the black badge may be a memorial to any attempt at quality control --- or a token of loss at all the Lucas electrical parts gone to the great and Smokey demise prematurely ed ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Causer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 08, 2004 10:05 AM Subject: [lotus-cars] Black badges
> > There are a number of different stories about the black badges fitted to > Lotus, generally disagreeing with each other. So, to fill a rainy > afternoon I decided to see if there is any usable evidence of the use of > different coloured badges. Time travelling back to look at the > production lines proved too difficult, but there is a form of time > travel available in the collected books of magazine road tests, mainly > published by Brooklands Books -- and conveniently to hand following > another investigation ;-) > > Now we have to make some assumptions, but I think quite reasonable ones. > First, a car supplied by Lotus for a magazine to test will have the > badging used in production at the time it was made and registered. (We > know their engines weren't always standard, but that's a different > concern.) There is a caveat here, an importer might decide to change > badging to fit their own preference, but at the time in question Lotus > had different importers for the East and West coasts of the USA, so any > switches probably won't be consistent. > > Another possibility is that Lotus themselves switched badges to reflect > the current production, but this isn't borne out out by the tests wich > invariably show that any individual car has the same badge all through > its active life of up to a year. > > Is the frequency of published tests enough to give a good picture of > production? From 1962 to 1982 I've found 160 tests, and 8 a year would > seem to be adequate. Only tests of "new" cars are taken into account, > those that have been modified by dealers (eg BRM, Else, B&C) are not > taken into account, nor are articles about used cars. > > > Let's clear one other problem area -- the very first black badge was > made specially for Sales Director Graham Arnold, and fitted to his > personal car which also had non-standard black paintwork and > non-standard red leather interior. Plus a well-tweaked engine of > course... > > > > OK, now for my findings..... > > 62 - mid 68 everywhere yellow/green > mid 68 - mid 71 UK & AUS black/silver, USA mainly yellow/green > mid 71 - 74 everywhere mainly yellow/green > 74 - 83 everywhere black/silver for Elite/Eclat/Esprit > > Yes, most of the tests of USA-spec cars in the USA had yellow/green badges > while the rest of the world had black/silver for three years. And, > *all* Elite/Eclat/Excel/Esprit had black/silver badges, not one had > yellow/green. > > Does this account for the perception in the USA that black badged cars > are rare, while the UK thinks they're pretty common? > > > > Let the cries of "Burn the heretic!" begin ;-) > > > Mike > -- > Mike Causer Email - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > GPG KeyID 1C2DDA07 WWW - http://www.mikecauser.com > Flood the fen again! - Wicken Fen enlargement - http://www.wicken.org.uk > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lotus-cars/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
