Having staked its name on outstanding race and road cars, Lotus Cars has financed its vehicular follies by pawning its engineering talents to clients - the latest being Spyker Cars. Yesterday, the Dutch sports car builder inked a deal to exchange ideas and parts with the house that Chapman built.
Spyker isn't a new client for Lotus (engineering work on the C8 and C8 Laviolette was outsourced to Hethel), but this new agreement does further the relationship between the two. According to a release issued by Lotus, the agreement calls for Lotus to supply parts for the upcoming C8 Aileron sports car and also mentions that both partners "intend to share parts and platforms." Although unconfirmed by either party, there is a chance that some parts could be common to both the C8 and Lotus' up-and-coming Esprit successor, currently known as Project Eagle.
We'd expect to see further Lotus/ Spyker collaboration in the future, too. Another provision of the contract calls for Lotus' involvement for all future Spyker programs, including the quirky D8 "Peking to Paris" off-road sports coupe.