Aston Martin has finally unveiled the AMG-powered DB11 Volante and it is otherworldly beautiful. Despite that I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why British car makers endlessly rearrange their furniture.
Lotus has just unveiled the Exige Cup 430 which looks like the Exige Cup 380 which looks like a normal Exige with lots of racerboy bits as icing. Lotus called it ‘the most extreme Exige ever conceived’ and I agree. Being that it is a ‘new’ car that is extremely old. It even has the old Toyota-sourced 3.5-litre V6 supercharged to deliver 424 hp and Toyota doesn’t even use that on the new Camry anymore. It weighs 1059 kg and accelerates from nought to 60 in 4.2 seconds. And it costs nearly £100,000.
So it is slower and a bit crashier than a big Mercedes-AMG C63 Estate. And it costs more. And it is not entirely new. I see trouble looming.
I know some manufacturer’s are in trouble of being thrown into oblivion but unless you are Aston Martin, or Bentley, or Rolls-Royce you will stay in trouble unless you give the world something new. Lotus is pulling what Aston did with the DB9. Endlessly making alterations in hopes to sell more. So DBS, Virage, DB9 GT, Vanquish, and Vanquish S. All of those come with a convertible. And all of those are a DB9. At least that car was beautiful. I can’t wrap my head around how Lotus is going to sell a special edition of a car that looks like a toad. Especially if you have options such as the Porsche Cayman and an old Ferrari F430 which was brilliant. Yes that car is a bit elderly. But Lotus…