End of an era at Hethel
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF the demise of the Lotus Exige and its platform-sharing siblings may not immediately dawn on everyone, but this is a big deal. A really big deal. If you think about it, Type 14 Elite and M100 aside (and the latter of those is debatable), Lotus has really only traded off two pure road-car platforms since 1962 – yes, just shy of 60 years. First there was the marvellous accidental backbone chassis that started life as a testbed for Rotoflex couplings and went on to see service through the Elans, Eclats, Excels and Esprits etc until it finally bit the dust well into the 21st Century. Hey, if it ain’t broke… While that backbone chassis was hardly new tech even on its introduction – one wonders if Lotus might…