[arefog]

OK, I consider myself to be a reasonably well-rounded car nut, although the Elise will be my first Lotus. It occured to me that I have no clue as to why Lotus car names have traditionally begun with the letter "E". If I am going to proudly represent the marque I need to know.

Richard Fogg

 

[AutoXr]

Did you forget about the numbered cars?

Was it just the race cars that were numbered? 7, 11, 23, 26, etc.

 

[wallabyguy]

Chapman gave all his cars mark numbers, such as mark 6, mark 7, etc. When he reached Mark 11 (one of the greatest Lotus of all time BTW), He liked the way it sounded so much (the "E" name with Lotus in front of it), he decided to name all his cars starting with "E". All Lotus cars still recieve Mark designations as well for factory reference (i.e. the Elan of the 90's was the M100).

 

[AutoXr]

Sounds plausable, but not sure that I buy it ...

 

[meat]

True story.

Although I think there some other reasons in there like that people were calling the 11 "two" as in roman numerals.

The Elise is Type 111 - FYI

 

[vvtlikick]

Lotus is copying Ford's SUV naming strategy.

 

[Dan]

Lotus is copying Ford's SUV naming strategy.

Wow, I had no idea Ford "E-" SUVs have been around since the 1950's!

 

[smoseley]

Wow, I had no idea Ford "E-" SUVs have been around since the 1950's!

Ford vans are "E" designated.

Incidentally, I heard rumors that Ford is planning to sue Lotus, because they claim to have a trademark on the letter "E".

 

[AutoXr]

Here's a link to a humorous article about Ford's obsession with using "E" names for it's SUV's.

 

[James A]

Your right, Ford does use a lot of E names, Pinto, Mustang, Thunderbird, Mavaric, Sierra, Falcon, Focus, Edsel, Fiesta, Contour, GT, Crown Victoria. I sure wish they would use names other than "E" names!

 

[AutoXr]

Your right, Ford does use a lot of E names, Pinto, Mustang, Thunderbird, Mavaric, Sierra, Falcon, Focus, Edsel, Fiesta, Contour, GT, Crown Victoria. I sure wish they would use names other than "E" names!
James A

Somebody needs to take a nap!

 

[L8BRAKR]

Somebody needs to take a nap!

Or realize ford is not the greatest carmaker in the world and that we were talking about the SUV's anyways.

quoted from the link AutoXr supplied:

"Ford family to begin with the letter “E”, hoping to expand the success of the Explorer, Expedition, Excursion, and Escape."

 

[wallabyguy]

My understanding was that Ford was going to use "E" for all their SUV's and "F" for their cars with the exception of the Mustang and Thunderbird staring with new vehicle intros in 2004 in the US. The family would include; Freestar, Freestyle, Futura, Focus, etc. The Crown Vic, Thunderbird (temp.) and Taurus would be phased out over the next 3 years.

 

[AutoXr]

Yeah, whatever...

I have to admit that I don't really follow Ford products too much, but I do know that SUVs start with "E" and trucks start with "F".

With that said, I always try to look for humor where ever I can and this thead had a large target painted all over it... .