethel.
Meanwhile…. back in F1…
I’m Lotus and so’s my wife.