Lotus in prime position

The Lotus Exige is the latest example of a race-derived road car designed with driving enthusiasts in mind.

Jonathan Stretton grew up near the Lotus factory in Britain, so close he could hear the engines of the carmaker's Formula One test cars firing up. What followed became sort of a ritual: he and his dad would jump into the family car, drive down the road and around the corner and watch the cars over the factory fence.

It was in the 1970s and 80s, when Stretton was a boy in the Norfolk village of Wreningham, and Nigel Mansell and Elio de Angelis were driving for Lotus.

Things were looser around Formula One back then, Lotus included. "Sometimes you would see a JPS [John Player Special] Formula One car driving down a country lane near the village," says Stretton.

John Player Special? It's a British brand of cigarettes. Comes in a black packet of 20s with gold lettering. The Lotus JPS cars wore the same colours. Beautiful women smoked JPS cigarettes in billboard ads. Procol Harum left them smouldering in ashtrays while recording A Whiter Shade of Pale. If you wanted to really enjoy life, you smoked JPS, said the ads. Cigarette makers sponsored everything back then.

Lotus is no longer running a Formula One car but Stretton still turns an ear to the sound of a Lotus engine. "Lotus has always been in my blood," he says.

It was there when he left home for Manchester University in the early 1990s, there when he graduated with a degree in business and marketing, and there when he joined Lotus in 1998, in a business development role.

One of his first jobs was to set up a driver training track on an old World War II airbase, near company HQ. "It's a challenging circuit now," he says. "The core part of Lotus marketing in Europe is the track. We attribute 70 per cent of sales to the driver training programme."

Lotus liked what he'd done so much it made him marketing manager for Britain and Europe. That was four years ago. Now, at age 32, he is in charge of sales and marketing for Lotus Cars Australia Pty Ltd, living with his wife and two children in Sydney's eastern suburbs. New Zealand comes with the territory. "Running Lotus in Australia is a huge opportunity - I had to take it on," says Stretton.

"The brand is relatively undiscovered in Australia, but with new product, a developed dealer network, focused sales, marketing, and a public relations plan, the marque has the potential to flourish."

Lotus has set out to reinvent itself in this part of the world and used the Elise-based hardtop Exige S - the fastest accelerating, street-legal Lotus ever built, says the company - to do so on roads and a race track in Goulburn, NSW.

Stretton wants to hoist the Lotus flag at motor shows, drive days, and promotions. He is looking for three new dealers in Australia to boost numbers across the ditch. New Zealand sales will be handled by its sole distributor, Waiuku-based Roger Phillips' outlet Lotus Cars NZ. The numbers here will be small, too.

Lotus is a low-volume carmaker for enthusiasts. Always has been, since founder Colin Chapman set up the Lotus Engineering Co in 1952. Engineer Chapman worshipped at the altar of "performance through light weight." The nameplate he built still does.

The mid-engined Elise and Exige are bare-boned, high-tech hustlers built on an extruded aluminium tub that alone weighs 68kg. There is room for two and a soft overnight bag - not much more.

Lotus describes the Exige S as a "race-derived road car designed to satisfy the demands of true driving enthusiasts."

Stretton knows the typical owner. "Not everyone will want to make the compromises necessary to experience the superb ride and handling." Those compromises include a cramped cabin, into which it can be difficult to enter and exit. Lotus might like to throw in yoga classes with the car.

The Exige S weighs 935kg and is powered by a supercharged and intercooled 1.8-litre four-cylinder Toyota engine, producing 162.5kw (218bhp) at 7800rpm and 245Nm of torque at 5500rpm.

Power goes to the rear wheels via a snickerty-click, six-speed manual gearbox, helping it to sprint from zero to 100km/h in a claimed 4.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 238km/h (148mph).

Its power-to-weight ratio of 173.8kW/tonne (233bhp) and specific power output of 90.5kW/litre (121bhp) make it one of the most powerful production cars around for its engine size.

Lotus is pushing its fuel economy, too. It claims the Exige S delivers a combined city/urban cycle of 9.1 litres/100km (31mpg) and a highway consumption of 7.2 litres/100km (39.2mpg).

"There is no car on sale anywhere in the world that combines these levels of performance with such strong fuel economy," it says.

The Exige S is one of the purest drives you could ever experience, on road or track. Absolutely fabulous, thanks partly to the classic suspension set-up of soft compliant springs and firm controllable dampers.

Feedback through the steering wheel is astonishing. Grip from the exclusive Yokohama tyres is limpet-like, until you defy physics trying to get out of a Wakefield Park track corner that tightens up on exit and sends the car into the soft stuff. You learn quickly on a race track.

Last year the company built 5500 cars, each one worthy of applause at a Weight Watchers get-together. All 5500 were Elise and Exige models for 40 world markets. Around 2500 went to the United States and 500 to Japan. "Five hundred cars to Japan is huge growth," says Stretton.

The US and Japan will be vital markets for two new models - the Europa S and the flagship Esprit successor.

The Europa S - a swept-up "business class" model also based on the Elise - is due here later this year. The V8 Esprit replacement is expected to be unveiled in Europe in 2008. It will be a 300km/h-plus supercar aiming at pinching sales from the likes of Porsche and Ferrari. Stretton has seen it but he won't talk about it. Not allowed to. "The styling has been signed off and mules [disguised models] are testing at Nado [high-speed circuit in Italy] and Nurburgring [in Germany]." That's all. No more. Next question.

One sales promotion Stretton is unlikely to repeat Downunder is the Gieves and Hawkes promotion he did in London with Harrods department store.

Gieves and Hawkes is the most distinguished men's tailor in Britain. Its address is No. 1 Savile Row, London. It has been there since the late 18th century. Nelson wore suits made at No. I Savile Row, tailored for his one arm. Author Ian Fleming dressed 007 James Bond in Gieves and Hawkes. Real secret service agents in World War II wore Gieves and Hawkes, with hidden pockets. Smith & Caughey's stock the label for about $1200.

Part of the bespoke company's tailoring tradition is the pinstripe suit, an iconic British whistle and flute. Stretton hit on the idea of dressing up the interior of a Lotus Elise in Gieves and Hawkes pinstripe cloth.

He figured that Lotus is a bit of a British institution, too. It doesn't matter in the multi-national halls of Harrods that Lotus Cars is owned by Malaysian carmaker Proton.

Harrods liked the idea and agreed to park the Elise in its made-to-measure department. The car stayed put for two months. The gimmick helped Harrods and Lotus sales.

* The standard Exige S in New Zealand costs $118,500. Optioning up with the "super sports pack" - including traction control, limited-slip differential, adjustable Bilstein dampers, and adjustable front anti-roll bar - pushes the price out to $145,000.