Silly British cars or spy/kids.Part 1 Lotus Cars Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at Hethel, Norfolk, England. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and high handling characteristics. put its chief designer, Russell Carr, on the case of developing a one-off version of the Lotus Exige The Lotus Exige (pronounced: ex-seej) is a two-door, two-seat sports car made by Lotus Cars. It is essentially a coupe version of the Lotus Elise, which is a roadster. The original Exige (NA or naturally aspirated Exige) was launched in 2000 and had a 1. called the "Espionage." While Lotus certainly isn't as famous as, say, Aston Martin when it comes to spy drives, it has had product piloted by Roger Moore on film [certainly not the foremost Bond]. While U.S. vehicle manufacturers have had product created with fashion designers such that they've had some rather bizarre cars, in the present case, (1) Lotus worked with Gieves & Hawkes, a clothier with the appropriate address of No. 1 Saville Row, and (2) the vehicle was created for a display at Harrods ["Truly British"]. Gieves & Hawkes designed a "Spy Suit" for the event, which is echoed on the 189-hp Exige. Specifically: the car has special ["bespoke be·spoke v. Past tense and a past participle of bespeak. adj. 1. Custom-made. Said especially of clothes. 2. Making or selling custom-made clothes: a bespoke tailor. "] navy paint that's, of course, pin-striped like the suit; the seat inserts, dashboard, and door inserts are also pin-striped. The rear of the seats are lined with silk. And because a secret agent ostensibly os·ten·si·ble adj. Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. wears brogue shoes, the floor mats are black leather. Price for the "Espionage"? [pounds sterling]39,995. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Part 2 Whilst [as they'd say Over There] on the subject of Harrods, this brings us to something somewhat more practical. Premier Pedal Cars Ltd. [PPC See Pocket PC, PowerPC and pay-per-click. PPC - PowerPC ] was established in 2003 by Stuart Colmer, who imports metal pedal cars from China and sells them at places including that grand department store. He realized that although the British motor industry The British motor industry was historically centred around Coventry in the West Midlands. History The beginnings 1896–1900 The British motor industry started when Frederick Simms became friends with Gottlieb Daimler, who had, in 1885, patented a design for may have all but disappeared, there was the opportunity for U.K.-built cars in his niche. Omega Plastics, a British firm, worked with the Polymer Center of Teesside and Responsive Engineering of Gateshead to develop a concept for the Noddy noddy, tropical tern including five species in the genus Anous. The name noddy is said to derive from their easy familiarity with man. Noddies are web-footed seabirds with long wings (though shorter than those of most terns) and pointed, tapering bills. pedal car, which PPC had secured the license to build. The team produced parts for the prototype in 12 days thanks, in large part, to the use of PowerMILL CAM software from Delcam [www.delcam.com; Birmingham, U.K.]. Tooling for manufacturing the Noddy was produced by D & S of Newton Aycliffe, another Delcam user. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion