Can I have an e please Colin…?

I'm not sure when it dawned on me. Perhaps it was when I saw a couple of them parked together and thought ‘do they all begin with an e?’ There's an old one parked up near me. It never seems to move but I decided to saunter over and have a look. And lo and behold, its badge read Europa. Maybe it was when I asked the question ‘what the hell does Exige mean?’ Was that the moment the penny dropped? Who knows? Nevertheless, my brow was sufficiently furrowed for it to start to bug me.

Whatever the reason, it all came into focus at some point. A realisation that had been staring me in the face for years. Of course, you all know by now what I'm talking about. The fact that all Lotus car model names seem to start with an e. And they’re weird words to boot. So, in my never-ending quest to find content to fill these pages, I decided to look into this and understand how this came to be. And whilst this thesis doesn't hold as much water as I would hope, it does have some mileage. So let's have a look.

I mentioned recently that my interest in Lotuses (Lotusi?) was fueled by the tricked out Esprit used by Roger Moore in his Bond films. The white wedge of turbocharged death. With guided missiles and excellent waterproofing, it was the Dinky toy I coveted above all. In later life, I came to understand that this was a prop made for a film. I learned that Lotus is a brand that has produced many interesting cars besides the Elite. Not all of them that waterproof.

And many of which start with an e…

Do they all start with a damned e?

To prove my point, try this. List all the Lotuses you can remember. Straight off the cuff, no Googling. Here goes: Elite, Elise, Europa, Exige, Excel, Elan and the errr…Seven. That's all I can do. So, after phoning a friend you’ll find there's also: Evora, Eleven, Éclat and Exos. They even had a small city car in the pipeline called the Ethos, which they cancelled.

That's a lot of e words. Not all actual words to be slightly critical.

Lotus started as a racing team as most will know. Founded in 1952 by the legendary Colin Chapman, the company made high-performance racing cars. They soon built an enviable reputation for developing world-beating track and formula cars.

In this time, a normal driver could only buy a Lotus in kit form for road use. The most iconic of these being the Seven.

The e tradition started in 1957 with the kit based Elite. Until then, the cars had a numerical designation laid out in roman form. This approach actually lead to the e series. When the Eleven was developed, Chapman liked the way it looked written down in words and the e series nomenclature was born.

So even when they rejected the kit car format and moved into producing finished cars the e tradition endured. Other than that, there doesn't seem to have been a grand plan. Just cool or appropriate e-words applied to each car after little or no brainstorming. For example, Elise it's said was the name of a Lotus Chairman’s granddaughter. That’s random!

Bizarrely, this realisation has caused me to worry for Lotus. They're locked into a pattern where they have to find interesting e words to apply to their cars. They started plundering other languages for some reason. Exige and Evora are Portuguese words believe it or not. Worse still, Evora translates as Yew tree of all things. I'm sure if they worked a bit harder, they'd find some great words in the e section of the OED.

Given the terrible financial problems that besieged Lotus in the 1980s maybe they couldn't afford a dictionary. They got caught up in the DeLorean malarkey. Combined with other dubious financing machinations, things quickly started to disintegrate. The stress of this helped to end Colin Chapman’s existence and he exited the world at the early age of 52.

A Chinese company called Geely now owns Lotus, (just like many other formerly British businesses). Happily, it still makes cars at its UK base in Norfolk. And what good cars they are. Cool, fast and all with a strange name that starts with an e.

So, to give me some closure I thought I would wrack my brains and try and think of some good e-based English words. To name future Lotusi.

Here's what I've come up with. Endeavour, Eclipse, Endure, Effulgence, Emoji, Elvira, Enteritis and Egregious, which is perhaps the most apt.

There must be something there they can use. Perhaps, you have some better ideas, so send them in! 

Until next time…