Thanks Sean but I was aware that the pic was of a pre-production prototype so the history lesson wasn't necessary (for myself at least). I was of the belief (which I'm sure you'll be able to put me straight on also) that the Swiss production LOs kept the spot/foglights fitted & as JimmyVaux is never going to own a pre-production prototype I was merely pointing out that if he bought one that looked like the pic i.e. with front spots, it would likely be a Swiss LO with double cats thus not the power output he might expect.
You are correct about the Swiss and their strict emissions laws that strangle these vehicles performance But, I'm not aware of any LC or LO that has left Hethel with identical fog/spot lights fitted as standard by Lotus Mike. A few of our European friends have cut the bottom of their cars bumpers and fitted tiny aftermarket lights in them, like these below have....
Could this be what you've seen on the interweb mate?
I only know of one UK LC that had identical Hella lamps retrofitted to it and that was Mike Miles's car that was modified by my previous employer because Mr Miles loved the 1st PPP Lotus Omega's look so much.
Sorry for the poor quality pictures but these two above are all I have left now. To my knowledge, Its not at all a common retrofit modification to genuine Lotus as its not that easy to do because we had to make some tricky moulds first....then figure out how to mount everything into the bumper securely to achieve the PPP's look but without interfering with any of the mechanical parts
(like oil coolers, radiators, horn, etc) that are all in the way physically and also make sure that these also complied with all of VOSA's vehicle lighting regulations. The NISMO vents in my GSi's bumper were a much easier and less stressful job to do!
For those TC members like Jimmy who are not as well informed as Mike is with this specific media mule,
In a basic nutshell... that 1st PPP Lotus Omega's bodykit is quite different from what was fitted to all of the final 950 production Lotus's. For starters its only got one small delicate bonnet vent that's located in a completely different place in the bonnet positioned over the cars inner wing/expansion tank and the front grill is actually an Irmscher item
(part number i43 01 015)....
and not the chopped up GSi item with the Lotus fibreglass piece bonded onto it....
that all the production Lotus's got. I can only guess that the people at Lotus liked the Irmscher item so much that they stole its looks for their own modified GM vehicle!
Next the 1st PPP's front bumper has these two extra lights fitted but its not got the removable towing eye cover, but it has got two more vents either side of the front bumper to aid cooling to the cars twin oil coolers that didn't make it onto the production cars bumpers.
This 1st PPP cars side skirts are also a slightly different shape to the production Lotus's parts. These items are slightly fatter and slightly curve outwards on the bottom of the front wings like an extended version of the GSi's kit but although this looked mean as hell, this proved to have a negative effect at higher speeds so this was altered to form something fairly similar to what you see on the HRT/HDT Holden VX and VY model V8 Supercars in Australia!
The back bumper is quite different too not only because it has the numberplate recess located in it but because it also incorporates a Lotus designed rear diffuser underneath as part of the rear bumper, It was probably going to have four exhaust tailpipe trims poking through it also
(two either side of the vehicle if you look at the many early design sketches in the Ian Adcock book) to boost its devilish looks even further until the cars fuel tank location in the same area prevented this from ever happening.
Another difference was the rear badges and the smoothed out bootlid with the twin upper and lower rear spoiler set up. This 1st PPP Lotus Omega didn't have the final production Lotus's trick air suspension to aid the cars stability at speed. What it had instead was a leccy rear spoiler on the top that raised itself up like the later Omega Evolution 500 item to force the back of the car onto the road as the speed increased. This electric spoiler unit and software was too heavy and too costly for main production cars so it was binned in favour for the cheaper mechanical air system instead.
The 1st PPP Lotus Omega might have only been fitted with a 3.6L 12v engine but it had a luxurious full buffalo leather interior with fully electric front Recaro seats
(which wouldn't look out of place in a 4.0i 24v Irmscher Senator B)....
and this cars brakes were also standard Omega 3000 items with their OE single piston sliding Collette Brake Calipers on the front and OE twin pot Brake Calipers on the rear but this was all ok as this 1st PPP's real purpose and duty was to be used only as a publicity generating media mule. More and more mechanical and bodywork changes were to follow before eventually being made to this original designed look
(and the many other Lotus built test cars too) after all the essential R&D ground work was done by the real Lotus PP test cars had been completed.
Lastly, the final production ready Imperial Green Lotus's that we all know and love were ready to be sold to us...the general public!
[/quote]
HTH!
