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Lotus not liquidating

When a storied car brand moves only 137 units in a year in the UK and 242 in the US, predictions of said marque's demise carry a certain amount of weight -- 137 is not exactly a number that makes an automaker too big to fail. When the manufacturer in question shows up on a government list of companies to be shut down, brand-enthusiast hearts get heavy; the early stages of mourning kick in. But when the company in question is Lotus, the enthusiast thinks to himself, “Eh, they've been in dire straits before.

The great Tesla bubble of 2013

Do I go too far out on a limb to suggest Tesla is the modern-day version of the Great Tulip Bubble of March 1637? Remember, that was when speculators drove prices of just-introduced tulip bulbs to astronomical heights. Some single bulbs cost more than 10 times an average working man's salary.

Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations division launches

Cars like the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 (pictured) will come from JLR’s Special Operations If the creation of the Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations division to create bespoke, heritage, ultra luxury and high performance Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover cars doesn’t shout how positive JLR are about the future, nothing will. Jaguar call it “meeting the increasing expectations of today’s most discerning and enthusiastic car customers“, but what they really mean is that JLR have now got so much back on their game with cars like the new Jaguar F-Type, new Range Rover and new Range Rover Sport that they now have buyers with deep enough pockets to pay for just about anything, so that’s what JLR are going to do with the Special Operations division; give them anything they want – at a price That will mean car like the Jaguar Project 7 F-Type we saw at Goodwood last year being possible, ultra-luxury versions of the Range Rover and even the creation of heritage cars like the new Lightweight E-Types could become a regular occurrence. With a team of engineers and and designers led by Paul Newsome, recently recruited from Williams Advance Engineering, the plan is to create halo vehicles for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, and a team of 150 at a new Technical Centre near Gaydon will have a customer commissioning suite for bespoke and premium personalisation.