Factory Tour Thread

[PaperLawyer]

Would you say it's similar to Rosso Magma (posted a link to a Pista above)?

Not a million miles away (and I'm conscious that it has been more than a week since I stood in the factory) but I think magma may be slightly darker/different.

 

[PaperLawyer]

From people that went already to the tour in Hethel, how does the silver forged wheels looks? From 1 to 10 😅

5/10 - too flat/satin for my taste.

 

[kitkat]

From all the comments about Magma Red thus far, and from personally seeing the sample discs a few times in both bright and indoor light, my description is as follows:

• It looks like a deep cherry red, or glass of red wine in the shade. (as those sneaky factory pictures show)
• Its not maroon (which has a brownish tint rather than deep red tint).
• It is a bit darker than Mazda (crystal) Soul Red in the shade.
• In the Sun it looks like someone is shining a torch through a glass of fine red wine.
• Using Russell Carr's words, it has a fine metallic with a lot of "travel" (or contrast) between dark and light that will show off the bodywork curves and angles.

I don't think that the configurator is accurate at all. It's a really difficult colour to capture and render properly. e.g. Most PC monitors simply cant display such a brilliant red hue. Making things worse, things like Apple "Truetone" and "NightShift" (or the Microsoft equivalents) add a warmth (brown tint) that makes it look even less accurate.

@Climber, I had similar concerns about Shadow Grey being too dark, but now I'm questioning whether to get the black pack with Shadow, haha! You could wait for the (flat) vivid red in a future base edition, but I think you'll be absolutely floored when you see Magma in person.

To those who saw Magma on an Emira in the flesh at Hethel, please feel to add/adjust my description.

Thank you for your description, it’s been the most descriptive one for me yet. It unfortunately also confirms that I’ve locked in the wrong color choice. While what you described is fantastic for someone who wants a wine colored car it’s also not what I’m looking for.

Now I have to see if they’ll still change the color, or if I back out, or if I just resell the car.

 

[Citizen]

10 - my personal preference is always silver wheels, I dont like black wheels. Diamond cut look nice but having had them are a world of pain after several years.
Its a better silver than you'd find on your average Ford Fiesta I thought, looks like it has a bit more shine to it.
The design I love, I dont really like the base wheels we've seen on photos, the forged wheel design looks amazing on the cars. Even if I ended up with a base edition I'd pay for the forged silver as an extra! Also really shows off the callipers

So do you think nimbus will match with silver wheels even with that matt/satin look?

Also one concern from all videos watched is the sound when door close, will be resolved in production cars ?

 

[DJS]

The Silver forged wheels would be my third choice, but what I did see was the base wheels in black with black callipers on a Seneca Blue car, thought they looked really nice and a good option for those of you going for the base car.

 

[Eagle7]

@NickR glad you got back ok, hope the 124 is a fun stop gap The tour lead was very good, I think the Harrier jump jet comparison did lose me a little bit!

Paintwise - chaps, dont worry, ALL the colours look better in the flesh than you'd expect, Magma was (to me) the stand out colour that made me question Nimbus on mine. It looks nothing like the diecast model someone shared (jokingly!), the Ferrari Pista link is kind of close, but next to each other the Ferrari would look very flat and one dimensional compared to Magma.

@Eagle7 I dont know anything about paint tech, but having been on factory tours at Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Lambo etc in the past (non seemed as enthused by their paint booths) Lotus is going to great lengths in their painting, its all brand new high tech robotic spraying - something to do with positive/negative charges, vortexes, state of the art were all words used. Its a newly built sealed area only 2 people are allowed in and they are dressed like its a nuclear leak. From what I understood they dont layer the paint / colours, its all mixed in the charged vortex as it comes out to give the perfect finish everytime. No humans do the painting.

Static charged surfaces that attract a dry powder is something that's been around a long time. It gives a smooth even coating all over the object; much more efficient than spraying a wet paint. What you're describing, and fits with what I was reading, is they've somehow incorporated at least 3 layers in a single application. It looks like there's at least a base, a metallic and either the tint is included in that or it's a separate layer, and finally a high gloss clear on the top. Static charging can also affect the metallic particles and dictate how they behave in the layer before the paint is hardened.

In order for these paints to behave as you describe, those 3 layers have to be formulated in such a way as to sit in the proper order on the surface, and hold while being cured in a heat chamber. I can see why this system is so efficient. The surface is acting like a gravity well, and literally pulling the paint particles onto the surface and holding them there. Very uniform, no overspray, very little waste of paint particles.

JUST a bit more sophisticated than paint being sprayed from a paint nozzle.

This will be one way Lotus can distinguish their cars from the competition, by painting them with paints that rival expensive multi-layer custom jobs, but without the extra expense. The paints themselves are probably more expensive than normal, but the savings in labor costs to apply them would more than offset that.

Good stuff.

 

[digilotus]

Thank you for your description, it’s been the most descriptive one for me yet. It unfortunately also confirms that I’ve locked in the wrong color choice. While what you described is fantastic for someone who wants a wine colored car it’s also not what I’m looking for.

Now I have to see if they’ll still change the color, or if I back out, or if I just resell the car.

I would suggest asking your dealer for some photos of a Magma car before making any drastic decisions! With the dealer event in Hethel this week they might even be allowed to take some of their own photos.

I don't want you to have any future regrets by making a decision based on my own opinion / perspective / description. Colour is so difficult to describe in words!

 

[digilotus]

Static charged surfaces that attract a dry powder is something that's been around a long time. It gives a smooth even coating all over the object; much more efficient than spraying a wet paint. What you're describing, and fits with what I was reading, is they've somehow incorporated at least 3 layers in a single application. It looks like there's at least a base, a metallic and either the tint is included in that or it's a separate layer, and finally a high gloss clear on the top. Static charging can also affect the metallic particles and dictate how they behave in the layer before the paint is hardened.

In order for these paints to behave as you describe, those 3 layers have to be formulated in such a way as to sit in the proper order on the surface, and hold while being cured in a heat chamber. I can see why this system is so efficient. The surface is acting like a gravity well, and literally pulling the paint particles onto the surface and holding them there. Very uniform, no overspray, very little waste of paint particles.

JUST a bit more sophisticated than paint being sprayed from a paint nozzle.

This will be one way Lotus can distinguish their cars from the competition, by painting them with paints that rival expensive multi-layer custom jobs, but without the extra expense. The paints themselves are probably more expensive than normal, but the savings in labor costs to apply them would more than offset that.

Good stuff.

Metal bodied cars have used static-based painting systems for a long time. This is not really new.

The new part in all of this is applying static charge to composite plastic body panels during the painting process. Composite panels are not conductive so doing so has historically not been possible. The magic here is in the conductive undercoat not the pigment or clear coat.

The paint system for composites has finally caught up to the paint systems on metal panels. I don't think that the paint finish will be any better than competitors paint jobs for this reason. It will finally be as good as what you get from Lexus / Porsche which is a great thing.

 

[NicolasB]

I just worry about a respray of a bumper or something in the event of a mishap. Sounds like it will be impossible to get it to match correctly.

 

[Climber]

From all the comments about Magma Red thus far, and from personally seeing the sample discs a few times in both bright and indoor light, my description is as follows:

• It looks like a deep cherry red, or glass of red wine in the shade. (as those sneaky factory pictures show)
• Its not maroon (which has a brownish tint rather than deep red tint).
• It is a bit darker than Mazda (crystal) Soul Red in the shade.
• In the Sun it looks like someone is shining a torch through a glass of fine red wine.
• Using Russell Carr's words, it has a fine metallic with a lot of "travel" (or contrast) between dark and light that will show off the bodywork curves and angles.

I don't think that the configurator is accurate at all. It's a really difficult colour to capture and render properly. e.g. Most PC monitors simply cant display such a brilliant red hue. Making things worse, things like Apple "Truetone" and "NightShift" (or the Microsoft equivalents) add a warmth (brown tint) that makes it look even less accurate.

@Climber, I had similar concerns about Shadow Grey being too dark, but now I'm questioning whether to get the black pack with Shadow, haha! You could wait for the (flat) vivid red in a future base edition, but I think you'll be absolutely floored when you see Magma in person.

To those who saw Magma on an Emira in the flesh at Hethel, please feel to add/adjust my description.

 

[digilotus]

I just worry about a respray of a bumper or something in the event of a mishap. Sounds like it will be impossible to get it to match correctly.

That's been on my mind as well. I'm hopeful that we might be able to order painted panels from the factory. After all they don't paint them when installed on the cars!

Could be a profitable side business for them too and unique to Lotus.

 

[Smudger]

After spending a great deal of time working with these colors on the computer, it's starting to become apparent that these truly are next generation paints. Not only are these cars going to look like nothing else out on the road because of their shape, but these new metallics are going to stand out as something special too. The combination is going to look stellar. These cars are going to look way more expensive than they are.

These new metallics change their color tone and intensity depending on light source and angle, more than I've seen metallics do before. Usually you just see a light bloom when the light hits a metallic, and you can see the flakes. These new ones shift the color tone from light to dark dramatically.

Magma and Nimbus are going to look very rich and high class, while Verdant is going to look mysterious.

View attachment 4798
View attachment 4799

These aren't showy, "look at me" colors like you get on a Lambo for example. These are rich, elegant and classy. As many have said who've seen them, you can't go wrong with any of them. The Emira is going to look epic in any of the FE colors.

Having taken the top picture, I've ordered Magma based on what I saw in front of Lotus Silverstone in direct sun. I'm keeping the faith that is what the red will look like!

 

[digilotus]

Having taken the top picture, I've ordered Magma based on what I saw in front of Lotus Silverstone in direct sun. I'm keeping the faith that is what the red will look like!

I'm expecting Magma to look like this in terms of darkness, but slightly more of a deep red and less brownish/maroon.

 

[Climber]

Thank You All of you for your comments I was never going to change my opinion based on one perception and a 1/18 scale model, several of you have made Observations( Digilotus & Eagle7 and others ) and like a scientist following the scientific method. I have come to be happy with Magma Red!
Not that I can change my bloody choice Jajaja 🤣…
You guys are fantastic! 😎

 

[Eagle7]

Metal bodied cars have used static-based painting systems for a long time. This is not really new.

The new part in all of this is applying static charge to composite plastic body panels during the painting process. Composite panels are not conductive so doing so has historically not been possible. The magic here is in the conductive undercoat not the pigment or clear coat.

The paint system for composites has finally caught up to the paint systems on metal panels. I don't think that the paint finish will be any better than competitors paint jobs for this reason. It will finally be as good as what you get from Lexus / Porsche which is a great thing.

Yeah that's what I said, that it's been around a long time.

I don't know... we'll have to see, but so far the few pictures we've been shown of cars with FE paints on them look better than what I see on a Lexus or Porsche. Those cars aren't bad, I'm not saying that, but they're all over town here and none of them look quite like the images of Magma and Nimbus we've been shown. We have to see these cars out in the real world daylight though, to gauge how they're really going to look. If only Lotus would help us out there.

I'm sure there's going to be a side-by-side comparison by more than one reviewer of an Emira and a Cayman, and we'll get to see how they look. I'm guessing the Emira paint job, as long as it's one of the rich FE colors (not white), will look richer, deeper and more vibrant. Maybe not, but that's my guess.

 

[digilotus]

Can someone who's been at Hethel recently give me an opinion on whether I should get the blackpack on my Shadow Grey. I've been on both sides of the fence about 1000 times!

 

[Eagle7]

Compare these two. The Magma just looks deeper and richer to me, even on the relatively flat surfaces.

 

[digilotus]

So do you think nimbus will match with silver wheels even with that matt/satin look?

There was a very early leaked photo of a mule in what looked like Nimbus with silver cast wheels. That didn't look too great and I'll try to explain the reason why.

Nimbus is a very warm colour with bronze/champagne undertones so it could clash with silver if the silver has some blue undertones to it which i suspect it will. But I haven't seen the forged silver wheels to know what type of silver finish they have and how well this will (or won't) complement. The satin finish on the silver forged wheels may soften it up enough to make it work.

To be safe I would recommend the diamond cut satin or black gloss wheels with Nimbus. Until we can see photos of Nimbus with Silver forged wheels, I'm not 100% sure that combination will work very well. But again this is a personal thing and I'm sharing my perspective only.

 

[Tonyshepp]

There was a very early leaked photo of a mule in what looked like Nimbus with silver cast wheels. That didn't look too great and I'll try to explain the reason why.

Nimbus is a very warm colour with bronze/champagne undertones so it could clash with silver if the silver has some blue undertones to it which i suspect it will. But I haven't seen the forged silver wheels to know what type of silver finish they have and how well this will (or won't) complement. The satin finish on the silver forged wheels may soften it up enough to make it work.

To be safe I would recommend the diamond cut satin or black gloss wheels with Nimbus. Until we can see photos of Nimbus with Silver forged wheels, I'm not 100% sure that combination will work very well. But again this is a personal thing and I'm sharing my perspective only.

ive gone for silver wheels as i have faith in the true colour of nimbus and the wheel colour.

 

[digilotus]

ive gone for silver wheels as i have faith in the true colour of nimbus and the wheel colour.

Those who have recently been to Hethel and seen Nimbus with Silver forged wheels please chime in! I'd love to know your thoughts!