Lotus to transform classic cop-car
A NIMBLE and bold approach to contract-
engineering, born out of the spirit of the early
days of motorsport, is at the heart of the UK
automotive industry’s international appeal.
This quality is perhaps most neatly
embodied by Norfolk sports car manufacturer
Lotus which, despite being owned by
Malaysian carmaker Proton, is still regarded
as a quintessentially British operation.
From the Ford GT40 and the Aston Martin
Vanquish, to the Opel Speedster and the
all-electric Tesla Roadster, Lotus has lent its
production and engine expertise to many of
the world’s most exciting and innovative
sports car projects. Most recently the company
joined forces with US firm Carbon Motors
Corporation. Based in Atlanta, Georgia,
Carbon Motors has an audacious plan: a
complete redesign of the American cop-car, a
vehicle which, thanks to its presence in practi-
cally every car chase ever committed to
celluloid, is perhaps even more iconic than
London’s late-lamented Routemaster Buses.
The inspiration for the project is the fact
that while firefighters, paramedics and the
military have their own fleets of specially
developed vehicles, the US police are still
chasing crooks in the Crown Victoria, a retail
passenger car designed by Ford in 1979. After
lengthy consultation with police all over the
US, Carbon Motors has come up with an
Designers in demand
WHEN VOLVO took the wraps off its XC60 SUV at the recent Geneva
motor show the plaudits were laid squarely at the feet of Steve Mattin,
the car-maker’s young British design chief.
With a respectful nod to the past, but a bold vision of the future,
many commentators felt that Mattin, a graduate of Coventry Univer-
sity’s transport design department, had pulled off that rare feat of a
dramatic but uncontroversial redesign.
While it is tempting to romanticise Mattin’s rise as the classic tale of
a plucky Brit, the reality is that he is one of a strikingly high number of
UK-trained automotive engineers and designers who have risen to the
top of the global automotive industry.
In an even more emphatic thumbs-up for UK-trained engineers, the
design strategy of Volvo’s parent company Ford is also headed by two Brits
— Peter Horbury, a predecessor of Mattin’s at Volvo and now design chief
for North America and Martin Smith, design chief for Ford Europe — both
with masters in automotive design from the Royal College of Art.
British engineers are also well represented in F1. Pat Symonds,
director of engineering at Renault, started out as an engineering
apprentice with Ford, William’s director of engineering Patrick Head
studied mechanical engineering at London University and Honda’s team
Stylish: Lotus is helping Carbon Motors design the new diesel engine cop-car
impressive design. It is stylish, spacious,
bristling with sensors and powered by a
fuel-efficient diesel engine that will enable the
car to move from 0-60 in six and half seconds.
While one might expect the patriotism
factor to ensure an all-American team, Carbon
Motors’s chief executive William Li quickly
decided that Lotus was the ideal contract
engineering supplier. ‘We are a lean, small
company and the culture fit was very good –
they know how to be a little bit more focused
and less bureaucratic. Contract engineering
the EnGIneeR 21 APRIL–4 MAY 2008 25
principal Ross Braun trained as instrumentation engineer at Harwell’s
atomic energy research establishment.
Meanwhile, on the other side of world, the giant of the Indian
automotive industry, Tata Motors, recognises the value of UK engineers
and has appointed ex-Ricardo boss Dr Clive Hickman to head its
Coventry-based European Technical Centre.
‘Brits, or people who have been trained in Britain, are at the top level
in so many car companies and truck companies in the world,’ said Prof
Garel Rhys, of Cardiff Business School, an economist who has been a
keen observer of the British car industry since the early Sixties.
While many of the industry’s high-flying Brits began their journey to
the top some years ago Rhys believes that, thanks to the high standards
of the training on offer, the trend is set to continue. ‘We
have some of the best academic courses, such as the Royal College
of Art and the Coventry University courses. They are regarded as the
Blue Riband courses for automotive design and engineering in the
world,’ he said.
‘For every place that’s available at those colleges and universities,
there are 300 applications, and for every person that comes out of them,
there are 30 jobs offered.’
firms are not that prevalent in the US and
those that do exist have tremendous
UK AUTO SECTOR
capabilities but are very good for high-volume
programmes with the typical bureaucratic
processes that come with any large company.
Lotus are more nimble. Their model is
“change the rules” and it suits us just fine.’
The team is now working on the develop-
ment of a one-off prototype, which it hopes to
launch before the end of the year. Li said he
hopes to take the vehicle into full-scale
production within the next two years.
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