A&Q about Lotus
Q:
After seeing the Making of the Elise video and how it covered the inception, creation and production of the S1 I started thinking about the S2.
Is there some coverage as to why they changed the body style, was it simply because it was time for a change? Or was it to better accomodate a different powerplant or regulations? Was Julian Thompson and his team involved in the process?
A:
You want to read Lotus Elise: The Official Story Continues to complement the video. It covers the same ground, but in more depth up to the S2 federal model (2004). In fact, it reads like the same guy who wrote the book produced the video.
Amazon link
I'd have to look back to find the exact reason given, but I don't think it's anything more than the usual need to update the car before it became stale.
A:
The biggest difference between the S1 and S2 was it's projected number of cars built per year. The initial S1 design was meant to be built in a few hundred cars a year. The S2 was designed to be built in up to 10.000 units per year.
This meand they already needed to redesign the clams to be able to use the new industrial style of making them using injection moulding techniques.
This process can not create shapes that turn in onto themselves as these would not be able to release from the mould.
This is the reason the S2 clams are made by Sotira in france in separate parts that are then bonded together at the Lotus factory in the UK, painted and then fitted to the cars.
S1 clams (and S2 Exige clams) are made in-house by Lotus using traditional fibreglass mat techniques.
Bye, Arno.