Lotus – The Magic Touch

Lotus is a name synonymous with quality, refinement, handling and speed. You only have to look at the company’s motorsport heritage to see that. From Formula One and Le Mans wins to successes in GT and saloon car championships it has perennially been at the forefront of racing. But these achievements all came from purpose built cars that were developed from the ground up. Lotus is also known for its involvement with other manufacturers’ outputs – for fettling existing cars that have already been developed and built, to varying degrees.

From the Lotus Cortina in the ’60s and the spectacular Carlton in the early ’90s, to the more modern Tesla Roadster, it has consistently made other people’s cars better. Kind of like the automotive equivalent of Gordon Ramsey. So, let’s take a look at five perhaps lesser known examples where Lotus stepped in and vastly improved upon what was already there.

1) Isuzu Piazza

The Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed Isuzu Piazza was rather criticised upon its release in 1980, mainly due to its handling characteristics, which were akin to an oiled up shopping trolley with a wobbly wheel, thanks in part to a dated live rear axle setup. Thankfully, at the time, both Isuzu and Lotus were owned by parent company GM. Some bright spark at head office managed to join the dots and Lotus was called in to improve the way the car drove, slapping their ‘Handling by Lotus’ badge on the boot in the process. Uprated dampers were installed which lowered the car’s ride height by 10mm, the springs and anti-roll bars were also stiffened and the overall geometry was altered to eliminate any axle tramping. All of this made the handling of the rear-wheel drive Piazza way more predictable. The car was much harder to get sideways but when it did start to slide it was easier to control. Lotus had managed to turn the piggy Piazza into the belle of the ball and today it remains a highly sought after classic

2) Chevrolet Corvette

It’s hard to believe but yes, Lotus got involved with one of the most American of American cars: the Corvette. Specifically the C4 ZR-1. As mentioned above, Lotus was owned by GM in the ’80s and so when Chevrolet were looking to develop the fastest production car they could – based on the Corvette C4 – they naturally turned to Lotus for help. With a team led by Tony Rudd, Lotus designed a new quad-cam, all aluminium V8 dubbed the LT5. The 5.7-litre engine produced a whopping 375bhp and immediately cemented its reputation as one of the greatest V8 engines ever produced. Not only that but Lotus also helped design the upgraded steering, braking and gas-over-oil suspension systems for the car too. They should have just called it the Lotus Corvette and called it a day.

3) Proton Satria GTi

The original Satria was a rather unassuming hatchback from the lesser known (at the time) Malaysian auto maker Proton. Debuting in 1994 and based on the Mitsubishi Colt it didn’t exactly set the automotive world ablaze. Fast forward four years to 1998, however, and Proton had the rather excellent idea of making a more performance oriented version. With a 1.8-litre, four-cylinder engine nabbed from the Mitsubishi Lancer GSR (but sans turbo and with higher compression) the Proton Satria GTi hit the streets. But not before it had been sent off to Lotus for some fine tuning. Concentrating on the suspension and brakes the front-drive GTi, much like the Piazza, rightly deserved its ‘Handling by Lotus’ badge and was lauded for the way it drove. With its aggressive body styling and not-too-shabby sub 8 second 0-60 time it was a good car and could hold its head high among the other hot hatches of the time. Lotus had done it again.

4) Talbot Sunbeam

The Talbot Sunbeam is perhaps the most unlikely of rally heroes but thanks to input from Lotus the diminutive hatchback managed to snatch the WRC Constructor’s Title in 1981. It all began when Peugeot took over Chrysler’s European operations in 1978 and their then director of motorsport Des O’Dell had the idea to enter the little Sunbeam into the World Rally Championship. He saw promise in the car but he needed help to realise that potential. Predictably he turned to Lotus who supplied the Sunbeam with a 2.2-litre version of its Type 907, 16-valve slant four engine producing 250bhp. Not only that but they also breathed on the suspension, stiffening everything up and installing a larger anti-roll bar, culminating in the aforementioned motorsport success. O’Dell’s vision for the Sunbeam was fully realised, brought to fruition by the British firm from Norfolk.

5) DMC DeLorean

The second car in our list that was penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro the DeLorean is an iconic, cult classic nowadays but that wasn’t always the case. The car’s story has been told a thousand times but we want to concentrate on Lotus’ involvement. When in development the DMC-12 became subject to scheduling pressures when it was deemed that almost the entire car needed to be completely re-engineered. It was at this point, in an emergency Batphone type of situation (that’s how we like to imagine it went down anyway) that Colin Chapman was brought in. He immediately ditched all of the unproven materials that DeLorean wanted to use to build the car in favour of ratified manufacturing processes that Lotus themselves were utilising at the time. These included the entire steel chassis. Everybody knows the DeLorean was not a conventional success but the thing would never have even made it out of the factory had it not been for Chapman and Lotus. The DeLorean is now a bona fide classic that has been etched into popular culture forever and, along with a certain movie about time travel, we have Lotus to thank for that.

We love the way that Lotus operates. It seems to just swan in, do its thing and then take all of the reflected glory, so confident is it in its ability to make even the most mediocre of cars a desirable and drive-able machine. They say that no car feels the same after you’ve driven a Lotus. Whether that’s true or not is down to the individual but we would find it difficult to argue the toss. Name one time when they got it wrong. We’ll wait…