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‘ENGINEERED BY LOTUS’ |
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1 1988 Isuzu Piazza Some manufacturers want to keep quiet about the outsiders they call in to sort their cars out. However, Isuzu was so pleased by the chassis transformation that it used ‘Handing by Lotus’ in its marketing publicity. |
2 1981 DeLorean DMC12 It was meant to have a super-light and strong composite frame but the structure proved unviable for production, so DeLorean turned to Lotus. Which is why, under all that steel, you’ll find a chassis developed from the Esprit. |
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3 2001 Aston Martin Vanquish By the turn of the century, Aston had only very limited in-house engineering capability, which is why TWR did the DB7. But it was Lotus’s expertise in bonded aluminium extrusions that made it so instrumental to the creation of the Vanquish. |
4 1988 Corvette ZR-1 Nothing’s so American as a Corvette, right? Well, not this one: it not only handled, steered and stopped so well thanks to Lotus, but also the four-cam 32-valve heads that provided 375bhp for the 5.7-litre V8 were engineered not in Michigan but in Norfolk. |
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5 1990 Lotus Carlton What did Vauxhall have in common with Lotus? At the time, both were owned by General Motors. So when Vauxhall wanted a BMW M5 basher, it didn’t have to look hard for a company to do it. A 377bhp twin-turbo 3.6-litre motor and tuned aero and suspension created what was then the world’s fastest saloon. |
6 1963 Lotus Cortina Or Ford Cortina Lotus to give it its proper name. Ford’s desire to go racing met Colin Chapman’s desire to have his own engine, resulting in his twin-cam 1.6-litre motor slotting under the bonnet of the hitherto unexciting Cortina. And thanks to the helmsmanship of Jim Clark and others, history was made. |
