Factory Tour Thread

[Ingzi]

Sounds similar to one of the alloys available on the Evora GT
View attachment 6500

Identical to this!

 

[Ingzi]

This is interesting! I wonder if there will also be more wheel options for base spec Emiras. Did you happen to see any full silver forged wheels? I'm wondering if Rimstock has supplied them to Lotus yet.

I saw one Dark Verdant car that has them on the back wheels only for some reason. Personally not really my taste but I’ve always been obsessed with Black alloys. They absolutely suit the dark verdant though.

 

[kitkat]

Identical to this!

Probably a pretty good chance that bolt pattern, hub bore, and offset are extremely similar to the Evora then.

 

[GetawayDriving]

Just to give it a visual. That’s my spec too.

 

[TomE]

I saw one Dark Verdant car that has them on the back wheels only for some reason. Personally not really my taste but I’ve always been obsessed with Black alloys. They absolutely suit the dark verdant though.

I'm wondering if they still have a wheel supply issue and are moving them around on whatever they can find. Those silver-edged wheels aren't the Base ones for the Emira but were an option on the Evora.

 

[freefall_junkie]

I'm wondering if they still have a wheel supply issue and are moving them around on whatever they can find. Those silver-edged wheels aren't the Base ones for the Emira but were an option on the Evora.

I was thinking the same. China is by far the biggest aluminium producer in the world and there are major constrains on supply at the moment. I wonder if this is affecting Rimstock?

 

[SteveB]

Well they’re putting out 1 Emira every 17 minutes currently they said. Which does add up as on the big production board it had 29 complete at the end of the day.

The tour was brilliant, would highly recommend for a start. The money Lotus has spent on the factory is great to see as well. No more cutting corners!

There was the odd I4 going through but probably 95% were all V6s. We were told that where they are now with V6s is where they plan to be with I4s around November. They also had a couple of base editions going through. One in more of a ‘Ferrari red’ and the other white, they also had base edition alloys which were similar to the first edition black ones but with a silver rim around them (similar to the Mercedes’ ones).

The main reason I went was to decide on colours and it certainly changed my opinion. I had originally chosen Magma Red, I’ve now changed to Seneca Blue. IMO the Dark Verdant looked nothing like the configurator, it was pretty much black but in certain light almost had this blue tinge to it. The Nimbus grey and Seneca were the standouts. Shoutout to hethel yellow as well.

Personally, thought the black seats were the best. The white did look nice on the right colour car, the tan and red I wasn’t so keen on. They seemed to get a bit of creasing in the corners.

For reference as well I am 6”5 tall and had no problem sitting in the drivers seat of one. They truly do feel like such a ‘racing’ car though sitting behind the wheel. Brilliant seat position.

The Emira really did look so much better in the flesh than the pictures / videos!

I also managed to persuade someone to rev an I4 and it sounded great!

Great to know there is sufficient headroom for us tall folks (I’m 6’3”). However, I’m starting to get concerned Dark Verdant is just too dark (black). No problem with Dark green that brightens to a lighter green in direct sunlight but I don’t want another carbon black car. Did Lotus staff confirm the car you saw was DV or could it have been one of the dark blue metallic non-FE cars that have been spotted recently?

 

[Ingzi]

Great to know there is sufficient headroom for us tall folks (I’m 6’3”). However, I’m starting to get concerned Dark Verdant is just too dark (black). No problem with Dark green that brightens to a lighter green in direct sunlight but I don’t want another carbon black car. Did Lotus staff confirm the car you saw was DV or could it have been one of the dark blue metallic non-FE cars that have been spotted recently?

100% Dark Verdant. I should have said I only saw Dark Verdant under factory lighting though which will darken it. One cool thing with the Dark Verdant and Nimbus Grey is they both drastically changed colour depending on what angle you look at it.

 

[SteveB]

100% Dark Verdant. I should have said I only saw Dark Verdant under factory lighting though which will darken it. One cool thing with the Dark Verdant and Nimbus Grey is they both drastically changed colour depending on what angle you look at it.

Great - thanks for confirming

 

[Evotion]

One cool thing with the Dark Verdant and Nimbus Grey is they both drastically changed colour depending on what angle you look at it.

Yes, we noticed this. People mention which why did Lotus bring out these colours and I have always said that the paint quality, depth and light travel is amazing and will stand them out in the flesh. Those who have now seen the cars will understand.

The travel does look to be less on the Shadow, Seneca and Yellow.
Magma and Nimbus are the real chameleons.

 

[Bilbao-Emira]

I'm wondering if they still have a wheel supply issue and are moving them around on whatever they can find. Those silver-edged wheels aren't the Base ones for the Emira but were an option on the Evora.

Exactly, these are the forged I have on my Evora

 

[boozyjay]

I've had dealings with Rimstock until recently. I had to close their trading account as they wouldn't pay their bills on time, It wasn't large amounts either. Don't quote me but I think they have been sold again, I think that's twice now they have been sold in recent years. If you log onto any reputable online monitoring company, their credit rating is dreadful. If there are delays, this may be one of the reasons.

It's not the company of Touring Car ex champ Matt Neal anymore, that was years ago before he sold it. He's only a brand ambassador now.

 

[Eagle7]

I've had dealings with Rimstock until recently. I had to close their trading account as they wouldn't pay their bills on time, It wasn't large amounts either. Don't quote me but I think they have been sold again, I think that's twice now they have been sold in recent years. If you log onto any reputable online monitoring company, their credit rating is dreadful. If there are delays, this may be one of the reasons.

It's not the company of Touring Car ex champ Matt Neal anymore, that was years ago before he sold it. He's only a brand ambassador now.

Might be worth it to Geely to buy that company too, and guarantee their own supply of wheels for cars today and in the future.

 

[New to Lotus]

Anybody been on a tour today? Still making customer cars how many a day?

 

[TomE]

If anyone is going tomorrow, keep a look out at the main factory site and Classic Team Lotus over the road. They'll probably be preparing cars for transporting to Goodwood.

 

[New to Lotus]

Nay news from factory tour. Any customer cars yet?.

 

[emiraspain]

I've had dealings with Rimstock until recently. I had to close their trading account as they wouldn't pay their bills on time, It wasn't large amounts either. Don't quote me but I think they have been sold again, I think that's twice now they have been sold in recent years. If you log onto any reputable online monitoring company, their credit rating is dreadful. If there are delays, this may be one of the reasons.

It's not the company of Touring Car ex champ Matt Neal anymore, that was years ago before he sold it. He's only a brand ambassador now.

you would think..... expect, but not be surprised they dont, that Lotus would study each one of their suppliers...... so as to avoid such issues.
Would you hire a baby sitter without any references at all and let them alone in your house with your children.... I wouldnt.... probably

 

[TomE]

There’s a large team at Lotus on supplier selection, due diligence, liaison, QA etc. When you’re dealing with 100s of them, inevitably a few are problematic. Even more so in the current world circumstances.

I remember one of the key Evora suppliers went bankrupt just after first customer deliveries started. Finding an alternative was a major headache and nearly halted production.

 

[PorkerHam]

Hello,

I did the factory tour yesterday, along with a few other folk. In answer to a couple of questions here;

Production, and completion of cars, is still being impacted by shortages on specific components, most obviously wheels. There are no customer cars delivered, nor dealer demonstrators. I was on the factory floor for about an hour and not a huge amount was going on, to be honest (it was around lunchtime, which would account for some of that, but even so). Most of the cars on the line were either without wheels (at the point in the process where they should have wheels) or had random temporary wheels fitted.

Unfortunately, the shortage situation means that they have made lots of progress on specific bits of the car, but then they can't progress further. There were loads and loads of LHD front sub assemblies sitting waiting to move on. There are piles of engines and gearboxes. Apparently there are lots of RHD cars stashed away somewhere on the site waiting for the final bits to arrive.

For all that, I would encourage anyone unsure about their order to go and see the cars on the line. They all look absolutely amazing. Although I'm sticking with Nimbus, for me the Magma Red was an unexpected star. Under bright factory lights, with black wheels, it looks every inch the supercar.

Cheers,
ph

 

[PorkerHam]

If anyone is going tomorrow, keep a look out at the main factory site and Classic Team Lotus over the road. They'll probably be preparing cars for transporting to Goodwood.

Along with doing the factory tour, I spent a couple of hours yesterday at Classic Team Lotus.

At one point in the proceedings, someone disappeared behind the display boards, into the storage area, where they keep loads of parts, bits of metal, etc. He came back a couple of minutes later with a cardboard box, opened it up, dug out a winners trophy from a 1970's Italian Grand Prix, looked at it and said "this is nice, I'll polish it up and we can take it to Goodwood with the car that won it".

If you are ever in Norfolk with a couple of hours spare, it's a nice place to spend some time....

ph