Like the SUV boom of luxury brands more than 20 years ago, in 2022, SUV has become the "wealth code" recognized by many supercar brands. First there was Maserati Grecale, which tested the foreign language ability of many media and car fans at the beginning of the year, and then Another masterpiece of Lotus after opening the pure electric transformation - ELETRE. Not only that, but the frequent exposure of spy photos and the less camouflage on the test car seem to indicate that Ferrari's first SUV, the Purosangue, is on the string. Although in the eyes of many real potential consumers of these brands, the addition of these new cars means "more choices, more laughter", in the eyes of many hardcore Petrollhead, the increasingly "unproductive" supercar brands can be described as another proof of today's "world style" in the car industry.
In fact, we don't have to be angry about the behavior of these brands, and history proves that for many supercar brands, "not doing business" is the routine operation.
Lotus Cortina: "Thigh hugging" is our traditional skill
In this regard, there is no more effective way than to toad palace on the field. In addition to the well-known Battle of Ford Ferrari Le Mans, the Americans are determined to dominate the field of motorhomes and rallying. So they approached Lotus founder Colin Chapman, who planned to build a 1,000-unit high-performance version based on the Cortina, the main midsize car in Ford's European division at the time, to meet the rules of entry for touring car events in Europe at that time.
The reason was that the savvy Chapman was developing an alternative to the Coventry Climax engine, which, while unquestionable, was too expensive for a "volume" road car like the ELAN. Ford's 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine is an affordable option. So the two sides hit it off, and Ford's "strongest grocery cart" was born.
The top-of-the-line GT version of the engine has a maximum power of only 58 kW (79 hp), and not only that, but the rear suspension even uses the same leaf springs as the van.
In return, Colin Chapman not only received a brand new engine, but also as a partner, he also integrated the ELAN model into Ford's distribution system and sold it, thus surviving the business crisis due to the disastrous sales of The Elite model.
This "thigh-hugging" business model has since become the traditional artistic ability of Lotus, from the 1980s to the general oem production of Carlton, to now rely on the technical capital advantages of Geely Group, to complete their own electrification transformation, quite a "one trick fresh, eat all over the sky" posture. (Page turn)
Lancia Thema 8.32: The most "heart-stopping" Ferrari souvenir ever made
Former Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri revealed in an interview that the market for Ferrari branded goods was worth around 800 million euros in 2019. Indeed, for the historic sports car maker, brand licensing and related derivatives have been an important component of profit revenue. Even in the eyes of founder Enzo Ferrari, the brand's road cars are derivatives of the racing business. For many shy fans, from the Prancing Horse logo baseball cap, T-shirt, to a wide variety of simulated car models and even parts of retired F1 racing cars, there is always one of the countless souvenirs that will ignite the desire of Tifosi to consume.
To compete with the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series in the executive-class luxury car market, Fiat and Saab Scania jointly developed a new Type Four platform in the early 1980s.
Its 158kW (214 hp) and 285Nm power parameters were already two streets away from the Porsche 911 of the same period in the 1980s, and even managed to help the 2+2 sports car Mondial to the top of the "worst Ferrari of all time".
In addition, the high price also became the reason for the failure of the car, the new car price of the car was as high as 40,000 pounds, almost 5 times that of the regular version of the model, so that in the six years from 1986 to 1992, only 4,000 Lancia Thema 8.32s were off the production line.
Porsche: Getting through the storm thanks to the "help" of peers
In the late 1980s, the discontinuation of the 924 series, the decline in sales in the US market and the heavy blow to the stock market in 1987 plunged Porsche into the most serious crisis since the establishment of the brand, in order to get the company through the difficulties, Porsche in addition to laying off one-third of the staff and carrying out management changes, and even considered "killing chickens and eggs" to discontinue the classic 911 model. It was also at that time that Zuffenhausen's R&D team condescended to "outsource" the company to survive.
First, Mercedes-Benz transports the body parts to the Porsche "Reutter-Bau" factory in Zuffenhausen, where it is assembled by hand and then trucked back to the painting workshop in Sindelfingen. After the painting is completed, it is transported back to the Porsche factory to install the powertrain and interior. Due to the need to complete the quality inspection and transportation of the whole vehicle, each 500E will be transported to Sindelfingen again after the complete assembly is completed. It is said that each vehicle takes a full 18 days from the parts to the completion of production.
The 500E itself has become the favorite model of many "Young Timer" (a classic car produced between 1975 and 2000) with its excellent performance and the legendary anecdotes behind it.
Also officially due to the success of the 500E, Zuffenhausen's engineers soon received a second "outsourcing task", this time replaced by Audi.
Compared with the previous Mercedes-Benz 500E project, Porsche has a greater say in this cooperation. In other words, Audi only offered the 80 Avant's regular model and the 2.2T five-cylinder engine from the S2, and the rest of the research and development work was almost all done by Porsche.
While the five-cylinder engine inevitably experienced significant turbo lag after some maneuvering, the maximum power jumped to 232 kW (315 hp) and peak torque reached 410 Nm. For comparison, the S2's equivalent engine can only produce a maximum power of 162 kW (220 hp).
It is said that at that time, Audi planned to produce 2200 RS2s, but due to hot sales worldwide, it was eventually forced to "overshoot". According to statistics, in the product cycle of 1994-1995, a total of 2891 RS2 rudder models were produced. It can be said that RS2 has far-reaching significance for Audi and Porsche, the former has accumulated experience in the manufacture and marketing of sports cars. Even the high-performance station wagon is used as the spiritual totem of the brand's performance car. The latter, on the other hand, survived the toughest times by earning foundry fees.
Then, thanks to a series of bold reforms by the new CEO W Wiedeking and the launch of new cars such as boxster and Cayenne, Porsche not only came out of the haze, but also became the most profitable German car company, of course, that is another wonderful story.
Editor's comments: In fact, for the supercar brand with limited scale and single product, survival is the first priority. Therefore, the use of technology accumulation and brand aura to create high-performance civilian vehicles, OEM and even OEM is their long-term way of survival, as for purity, pedigree, ingenuity, these words full of metaphysical meaning, is just the marketing department spent brain cells to think hard about the marketing words.
In the face of the era of electrification that has arrived, the traditional automobile evaluation criteria are being subverted or even abandoned, and the supercar brands that once stood at the tip of the pyramid have to put down their idol baggage and explore more possibilities in the future. For example, Ferrari, which ranks among the couture fashion and top restaurants, or Porsche, which is experimenting with the NFT virtual collection.
Perhaps, for car fans, the car is a belief, an attitude, an irreplaceable work of art, but don't forget, first of all, it is a business.