200 Horses -- Ever since firing its CEO Dany Bahar in June 2012 and reporting a near $200 million loss, Lotus has sought to find solid footing. One way the British marque planned to achieve this was by entering the motorcycle business, promising to deliver a Lotus "hyper bike," built by German race team Kodewa and the Holzer Group, by the turn of the year. And here it is, the Lotus C-01. A true stunner that isn't really a Lotus at all. The storied sports car maker has become more of a branding company than the automotive innovator it once was, enlisting others to do the heavy lifting while licensing the Lotus name for the sheet metal. This was evident in the 2010 IndyCar season, slapping Lotus logos on the carbon body that covered the Honda powerplant (they did enter an engine in 2012, although I'm not sure Lotus wants to be reminded of that). In Formula One, the Lotus F1 team is powered by Renault, and according to Lotus' most recent press release, the C-01 bike "is not designed, engineered or produced by Group Lotus" at all. It remains another licensing deal where Lotus plays consultant, with Kodewa producing the bike and Holzer handling development. Does it matter that it's not technically a Lotus? Well, that depends on your view. What we know for sure is it's about as stunning a motorbike as one could imagine, which isn't surprising given its designer. It may not have the strongest business, but Lotus still knows how to get attention.
Needs a sissy bar and ape hangers... Kind of streeeetched out. Good on the Salt Flats maybe with a fairing that's functional. Like the color treatments in any case.
Yeah I saw this the other day. They are a design shop like Porsche and I bet this goes no further than the ones you see here. Bet it is nothing more than to drum up visibility which it is doing. Really? You are loosing money hand over fist so you start untested exotic bike manufacturing to bail you out? WOW, no wonder they are broke. Stupid way to try and make money. Ferrari did this a while back too with as stupid looking design as the Lotus.
"Ferrari did this a while back too with as stupid looking design as the Lotus." That red one is rather intresting in my opinion. I also have the opinion there is a point where the operator belongs in an airplane. 200 horsepower, staying alive, motorcycle, something seems misplaced.
an interesting thing is that this bike seems to attract the most attention and receives the most well-meaning comments from people who do NOT ride motorcycles. to me, it seems like "you either love this motorcycle, or you have actually ridden a motorcycle before". r
i like the lotus badged bike an i ride a husky i also liked tron - the first one an think i could pimp it to look similar! eitherway if you do what you always do you will get what you always have.
Read an article about this bike. They plan on making 100 of them. So, your company is in a 200 million loss and you decide to build 100 motorcycles to fix this. I think the financial problem might be painfully obvious.
With that geometry, it might give a '80's Honda Magna cruse missile a run for the money. Or better yet a Yami triple from back then. I saw a stack of them dohc yami triples (wrecked) at a tow yard when my buddy was collecting his wrecked Honda Saber. Nice looking Lotus concept though.
