Factory Tour 12th May

[Technicalthunk]

Afternoon All,

I’ve got a factory tour booked on the 12th May; happy to ask any questions you might have?

 

[freefall_junkie]

The seats I saw at the factory last week were of much better quality compared to the photos of the saggy safety car’s seats. I had a close look at the tan, red & grey leather and the alcantara, which all looked really good despite being pre-production so I’m feeling as happy & confident as I can be at this point.

Yes, I had a good look at the seats close up last week too and thought they looked top notch. Of course the real test is what they are like to sit in and how they look after a few years of driving, but I'm a lot more confident than I was before the factory visit. It will interesting to see how low the final driving position is. It looked like the base of the bare frames is pretty low (the seat motors underneath are surprisingly tiny), so as long as the base cushion isn't too thick it should, fingers crossed, be ok. One of my pet hates is not being able to get a low enough driving position.

 

[DaaS]

I placed deposit the night of the reveal back last summer .
I had an email weeks back to say I will take delivery late October early November.
Also telling me I have until 31st May to finalise my order .
Second deposit paid .
I was on the factory tour last week . I went thinking yellow, came away thinking blue.
Now looking back at my pictures of the few that were outside the factory I’m thinking dark verdant!!
Factory tour was well worth it !

Wait… you have outside pics? Can we get a sneak peek? I need to submit my FE spec this week so anything to further confuse me would be very helpful

 

[Crown]

Just found a video on you tube of dark verdant at a showroom in China that is much better than my picture .

 

[Cutting42]

I placed deposit the night of the reveal back last summer .
I had an email weeks back to say I will take delivery late October early November.
Also telling me I have until 31st May to finalise my order .
Second deposit paid .
I was on the factory tour last week . I went thinking yellow, came away thinking blue.
Now looking back at my pictures of the few that were outside the factory I’m thinking dark verdant!!
Factory tour was well worth it !

Wow, fair play. I thought I was doing well with a Nov build and Dec delivery. I will be visiting the factory early June for the tour and am currently Blue but have Red tendencies.

 

[Crown]

Wow, fair play. I thought I was doing well with a Nov build and Dec delivery. I will be visiting the factory early June for the tour and am currently Blue but have Red tendencies.

You will take away a lot form the tour. We had a chap called Nick who was excellent.
Last week the factory was quiet , as it was in some sort of shutdown , getting ready for actual customer car production starting in June. So imagine you will see a lot more actual building cars in June. They were still finishing bits of the factory as we walked around .
All the cars we could see were preproduction or possibly dealer cars in all states of build.
Saw 4 red ones I think , one completely finished with ice grey leather , no black pack. I think the red had possibly a bronze fleck to the paint in some lights , so hope you see plenty of reds too if that’s your possible choice. Did also see a sold red car , plus a white car and a solid black front bumper. Must be base colours they are messing with.
Although I went there with yellow in mind , then I was drawn to the red one at the start of the tour, then the two blue ones at the end topped the reds and finally saw a dark verdant in the sun outside which looked almost black until you got close and saw the dark green metallic which looked mean !
so for me it’s lce grey leather, diamond two tone wheels, black pack, but is it blue or is it green ? My last two weeks to decide on my i4 !

 

[EmiraMike]

You will take away a lot form the tour. We had a chap called Nick who was excellent.
Last week the factory was quiet , as it was in some sort of shutdown , getting ready for actual customer car production starting in June. So imagine you will see a lot more actual building cars in June. They were still finishing bits of the factory as we walked around .
All the cars we could see were preproduction or possibly dealer cars in all states of build.
Saw 4 red ones I think , one completely finished with ice grey leather , no black pack. I think the red had possibly a bronze fleck to the paint in some lights , so hope you see plenty of reds too if that’s your possible choice. Did also see a sold red car , plus a white car and a solid black front bumper. Must be base colours they are messing with.
Although I went there with yellow in mind , then I was drawn to the red one at the start of the tour, then the two blue ones at the end topped the reds and finally saw a dark verdant in the sun outside which looked almost black until you got close and saw the dark green metallic which looked mean !
so for me it’s lce grey leather, diamond two tone wheels, black pack, but is it blue or is it green ? My last two weeks to decide on my i4 !

Join us on the dark side…
Ps I am not your father

 

[Crown]

Join us on the dark side…
Ps I am not your father
View attachment 5408

Yes the dark side is strong , I feel it’s pulling me in , if only the aspen white was there to balance the force

 

[Crown]

Back to the original title of the thread , so how was the tour today ??

 

[eclat2emira]

Yes the dark side is strong , I feel it’s pulling me in , if only the aspen white was there to balance the force

100% where I'm at!!!

 

[DerTheDer]

Yeah come on. Let it all out. We are eagerly waiting.

 

[DerTheDer]

OP, we need you.

 

[Technicalthunk]

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay, it’s been a manic couple of days- not helped by two 6 hour drives from Chepstow to Hethel and back! The tour was very much focused on the manufacturing elements so I’ve little to feedback on the technical questions asked I’m sorry to say. I did manage to confirm that the lightweight wheels are 5kg lighter per set than the standard versions. Some other observations:

1. Lotus have invested a huge amount in quality assurance, from CMM of the shells to quality inspection cells. The pre-production cars on the line all looked flawless.
2. Seats looked extremely comfortable and well made.
3. Door handles did not look like wieners.
4. DV is very dark in low light; almost black. In brighter light it’s clearly green; I’m really happy with my choice of DV still although shadow grey also really stood out for me.
5. It was about a 50/50 split of LHD and RHD cars on the line.
6. There was an assembled i4 engine on the shop floor but none going into the cars that I could see.
7. It really is a pretty car in the flesh, the pictures don’t do it justice.
8. Interior looks a nice place to be. We weren’t allowed to sit in one but there were a few with doors open we could peek into.
9. At peak, the plan is to produce 5000 cars per annum.
10. The factory is super clean, no swarf, oily rags etc - as you’d expect from a modern production facility.
11. The Emira GT4 was in the visitor suite so it was nice to have a nose around that.
12. No photos on site except in the visitor area so this is what I took.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip, the host was fantastic and I certainly recommend the experience

 

[VL3X]

I did manage to confirm that the lightweight wheels are 5kg lighter per set than the standard versions.

11lbs only? Geeze.. So only 2.75lbs saved per corner with the forged wheels. That's really surprising.

 

[mjw930]

11lbs only? Geeze.. So only 2.75lbs saved per corner with the forged wheels. That's really surprising.

Not really if you are comparing high quality cast, possibly flow formed vs. forged. Surprising if the cast are Chinese crap.

 

[MCS]

I’m probably carrying an extra 5kg myself. If I eat less chocolate by the time the car arrives I could save 10kg between me and the wheels. Nice

 

[Eagle7]

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay, it’s been a manic couple of days- not helped by two 6 hour drives from Chepstow to Hethel and back! The tour was very much focused on the manufacturing elements so I’ve little to feedback on the technical questions asked I’m sorry to say. I did manage to confirm that the lightweight wheels are 5kg lighter per set than the standard versions. Some other observations:

1. Lotus have invested a huge amount in quality assurance, from CMM of the shells to quality inspection cells. The pre-production cars on the line all looked flawless.
2. Seats looked extremely comfortable and well made.
3. Door handles did not look like wieners.
4. DV is very dark in low light; almost black. In brighter light it’s clearly green; I’m really happy with my choice of DV still although shadow grey also really stood out for me.
5. It was about a 50/50 split of LHD and RHD cars on the line.
6. There was an assembled i4 engine on the shop floor but none going into the cars that I could see.
7. It really is a pretty car in the flesh, the pictures don’t do it justice.
8. Interior looks a nice place to be. We weren’t allowed to sit in one but there were a few with doors open we could peek into.
9. At peak, the plan is to produce 5000 cars per annum.
10. The factory is super clean, no swarf, oily rags etc - as you’d expect from a modern production facility.
11. The Emira GT4 was in the visitor suite so it was nice to have a nose around that.
12. No photos on site except in the visitor area so this is what I took.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip, the host was fantastic and I certainly recommend the experience

Finally some info on wheel weights! Good job!!! That's about half of what I was hoping for though, since they're described as "ultra light weight". This puts them in the simple light weight category, which is not bad; just not great. They're light weight street wheels as opposed to ultra light weight racing wheels.

For example, if a standard wheel weighed 26 lbs., a light weight version would be around 22-23 lbs., while an ultra light weight version would be about 18-19 lbs.

5 kg is 11 lbs., so that's about 2.75 lbs per wheel. That's enough of a savings to feel okay with keeping the FE wheels for the street, unless you just wanted something different. A track wheel is going to be another 3+ lbs lighter than that per wheel, depending on what type you get. You're not going to really feel a difference of 3 lbs reduced weight per wheel, at least on the street. In my experience, you need to save at least 5 lbs per wheel before you can feel it.

 

[Matthaus]

Finally some info on wheel weights! Good job!!! That's about half of what I was hoping for though, since they're described as "ultra light weight". This puts them in the simple light weight category, which is not bad; just not great. They're light weight street wheels as opposed to ultra light weight racing wheels.

For example, if a standard wheel weighed 26 lbs., a light weight version would be around 22-23 lbs., while an ultra light weight version would be about 18-19 lbs.

5 kg is 11 lbs., so that's about 2.75 lbs per wheel. That's enough of a savings to feel okay with keeping the FE wheels for the street, unless you just wanted something different. A track wheel is going to be another 3+ lbs lighter than that per wheel, depending on what type you get. You're not going to really feel a difference of 3 lbs reduced weight per wheel, at least on the street. In my experience, you need to save at least 5 lbs per wheel before you can feel it.

Is that not based on the assumption the current ones are really heavy?

Maybe the ultra lights are in fact ultra light and the standard ones are just less bad than you assume.

 

[Eagle7]

Is that not based on the assumption the current ones are really heavy?

Maybe the ultra lights are in fact ultra light and the standard ones are just less bad than you assume.

That could be, but a cast aluminum 20" wheel at those widths is going to be fairly heavy, even if they're flow-formed. I figure a 20x10 cast is going to weigh somewhere in the 30's. A tire in that size weighs about 30 lbs. I could be wrong, but until either a cast or forged wheel is individually weighed, we won't know.

 

[VL3X]

That could be, but a cast aluminum 20" wheel at those widths is going to be fairly heavy, even if they're flow-formed. I figure a 20x10 cast is going to weigh somewhere in the 30's. A tire in that size weighs about 30 lbs. I could be wrong, but until either a cast or forged wheel is individually weighed, we won't know.

Now I want to know if the forged wheels are actually fully forged or flow formed (just the barrel).

 

[Eagle7]

Now I want to know if the forged wheels are actually fully forged or flow formed (just the barrel).

They're one-piece so they're fully forged. The cast wheels could possibly be flow-formed, but that's usually not done for a base standard factory wheel.