Which of "Caterham or Lotus" in F1 are the real lotus ?
As i have had a real Lotus (Elan 2+2) and my 7 is based around the late Lotus 7, before caterham, took over the building
I do have a fond regard, sad i know !! for Lotus, but which team are the closest to the real deal ?
just so i know were my vote goes
Steve
neither. Renault just uses the name, and caterham just make a car that USED to be a lotus.
Thanks fo that, so, Caterham at least they bought the rights to build the 7 ??
It's the unsolvable mystery!
Why is Harry Redcap involved?
It's just the kind of guy he is
quote:
Originally posted by steve m
Thanks fo that, so, Caterham at least they bought the rights to build the 7 ??
quote:
Originally posted by will121
quote:
Originally posted by steve m
Thanks fo that, so, Caterham at least they bought the rights to build the 7 ??
In my opinion I would say caterham, that's if technically they did own the team lotus name as that had a closer connection to Ron Chapman than lotus buying a ready made ex Renault team
It's all Venture Capitalists and people buying rights to names to trade on past glories with sponsors etc - neither team really has anything to do with Colin Chapman, his genius/recklessness or Lotus engineering so if you have a soft spot for Lotus F1 from the 60's, 70's & 80's I'd find another team to support if I were you to be honest!
Lotus F1 - Used to be Renault F1 (before that Benetton), investment firm Genii Capital took the majority share and had further investment from Lotus
cars (owned by Proton) so this year they have renamed the team Lotus F1
Caterham F1 - Was a new team 2 years ago started by Tony Fernandes and Mike Gascoyne, originally the entry was under Lotus Racing because the team had
backing from Proton. Then Proton decided they couldn't use the name so Fernandes acquired the rights to the Team Lotus name which was owned by
James Hunt's brother David at the time. Proton then contested the use of 'Lotus' and a court battle ensued. Both sides claimed victory
but strangely Fernandes bought Caterham Cars soon after. For 2012 the team is called Caterham F1, which I always thought strange as Fernandes surely
would have more to benefit from using his Air Asia airline as a title sponsor, I wonder if its a last dig at Lotus Cars.
In my opinion the closest is to being actual Lotus is the ex Renault team as they have the direct link to Lotus Cars, the proper livery and by the
summer both teams will be based in Oxfordshire anyway.
As has been said its just investment groups buying historic names to attract investment, but thats not very romantic is it!
which has the best chance of winning a race? The one owned by people hiding their money in Luxembourg, as opposed to Malaysia, I'd say.