The Lotus Elise S1 is without doubt one of the all-time nice light-weight sports activities vehicles. One of the primary bonded aluminum vehicles, it modified the sport for Lotus and breathed new life into the phase. Such an unimaginable machine deserves an equally spectacular documentary, and by chance, such a movie exists. It’s referred to as Lotus Elise – The Inside Story, and it is at present streaming at no cost on YouTube.
This is not a documentary made after the automotive was an enormous success. The over two-hour movie was recorded all through the event course of, earlier than anybody knew that the Elise would spawn three celebrated generations. As such, it information the real-time decision-making concerned in growing an vehicle; all the things from design and engineering to extra underrated elements like manufacturing and buying.
At occasions it is fairly annoying. No one had made a mass-produced bonded aluminum automotive earlier than the Elise. Although the Lotus workforce had religion within the course of, they have been positively taking an enormous danger. It’s attention-grabbing to see that, on the time, the pinnacle of the now defunct Rover’s powertrain group seemingly thought little of the workforce making an attempt to be on the reducing fringe of the sports activities automotive world, noting at level that “Lotus is much more on the edge. On the edge of technology, on the edge of failure.” And then Rover took far fewer dangers and went beneath anyway.
The movie has many colourful characters, a few of whom we work together with frequently, just like the automotive’s chassis designer Richard Rackham—who remains to be with the corporate—in addition to Julian Thompson, the automotive’s designer who’s at present the design director at General Motors Advanced Design Europe, positioned within the U.Ok.. Others, like senior purchaser Dave Smith, solely seem briefly, however nonetheless go away a powerful impression.
Watching all the documentary not solely provides you a way of simply how specialised the automotive trade is, but additionally how enjoyable it may be; at the least at an organization like Lotus. Most of the senior employees within the movie appeared to genuinely love vehicles. To get the primary prototype out the door the workforce labored relentlessly on Christmas Eve. The ugly prototype was pushed out of the manufacturing facility to the corporate’s ice-covered check observe earlier than Christmas day arrived, and if not for the documentary movie crew’s presence, the one report would’ve been manufacturing facility safety footage.
Perhaps it is a coincidence that I stumbled throughout this admittedly well-viewed movie on-line simply across the time of the vacations when the Lotus workforce first examined the automotive, but it surely’s a becoming time to see the film. Sometimes its straightforward to neglect at any job why you are doing one thing, and to see how troublesome, thrilling, irritating, and gratifying growing the Elise was presents numerous perspective.
