DARK VERDANT!?

[Jonhklee]

Maybe by "dark" they mean "shrouded in secrecy". e.g. "Secret Verdant"

Ok now I'm arguing semantics on the internet. Obviously a cry for help.

That’s DARK dude…. Very DARK.

 

[EspritGuy]

Maybe by "dark" they mean "shrouded in secrecy". e.g. "Secret Verdant"

Ok now I'm arguing semantics on the internet. Obviously a cry for help.

It's the Dark Web

 

[TXEMIRA]

I’m staying confident.

Also ordered with Black Pack.
Yes order is in. With full Black Pack.

Crazy? Maybe. Worst case - paint.
Other stuff - flip it, wrap it, enjoy it…

#ForTheDaring

 

[NicolasB]

I’m staying confident.

Also ordered with Black Pack.
Yes order is in. With full Black Pack.

Crazy? Maybe. Worst case - paint.
Other stuff - flip it, wrap it, enjoy it…

#ForTheDaring

I am considering this. Black pack to make the green standout more

 

[Porter]

Having seen a DV car, I think your picture of the sample disk is some way off. This is the sample I saw, outside in bright September UK midday sun and it has a much more visible metallic fleck:
View attachment 4368

I really want to agree with you Tom, but I even walked the disc outside into the mid-day light to get a better view, and it didn't really improve matters. It looked functionally black.

And the planform is a good representation of the behaviour in daylight:

Maybe the unspoken message is that they plan to paint the cars differently for the UK and US markets for some reason? I mean why else would they send out visibly different paint samples? The disc I saw and your planform are completely different paints, and I have no doubt whatsoever on that.

I would love to simply see a painted panel so we can see whether it's black at normal viewing angles. I get that the specular highlights will show some green... I just want to know if the car will be visually identifiable as "a green car" in the same way that this Elise is below, even if the shade of green is slightly different.

If the car visually presents as "a black car" but with some sneaky green flake in the black paint that's visible only when you bend down close and really stare at it, like the paint disc they sent to the US roadshow, then it's a different scenario and totally unlike the Elise above. That's all I'm trying to figure out, and can't seem to get any help from Lotus on the topic. Also, why is this color a secret? What purpose does it serve?

 

[NicolasB]

Keeping it under wraps until Top Gear article where it will be debuted. Just not sure why.

 

[vision]

I really want to agree with you Tom, but I even walked the disc outside into the mid-day light to get a better view, and it didn't really improve matters. It looked functionally black.


Maybe the unspoken message is that they plan to paint the cars differently for the UK and US markets for some reason? I mean why else would they send out visibly different paint samples? The disc I saw and your planform are completely different paints, and I have no doubt whatsoever on that.

I would love to simply see a painted panel so we can see whether it's black at normal viewing angles. I get that the specular highlights will show some green... I just want to know if the car will be visually identifiable as "a green car" in the same way that this Elise is below, even if the shade of green is slightly different.
View attachment 4369

If the car visually presents as "a black car" but with some sneaky green flake in the black paint that's visible only when you bend down close and really stare at it, like the paint disc they sent to the US roadshow, then it's a different scenario and totally unlike the Elise above. That's all I'm trying to figure out, and can't seem to get any help from Lotus on the topic. Also, why is this color a secret? What purpose does it serve?

Its irrelevant,wait and see what it looks like in your dealer or choose a different colour! Have you actually ordered a car? I guess people who have, our cars are coming in June, July and august and in reality don't care as its too late

 

[TomE]

I really want to agree with you Tom, but I even walked the disc outside into the mid-day light to get a better view, and it didn't really improve matters. It looked functionally black.


Maybe the unspoken message is that they plan to paint the cars differently for the UK and US markets for some reason? I mean why else would they send out visibly different paint samples? The disc I saw and your planform are completely different paints, and I have no doubt whatsoever on that.

I would love to simply see a painted panel so we can see whether it's black at normal viewing angles. I get that the specular highlights will show some green... I just want to know if the car will be visually identifiable as "a green car" in the same way that this Elise is below, even if the shade of green is slightly different.
View attachment 4369

If the car visually presents as "a black car" but with some sneaky green flake in the black paint that's visible only when you bend down close and really stare at it, like the paint disc they sent to the US roadshow, then it's a different scenario and totally unlike the Elise above. That's all I'm trying to figure out, and can't seem to get any help from Lotus on the topic. Also, why is this color a secret? What purpose does it serve?

I agree, your US sample seems different to the UK sample, planform and the car I saw.

The one I saw was in the assembly hall near to the large full height windows. It was "obviously metallic green" on the sunlit side and "clearly dark green and not black and with not much metallic visible" on the shaded side.

Why can't Lotus just publish some photos? This is beyond ridiculous.

 

[NicolasB]

I agree, your US sample seems different to the UK sample, planform and the car I saw.

The one I saw was in the assembly hall near to the large full height windows. It was "obviously metallic green" on the sunlit side and "clearly dark green and not black and with not much metallic visible" on the shaded side.

Why can't Lotus just publish some photos? This is beyond ridiculous.

Holding onto their "V" card

 

[TXEMIRA]

Holding onto their "V" card

Phil. That’s it. He’s our ticket. @TomE have Super Phil go with MW again and get an iPhone pic of DV so we can debate if it’s not actually properly saturated and/or another color.

#ForTheHero
#ForTheDebate

 

[EspritGuy]

I agree, your US sample seems different to the UK sample, planform and the car I saw.

The one I saw was in the assembly hall near to the large full height windows. It was "obviously metallic green" on the sunlit side and "clearly dark green and not black and with not much metallic visible" on the shaded side.

Why can't Lotus just publish some photos? This is beyond ridiculous.

I think the Eura sample is Metric.
That might explain the difference.

 

[Porter]

Keeping it under wraps until Top Gear article where it will be debuted. Just not sure why.

That's my guess too. It's annoying.

Look, I've done a lot of talking about this, so maybe I should just explain. My intent from the beginning was to order a Green car... hell, it's what I've had in my head for 10+ years while planning and saving for what I've intended to be my one big 30 year sports car purchase to keep, enjoy, and care for. That was going to be a 911, but then Lotus came out of nowhere with an absolute stunner in the Emira, and I jumped at the opportunity to own what I believe is really the world's last purpose-built analog sports car. Sounds great, I'll take one in green. Here's my money.

But then based on what small info they have been willing to show us, I can't trust that Lotus will build that. It's not that hard or big of an ask, I just want the car to be green. Some flavor of green, identifiable at 20 paces. Yet now I've placed an order for Magma Red just because I don't feel that I can trust anything Lotus says or shows us about the Dark Verdant color, including the paint samples/planforms which have all been different from one another. Each of those paint samples is a material representation from the company about what the intended outcome will look like. Some are black, and some are (partially) green, and none of them match each other, not even close. So trust is hard to build.

I guess that's really what it comes down to for me. 9 months of their generally mixed messaging and unprofessional, contradictory comms strategy just leaves me in a place where I don't have the ability to trust anything that they say without a genuine photograph of the actual paint on an actual car. And without that, I can't proceed to lock in a config, so it makes it a non-starter. At least with the Magma Red, I can have some basic confidence that what I receive in the end will be visually identifiable as a red car. I don't expect it to match the planform, it could be some other red. Hell, every third red car off the line might end up being a different shade of red. But all of them will almost certainly be identifiable as "red". I have no confidence in that where the DV paint is concerned, and Lotus haven't been interested in expressing their intent on the topic. Even someone from Lotus outright saying "this will be green" at some point in an interview would be an improvement from where we stand right now. It's like they're pretending to guard a state secret.

This lack of general trust isn't just confined to the paint... it's in a bunch of other areas as well. I've just resigned myself to losing the deposit if things go poorly for Lotus between now and my expected delivery this coming winter. I mean shit, guys... they claimed to start "production" more than a month ago and as of this week had people standing around in the factory. And they closed their upholstery shop and retrained the staff to bolt suspensions and engines together, but now have people in the new shiny "super streamlined" factory wrestling leather by hand onto naked chair frames. My expectations are now ratcheted so low that I'll be delighted if they manage to deliver a product that drives like a Lotus, even if it turns up months late and emissions-neutered to 380hp because they didn't get their regulatory homologations done back in 2021 when I feel it really should have been happening.

I'm going to take a break from all this for a while, I feel like it's a slow motion cluster-f*** to watch and I don't like it.

 

[Porter]

Its irrelevant,wait and see what it looks like in your dealer or choose a different colour! Have you actually ordered a car? I guess people who have, our cars are coming in June, July and august and in reality don't care as its too late

Ordered and deposited July 10th of 2021. Final config was this week with my dealer, and hard deadline for config lock-in is April 19/20 for all US delivery cars in the allocation batch where mine sits in the schedule order.

Thanks for the weirdly pointed question about legitimacy though, that's very polite of you.

 

[Blue97]

I really want to agree with you Tom, but I even walked the disc outside into the mid-day light to get a better view, and it didn't really improve matters. It looked functionally black.


Maybe the unspoken message is that they plan to paint the cars differently for the UK and US markets for some reason? I mean why else would they send out visibly different paint samples? The disc I saw and your planform are completely different paints, and I have no doubt whatsoever on that.

I would love to simply see a painted panel so we can see whether it's black at normal viewing angles. I get that the specular highlights will show some green... I just want to know if the car will be visually identifiable as "a green car" in the same way that this Elise is below, even if the shade of green is slightly different.
View attachment 4369

If the car visually presents as "a black car" but with some sneaky green flake in the black paint that's visible only when you bend down close and really stare at it, like the paint disc they sent to the US roadshow, then it's a different scenario and totally unlike the Elise above. That's all I'm trying to figure out, and can't seem to get any help from Lotus on the topic. Also, why is this color a secret? What purpose does it serve?

I have seen panels on the factory tour - it looks Green not Black , very dark but Green. When the light hits it looks more Green.

 

[dgrace]

Seriously all Lotus needs is one marketing intern to walk into the factory once a week with an iPhone and post a few photos to Instagram. It would build loads of goodwill with current customers, generate interest from future ones, and cost absolutely nothing. It's not like other manufacturers are going to steal secret production techniques or some unannounced prototypes would get accidentally disclosed. Their lack of comms strategy here is beyond absurd.

 

[99Problems]

That's my guess too. It's annoying.

Look, I've done a lot of talking about this, so maybe I should just explain. My intent from the beginning was to order a Green car... hell, it's what I've had in my head for 10+ years while planning and saving for what I've intended to be my one big 30 year sports car purchase to keep, enjoy, and care for. That was going to be a 911, but then Lotus came out of nowhere with an absolute stunner in the Emira, and I jumped at the opportunity to own what I believe is really the world's last purpose-built analog sports car. Sounds great, I'll take one in green. Here's my money.

But then based on what small info they have been willing to show us, I can't trust that Lotus will build that. It's not that hard or big of an ask, I just want the car to be green. Some flavor of green, identifiable at 20 paces. Yet now I've placed an order for Magma Red just because I don't feel that I can trust anything Lotus says or shows us about the Dark Verdant color, including the paint samples/planforms which have all been different from one another. Each of those paint samples is a material representation from the company about what the intended outcome will look like. Some are black, and some are (partially) green, and none of them match each other, not even close. So trust is hard to build.

I guess that's really what it comes down to for me. 9 months of their generally mixed messaging and unprofessional, contradictory comms strategy just leaves me in a place where I don't have the ability to trust anything that they say without a genuine photograph of the actual paint on an actual car. And without that, I can't proceed to lock in a config, so it makes it a non-starter. At least with the Magma Red, I can have some basic confidence that what I receive in the end will be visually identifiable as a red car. I don't expect it to match the planform, it could be some other red. Hell, every third red car off the line might end up being a different shade of red. But all of them will almost certainly be identifiable as "red". I have no confidence in that where the DV paint is concerned, and Lotus haven't been interested in expressing their intent on the topic. Even someone from Lotus outright saying "this will be green" at some point in an interview would be an improvement from where we stand right now. It's like they're pretending to guard a state secret.

This lack of general trust isn't just confined to the paint... it's in a bunch of other areas as well. I've just resigned myself to losing the deposit if things go poorly for Lotus between now and my expected delivery this coming winter. I mean shit, guys... they claimed to start "production" more than a month ago and as of this week had people standing around in the factory. And they closed their upholstery shop and retrained the staff to bolt suspensions and engines together, but now have people in the new shiny "super streamlined" factory wrestling leather by hand onto naked chair frames. My expectations are now ratcheted so low that I'll be delighted if they manage to deliver a product that drives like a Lotus, even if it turns up months late and emissions-neutered to 380hp because they didn't get their regulatory homologations done back in 2021 when I feel it really should have been happening.

I'm going to take a break from all this for a while, I feel like it's a slow motion cluster-f*** to watch and I don't like it.

My story is very similar in wanting a green sports car, specifically an English Sports car, and it is frustrating not getting a reliable example of the exact green that Dark Verdant will be. I'm also in the same boat, in that my order was placed within a couple days of yours, and mine too locks right about now. I DID go with DV with a tan interior, because while I'm not 100% sure on the depth of green it will be in the end, it will be the GREENEST of options in an FE. In a perfect world in my case, they would have offered the car in a more traditional British Racing Green color, but from all accounts the green is identifiable as such in the sunlight. If this is really to be your keep it forever car, you could always go DV, and worst case, get a full wrap in whatever shade of green you want most if it turns out its too dark? I'm planning to get full PPF on the car anyway, figure many will do the same if trying to preserve the paint... you could just have that protection come with your specific color choice

BTW, not defending Lotus's lack of Comms by the way, that is pretty crap... just saying don't talk yourself out of DV if Green is what you are really after. 'cause Magma Red is certainly less green...

 

[912Matt]

Keeping it under wraps until Top Gear article where it will be debuted. Just not sure why.

I agree, this is the only feasible reason I can think of as to why no DV photos have been released - anyone have a clue when Top Gear review might appear?

 

[Pugwash]

It’s definitely green. But much darker than my Elise. Apologies if the images below dont help much but having seen the actual cars now, I went back and looked at the images I took of the platforms. These were all taken at the same time on a cloudy day at Hethel. See how Nimbus looks silver in some and bronzy in others, just due to the camera angle. Shadow grey has been seen many times on a real car so acts as a reference. DV is definitely green, even under this dull lighting but from some angles looks very very dark.

 

[NicolasB]

It’s definitely green. But much darker than my Elise. Apologies if the images below dont help much but having seen the actual cars now, I went back and looked at the images I took of the platforms. These were all taken at the same time on a cloudy day at Hethel. See how Nimbus looks silver in some and bronzy in others, just due to the camera angle. Shadow grey has been seen many times on a real car so acts as a reference. DV is definitely green, even under this dull lighting but from some angles looks very very dark.

That looks black a/f!

 

[VL3X]

I agree, your US sample seems different to the UK sample, planform and the car I saw.

The one I saw was in the assembly hall near to the large full height windows. It was "obviously metallic green" on the sunlit side and "clearly dark green and not black and with not much metallic visible" on the shaded side.

Why can't Lotus just publish some photos? This is beyond ridiculous.

I actually chatted with the social media manager for the lotuscars accounts. He said he's frustrated that he can't release photos yet as well and has a factory tour scheduled this coming week and will ask to take some pro shots to publish for us.