Luxury Evora pulls on its track suit

Well, if it's a Lotus you might as well race it.

You're a boutique carmaker and you've just introduced your most luxurious vehicle, so what's next?

If you're Lotus, strip it of all the good stuff and turn it into a racing car.

The Lotus Evora may be meant for the sporting luxury market, but it still has the breeding to make a good track car and the company is now proving it with the Type 124 Evora endurance racer.

According to Lotus, few major changes were necessary to create the endurance racer. It uses the standard Evora chassis and retains the suspension, apart from shock absorbers and anti-roll bars.

Brakes were changed to AP Racing six-piston calipers at both ends and the car rides on Pirelli racing tyres.

In order to make it FIA compliant, Lotus added a full roll cage, a fire extinguisher system and six-point restraint harness.

After stripping the interior and using some carbon-fibre body panels, the Type 124 weighs 200kg less than the stock car, at 1200kg.

The engine is still a Toyota-sourced 3.5-litre V6 but power is now more than 300kW.

A normal six-speed manual has replaced the standard six-speed sequential gearbox.

It is competing at various endurance races until 2011 in a factory-supported programme.

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Proton to be in for the long haul

Proton will explore all avenues to grow the business, including tapping more export markets and developing new models via partnerships with foreign carmakers.

Carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd is keen to develop long-term strategic partnerships with foreign carmakers, but essentially on matters concerning sharing of platform to produce a car.
Chairman Datuk Nadzmi Mohd Salleh said Proton aspires to be in the carmaking business for the long haul.
It will explore all avenues to grow the business, including tapping more export markets and developing new models via collaboration with key partners in foreign countries.
"For overseas markets, we are looking at collaborating with manufacturers, assemblers or big auto players to make the cars in the respective markets, such as in Asean, China, India, the Middle East and Africa.
"We do not want to invest in assembly plants as this will increase our operation costs," Nadzmi told Business Times in an interview in Jakarta, Indonesia.
"But the costs involved in producing a car on foreign platform must be competitive for Proton to make its profits. The costs must be carefully planned to meet our clear objectives," he said.
Nadzmi said that Proton will focus on high-growth regional markets like Asean, China, India, the Middle East and North Africa for its exports to benefit from the economies of scale.

Proton has already formed a strategic partnership with Detroit Electric Holdings Ltd to produce and market a full line of innovative Pure Electric vehicles in the US, the UK and Europe from next year.
Detroit Electric will integrate its patented electric-drive system into the vehicles.
Under the agreement, it will license two Proton vehicle platforms and contract the company to assemble the electric vehicles, which will be marketed under the Detroit Electric brand.

Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said the company needs to develop more viable products, such as the Exora multi-purpose vehicle (MPV), to be profitable.
The cost to make the MPV is lower than for its other car models, he said.
Syed Zainal Abidin said the profit margin from the Exora was 15-20 per cent higher than for the rest of the current models.
"Proton has to be innovative in its approaches, not just in one area but in all aspects of operation," Syed Zainal Abidin said. - By Sharen Kaur