Lotus Secures Its Future, But Five Car Plan Axed

Because US regulations require cars to have smart airbags and there is no room for them in the Exige chassis.

because it looks like a middleschooler's summer project his dad had to help him finish--in other words, carrying on with the uniquely British cottage-industry image that plagued every marque racing ad road from AC to the E-type to the TVR, unless you preferred the high-priced spread, Rolls, Bentley or Aston; for example, the latest TVRs have world-class performance but one has to literally disassemble them to service them, and who wants another 911/pusher Porsche? lastly, for the same price one can go American Graffiti and get a Corvette that will stomp almost anything, pass every regulation on the way home from the grocery store and maintain a trade value without the requirement to send Mr. Goodwrench's daughter to private school for a semester just to change the oil; i had an E-type, and while the crumpet would literally surround me at every corner, it was like reliving the Battle of Britain--just firing it up was only slightly less difficult than starting a Spitfire (doubtless because both at one time had multiple British Leyland carbs and electrics) requiring Empire tools and a fluency in several European languages to communicate with the parts guy in back of the truck he kept running in the alley (yeah, i know, but good luck finding that dynamo in an American junkyard and besides, the Alfisti ahead of you in line wouldn't move til you made several derogatory Sicilian references to their mothers' spurious mountainside dalliances with goats and dogs); like all bad as beautiful women, my E-type had to go when the judge gave me the choice of five years before the bars or the mast, but now older, given the choice, I'd opt for the Z06 every time--and spend the rest of my time brushing up on my Spanish to see if i could smuggle in a TVR for a SECOND iron mistress;