The Carchat

Click on the photo to read Autocar's story about Proton's announcement on the future of Lotus. Gone is Colin Chapman's philosophy of lightness and simplicity, and in comes aspirations of selling fancy, upmarket, luxury £100,000 cars. There are even plans to introduce a city car - Aston Martin's Cygnet is surely crass enough, but at least it's based on the fairly marvellous Toyota iQ. A Proton Lotus city car? Don't make me retch.

I posted some thoughts many months ago about the Elise facelift - positing my opinion that Lotus seems to think it's Ferrari - all but confirmed by the latest announcements. And of course, Michael posted this story last month about Lotus' ideas for lightweight cars in the future. Clearly a pamphlet of lies.

Thing is, we already have a Ferrari. From Italy. A Ferrari from Malaysia is going to take a while to become quite as glamorous and exciting, why not stick with 50 years of heritage from being Lotus of Norfolk? The problem for Lotus has been a lack of investment for years, not of engineering nous and a great philosophy. So many cool concepts and ideas have not come to fruition - where's the new Esprit, a sportier grand tourer to rival the Rapide?

With not even the merest hint of melodrama, it's a sad day, methinks.

BTW, I'll be posting a V12 video on the hour for the next 12 hours…ending at 9PM EST tonight. ;)

I know that things have been up in the air at Lotus of late - lots of people coming and going, and as Steve Sutcliffe mentioned in his Autocar column this week, the chief exec of Lotus since last July has been Ferrari's former marketing head, Dany Bahar, and they've poached among other people, former design chief Donato Coco.

They've started an F1 team - although whether that's more closely aligned to Lotus or Proton is up for discussion - and they've got a raft of new models coming over the next couple of years. The F1 programme is ambitious and the new models clearly intended to expand the size of the company - are they trying to position themselves as a British Ferrari?

Certainly judging from this facelifted Elise that was announced today they seem to be moving towards a Ferrari design route. This looks like a perfect entry-level roadster for the Italian company if they were ever so inclined - but is it Lotus? Less so, I think.

Flavio Manzoni.

Ferrari named on Thursday Flavio Manzoni as the new chief of design, who last served as the head of creative design of the Volkswagen Group, an appointment that could signal a dramatic change in how Ferrari designs its cars.

News of Mr. Manzoni’s appointment had been floating around since last September, and Ferrari made it official this week.

According to a news release, Mr. Manzoni, 43, will report directly to Ferrari’s chief executive, Amedeo Felisa, “and will be responsible for creating and defining the styling of Ferrari’s new cars.”

Just a few years ago, the very idea of a Ferrari design chief would have seemed absurd. Pininfarina, the illustrious Italian company, had the responsibility of designing Ferraris. In the 1950s, the name Pininfarina on the body of a Ferrari was as important as the rearing stallion of Ferrari. The design houses — like Pininfarina and Bertone — were as prestigious than manufacturers. That has changed.

But with hard times threatening the very existence of Pininfarina — and the entire coachbuilding and design industry — the appointment of Mr. Manzoni may mark a watershed. With Fiat bosses thinking more about integrating its high-end Ferrari and Maserati marques into a brand system with Fiat and Lancia, Ferrari design has recently meant something new. Frank Stephenson, of Mini design fame, served as Ferrari design chief for a while, and then Donato Coco. The position has been more about managing relations with Pininfarina than drawing specific new designs. Mr. Manzoni ’s appointment raises the possibility that Ferrari may hire other designers or even create designs in-house.

Mr. Manzoni was born in Sardinia, Italy. He was trained as an architect at the University of Florence and entered the automotive world in 1993 with Fiat. Mr. Manzoni worked at Lancia and then Seat, Volkswagen’s Spanish subsidiary. Following Walter de’Silva, the VW and Audi designer, Mr. Manzoni moved to Audi in 2006 and then later to VW, where he worked on the new Scirocco, Golf and Up concepts.

I worked with Flavio at Lancia (I was an intern) and I can tell you that he is not only one of the most talented designers I have ever worked with, but also possibly the nicest guy as well. It's great to see someone who is intelligent and talented, rather than an egotistical blowhard, take over a major brand.

Best of luck Flavio, I look forward to seeing what he comes up with in Maranello.