Post by Ben on Jun 1, 2019 17:43:52 GMT
Just a bit of random musing on a weekend, but I was just thinking about the Lotus 340R, which, in case you have forgotten, looks like this:
The thing that I remember about this car though, was that when it was first announced, Autocar made a big deal about how they had an involvement with the 340R's design and conception. Back then as a young 13 year old I thought that was pretty cool, and left it at that.
Now that I'm older, I'm just curious as to how much involvement did they have exactly, and to what extent (apparently Steve Sutcliffe came up with the name). Because a car magazine helping to design a full, proper road-going production car is a pretty big deal and doesn't exactly happen often.
There's not much info about that online though, other than vague little tidbits. This was the best I could find:
www.340r.net/story.htm
The thing that I remember about this car though, was that when it was first announced, Autocar made a big deal about how they had an involvement with the 340R's design and conception. Back then as a young 13 year old I thought that was pretty cool, and left it at that.
Now that I'm older, I'm just curious as to how much involvement did they have exactly, and to what extent (apparently Steve Sutcliffe came up with the name). Because a car magazine helping to design a full, proper road-going production car is a pretty big deal and doesn't exactly happen often.
There's not much info about that online though, other than vague little tidbits. This was the best I could find:
www.340r.net/story.htm
“ It doesn't normally feel like this when we test a car. There's always keen anticipation, but seldom such a sense of pride.
The 340R feels extra special to Autocar because it's our car. Not just ours for the day, but ours from day one. When Lotus boss Chris Knight gave the go-ahead to develop the Elise formula to new extremes, he invited Autocar to help design the sort of car that would appeal to us. Together with Lotus’s design staff, we conceived a featherweight track-bred car with more power, a better gearbox and an even better chassis than the Elise, a £33,000 price and a name coined by Autocar's Stephen Sutcliffe. Changes have been made on the way, but the spirit of what we set out to achieve has now been realised In a machine that's ready to go on sale. And if you don't like it, we're as much to blame as anybody. “
The 340R feels extra special to Autocar because it's our car. Not just ours for the day, but ours from day one. When Lotus boss Chris Knight gave the go-ahead to develop the Elise formula to new extremes, he invited Autocar to help design the sort of car that would appeal to us. Together with Lotus’s design staff, we conceived a featherweight track-bred car with more power, a better gearbox and an even better chassis than the Elise, a £33,000 price and a name coined by Autocar's Stephen Sutcliffe. Changes have been made on the way, but the spirit of what we set out to achieve has now been realised In a machine that's ready to go on sale. And if you don't like it, we're as much to blame as anybody. “
