Caterham Bought By Lotus

[Danny]

From Evo

Lotus Boss Buys Caterham


The Nearn family sold Caterham Cars for a rumoured £4-5million. The shock announcement was made more intriguing by the news that the purchaser was Ansar Ali, who until just days before the news broke was working as general manager of Lotus Cars. Backed by private equity company Corvin, Ali has become MD of Caterham Cars, but out-going boss Simon Nearn will remain as a consultant.

When we caught up with Ali just days after the deal was made public, he was quick to stress that his financiers have the right motives, and a long-term plan.

'Corvin aren't venture capitalists in the traditional sense. They're not looking to make a fast buck. Their expertise is in acquiring manufacturing businesses and putting management teams in place that can move things forward.

'We've got no ambitions to try and turn Caterham into a 5000-units-per-year company


. We want to enhance the Caterham customer experience, and we're already working on ideas.'

It is thought that, as there are only a handful of staff building Caterhams at present, one possibility is to make the process more bespoke, with customers seeing 'their' car in build and one man putting his name to each finished product. 'It's a change of management, not a change in direction or philosophy. My priority, therefore, is to ensure the CSR comes to market in road and race trim as soon as possible,' says Ali.

 

[G.T]

Really? Is this good or bad?

 

[VIPFREAK]

So they won't make a lotus elise gt1 but they'll buy a car company... ?

 

[MrktMkr1986]

So they won't make a lotus elise gt1 but they'll buy a car company... ?

I guess they figured it would be more profitable...

 

[Ev0]

Hopefully they will stick to their word and not screw Caterham up in any way.

 

[Danny]

Really? Is this good or bad?

Good in that Caterham can be funded for more amaing cars.

Bad in that the family ownership has gone. Bye-bye heritage.

 

[Dave A]

I'd say it's more good than bad, the only succesful car Caterham has made is the 7 which was origianlly a Lotus anyway, so the family ownership thing never really did it for me with Caterham, it was their company but they didn't design the car they just bought the rights, though I'm not saying that in a bad way since it was a good choice as the 7 was going to be scrapped by Lotus at the time.

And to answer VipFREAK, a Lotus Elise GT1 would have been far less, if at all profitable than buying Caterham.

 

[PS]

For some reason, after seeing my first Caterham/hearing of it, which was like...4 years ago, I've always associated them with Lotus. This doesn't surprise me in the least.

 

[daan]

Lotus haven't bought Caterham. Former Lotus general manager Ansar Ali has bought Caterham. He has nothing to do with Lotus anymore.

 

[sUn]

About time, hopefully there cars will start looking like modern cars now.

 

[MrktMkr1986]

Lotus haven't bought Caterham. Former Lotus general manager Ansar Ali has bought Caterham. He has nothing to do with Lotus anymore.

Thank you for the clarification.

If that's the case, what do you think he intends to do with the company?

 

[-Fred-]

About time, hopefully there cars will start looking like modern cars now.

Honestly, that's pretty much the point of a Caterham... A barebones transportation pod that'll whoop anything on a racetrack. Why change a good thing?

It's unlikely the cars will change much, and if they do, it'll be for the better. Better build quality, better materials, etc...

 

[PS]

Those Super 7's were the ultimate sleeper too. Didn't they do like 0-60 in 3.8s on a NA engine? They weighed next to nothing as well. My mom actually asked me about them for an insurance quote

 

[xcsti]

Those Super 7's were the ultimate sleeper too. Didn't they do like 0-60 in 3.8s on a NA engine? They weighed next to nothing as well. My mom actually asked me about them for an insurance quote

I believe in the us they use a mildly tuned zetec engine out of the focus. I hope this allows them to expand their lineup. Maybe they'll buy the rights to the esprit

 

[Emohawk]

So, what does this mean for Westfield?

 

[G.T]

About time, hopefully there cars will start looking like modern cars now.

Caterhams don't need morderning. It's the character of the car. It's the Morgan 4 plus 4 that needs to be...

 

[Dave A]

Not even the Morgan, again it's the cars character.

 

[Danny]

So, what does this mean for Westfield?

I don't think this means anything to Westfield. As far as I know, they're a different company altogether.

 

[RogsR34UK]

From my reading of the article in Autocar magazine it will make very little difference to the company in terms of what they build.

 

[Emohawk]

I don't think this means anything to Westfield. As far as I know, they're a different company altogether.

I know they're not organizationally related. It affects Westfield at all because these two are in more direct compitition then any other two car companys I can think of.
So Caterham has just got a major boost in their financial backing. Corvin has specifically stated a desire not to quintuple Caterham's sales and to keep them in the market they're already in. Still, it's not a huge market to share, this has to affect Westfield significantly, doesn't it?

 

[PS]

If anything, we'll probably just see more variants of the 7, or maybe a new DD or something. I just hope to god they don't make an SUV (ala Porsche).

 

[Dave A]

I know they're not organizationally related. It affects Westfield at all because these two are in more direct compitition then any other two car companys I can think of.

Lotus isn't Caterhams most direct opposition, Westifield is and then theres a awful lot of small kit car companies that Caterham and Westfield buyers are generally aware of which make cars more like the Seven than any Lotus barring the Super seven.

 

[Emohawk]

By 'those two' I meant Westfield and Caterham.
Lotus doesn't really factor into this disscussion at all.
Are kit car companys in the same range? They make the same things, but Caterham and Westfield buyers are looking for something pre-built. If someone building a locust (home made Lotus 7 type car) had enough money to buy a pre-built car like a Caterham or Westfield, they wouldn't. They'd just spend that much more making their own car better.
I'd say the kit car market is halfway between the pre built 7-replica market and the locust non-market. People who don't have enough money to buy a full car and don't have the mechanical skill to build one from scratch.

 

[Dave A]

I'd agree with that, a mate of mine built a locost car, got it all registered. He didn't stick to the book when it came to the interior though and he gave it a few personal touches. It was a great car but his dads SEight was better.

 

[Milliethemutt]

Caterham have designed a new Seven. It looks very similar to the old one but is based on the slightly bigger SV chassis and has all new suspension design. It also comes with a Cosworth tuned engine instead of the Rover k-series.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Caterham hasn't been bought by Lotus.

There are lots of low cost cars around, including self builds like the Tiger (?).

I would like to see Caterham modernise their looks. I think it would look great to see one with a more curved appearence and yet the same stunning performance.

 

[Danny]

You need Donkervoort in your life then Evan

 

[ExigeEvan]

Yeah, that kind of thing, but maybe something better on the wheels.

 

[Azuremen]

You lucky people and not having a massive amount of safety requirements and standards. Stupid US gov't is so dumb when it comes to cars...

Be happy you got ANYTHING cool like that stuff... Gotta have made respect for the light weight rockets

 

[Emohawk]

What about that hood height regulation? Surely they aren't compliant with that?