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Originally Posted by transio
You really believe that? By Lotus' own words, they went with FWD for "controllability" (i.e. no oversteer). They used BS marketing lingo to try to sell people on FWD's advantages (which at the time were in increasing demand), but there is no way Lotus at the time, or you now, will convince anyone that a FWD setup had, has, or will ever have, a competitive advantage over RWD.
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BUZZZZZZZ.....................wrong answer.
In the Mark Hughes book on the M100 Elan, there is a section dedicated to why Lotus chose a FWD platform. The reasons and endorsements are surprising. Its a long section and I'll write some of it here. Bold is my doing (as are any spelling mistakes
).
GOING FRONT DRIVE
There was no precise moment when the Elan suddenly became a front-drive sports car. Insteadthere was a gradual realisation that this was the radical step forward necessary for a new-generation sports car of relatively small engine capacity. It was a big decision to take, but one which became almost inevitable in the face of persuasive evidence.
The beginnings of Lotus's front-drive thinkjng can be traced back to John Miles, a former Grand Prix driver with Lotus in 1970 and a self-confessed entusiast for rear-drive cars. Miles had served a distinguished spell as technical Editor of Autocar before joining Lotus - for a second time - in 1984. His immediate boss, Roger Becker, shared his thinking, and between these two spread the word through the rest of the company, in practical demonstrations, discussions in corridors, formal meetings and arguments over lunch.
"Before I came to Lotus", remembers Miles, "the benefits of front-drive had become clear to me at Autocar, particularly when I tested saloon racing cars with Saab and Audi. I had always been very anti front-drive, but, wherever I went, I found confirmation that it was preferrable for getting quickly from A to B in a small car.
"Besides this, lots of other factors added to the argument for me......................... Then there were the advantages of packaging and powertrain availability; with a rear-drive project we would have found it increasingly difficult to borrow another manufacturer's powertrain. There was a mass of evidence."
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"Front-drive made so much sense on so many fronts that the decision was inevitiable", remembers Spooner, "but no one wanted to make it because we would be flying in the face of the best traditions of British sports cars. Mike Kimberley eventually took the brave step and made his recommendation to the board - all of us in engineering supported it wholeheartedly.
"We were going to build a car with brilliant handling and all the traditional sports car values, but it was going to be even more controllable and balanced than anything we had done before.........."
"We knew that torque steer, steering weight and stability were going to be problems with front-drive, but, with our experience on front-drive client projects, we wondered what we could do if we started with uncompromised front suspension. The design, therefore, followed the same thinking and rules as an F1 car."
There's sooooo much more but I'd be in jeopardy of plagerism if I continued. But, as we can all see, there were MANY reasons why FWD was chosen. These would be:
1. Availability of powertrains (Lotus doesn't make their engines as we all know)
2. Drivability
3. Cost
4. Advantages when used with small engine cars
5. Overall Performance
Another quote in the book states that the Elan may have been the quickest car from A to B in existence! That includes the Esprit by the way along with then-current Porches, etc.. Heathel track times were not exactly revealed to the world for all kinds of reasons and the Elan's ability to trounce the Esprit was one. Lotus did "de-tune" the engine in a sense by limiting what ouput could be achieved with that engine for fear of cannabalizing the Esprit market. How would you feel if you just bought an Esprit only to find out you get your a$$ handed to you on the track by an Elan at almost half the price. Elan owners today have unlocked the available power in the car to turn it into the exotic killer it should have been.
Oh yea baby, you're talking about a real sportscar, created by Lotus, with radical design elements never before created (or matched again), in FWD that makes you feel like its RWD.
By the way, the Mark Hughes book from which I've quoted shows no less than 25 Lotus employee sources of information and the introduction was written by the chairman of Lotus at the time.