Motoring
Who sings now?
Alan Judd
I worked briefly in two factories many years ago, one making televisions and the other cricket bats, and I don't suppose I've been in another since. Neither was like this; here, everyone seemed to be doing something, and doing it quite busily. Noise levels were variable but nowhere intolera- ble and the ubiquitous muzak did at least vary from one work (and radio) station to another rather than blasting you over the public address system. I'm always reluctant to believe that people actually want this enforced listening but the evidence is over- whelmingly against me. Perhaps it's just company and they don't really listen to it. Whichever, I suspect it has the paradoxical effect of actually making us less musical. My father used to sing as he worked and walked about, a tradition that must be nearly as old as humanity but which is now almost extinct in industrial societies. It's not only power saws, factory presses, offices and so on that make it impossible, but the muzak drug that most people live with seems to still the musical impulse. Many of our 19th-century ancestors had cottage pianos, played in church orchestras and village bands and sang whenever they got together. Who sings now?
But back to Lotus. I was there to test that award-winning, fashion-accessory, whippet-like zip of a car, the Elise. Arguably, this is what saved Lotus's bacon and made their Malaysian owners — who also own Proton — smile upon Hethel. It took only two and a half years and £3-4 million to develop. The planned produc- tion run of 800 a year currently runs at 3,000, with an 18-month waiting list and a price of £22,000 (less if you're one of the chaps at Hethel, who are showing their confidence in what they make by being keen buyers). Powered by the standard MGF engine, it exemplifies the original vision of Lotus's founder, Colin Chapman, in its lightweight construction, high power- to-weight ratio and limpet-like road-hold- ing. Its style is simple, cheeky and attractive, its design and engineering radi- cal. The extruded aluminium chassis is a marvel to one who had to have every term and bit explained (essentially, it means it's strengthened by being bonded rather than welded), and even the pedals are a plea- sure to behold. The design approach — to build a car that made the most of the potentialities of aluminium rather than see- ing it simply as a substitute for steel — is triumphantly vindicated.
In the factory they told me they could make up an original Elan if they wanted, and could produce any bit for any Lotus without the need for a production run. That's the kind of manufacturing I like to hear about (they also stressed that safety and reliability improvements introduced during their period under General Motors ownership have continued) but it seems possible only for relatively small-scale enterprises. Perhaps Ford think it would threaten their economies of scale. Yet Lotus is a bigger enterprise than you might think. It's true that with only 55,000 road- going Lotuses ever built you can feel pleas- antly exclusive when driving one, but a very significant part of their business involves something you don't often see or hear of: design and development work for other manufacturers. There are around 5 million other-make cars on the planet concealing Lotus engines beneath their bonnets and a further 10 million whose wheels turn with the benefit of some significant Lotus input. They don't all admit it, and Lotus don't tell.
When it was time to wake up the par- tridge and moorhen I was taken out by test driver, Matthew Becker. Folding myself into the cockpit was an inelegant process and I feared a hoist might be needed to get me out, but it was comfortable enough once there. Matthew took us round the cir- cuit a few times to show what's what, then I had a few goes, then Matthew showed how you can really drive it. I'm not used to maintaining revs at 7,000, taking bends at 90 or negotiating chicanes at 50, nor do I very often do 360 degree powered skids. The Elise flaunted herself with impeccable manners and seeming ease and I found it all exhilarating and fun. I hopped out with- out a hoist, feeling 20, no, 30 years younger, and as I clambered into the Land Rover and wound her up for the trek home I could see, for the first time, why so many people like sports cars. Yet it was no sportscar that I bought the following week. It was a tractor, but that's another story.
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