[Don]

They seem to be holding it together in F1, but how long can they plod along now with a one car team, HVM? Who would want Lotus power now? Seems their situation is hopeless.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-dragon-racing-sues-lotus-signing-with-chevy/

[F1Yankee]

it seems anything branded with the L-word is destined to be screwed up. chapman’s curse???

[BasCB]

So now it looks as if Lotus is finishing up on quietly lurking away from Indycar, stopping at the end of this year and probably having to pay the series some serious money for it http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-news/indycar-lotus-on-his-way-out?artid=145892&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=racing&utm_source=twitter.com.

One does have to wonder if anyone would like to pick up those engines and rebrand them, but I think that!S pretty unlikely.

[matt90]

I like Lotus (the real Lotus road car manufacturer and the old Team Lotus, not any of these teams masquerading as something they aren’t), but their strategy of sticking their name on everything was idiotic. I wonder what Lotus/Renault/Enstone will be called next year in F1. Genii?

I haven’t really been following the Indycar news. Who makes the Lotus engines? Is it even actually Lotus?

[robk23]

Lotus don’t even build the engine themselves, that is the work of Judd. I can’t see Lotus lasting much longer the way they’re going unless they find a buyer willing to invest big bucks on road car production rather than plastering their name on everything and anything. What they need to do now is get those cars selling, forget competing with the big boys like Ferrari and Porsche and revert to the Chapman philosophy of superlight sports cars.

I expect the ‘Enstone team’ to still be called Lotus but with no ties to Group Lotus, the IndyCar programme to be wound up and the ART GP2 and GP3 sponsorship to be concluded at the end of the year.

[F1Yankee]

I expect the ‘Enstone team’ to still be called Lotus but with no ties to Group Lotus, the IndyCar programme to be wound up and the ART GP2 and GP3 sponsorship to be concluded at the end of the year.

i guarantee enstone won’t be called lotus next year – once the name was set in stone by FOM, lotus decided to not pay them. anything “lotus” is now radioactive.

[matt90]

Luckily at least their new Exige is getting rave reviews. Say what you want about their motorsport- and planned road car- strategy, they make some of the best handling cars for sale, and they hold a lot of value right there if they can just survive this.

[raymondu999]

@thespuditron This is in the IndyCar group – Team Enstone is the F1 team

[Keith Collantine]

Lotus officially quits:

http://www.indycar.com/en/News/2012/12-December/12-7-Lotus-exits-series

They were one year into a five-year contract so presumably they’ve had to pay some kind of financial settlement to IndyCar.

[Fisha695]

Honestly I blame Judd for the Lotus Indycar failure. Sure Lotus could’ve/should’ve maybe put a little more money into the program but at the end of the day those were Judd engines branded as (read “Sponsored as”) Lotus engines. You have to wonder what the results would’ve been had they put-up the extra money to rebrand Cosworth engines instead.

[TommyB]

Their Indy Car showing was a completely embarrassment, the Indy 500 especially. It was such a shame to see Jean Alesi’s appearance such a massive anti-climax :(

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