Max Heim wrote:
> That's an interesting report. Good to see a "car guy" in charge, as
> opposed to the bean-counters that killed BL in the 70s-80s. But I find
> the part about a "flagship supercar" troubling. Think of all the recent
> "flagship supercars" that have turned out to be horrendous money pits
> that drove the companies into financial disaster. The Bugatti EB110
> comes to mind, as does the Jaguar XK220. Lamborghini never actually
> made any profits on their supercars until the Diablo, and now they're back
> into deficit spending on the next generation of development. And the
> McLaren project probably didn't make any profit either, even at $1
million > apiece.
>
> Especially when you consider that Rover/MG doesn't have a single
> existing component that could be reasonably leveraged for supercar duty, >
so they'd be working from a blank slate, and none of the development
> costs could be shared with their volume production cars, it all sounds
like > a major distraction at best and a fatal detour at worst. MG dosn't
need to > waste resources on developing a new "R-type" at this point -- what
they
> need is a new MGA -- a breakout big seller, not an exotic supercar.
> IMHO...
I had posted a news bit in June which also said Rover was working in
conjunction with Lola Cars to produce a supercar to rival the McLaren F1,
the article posted today (a few weeks later) just helps to give my post more
believability and believability in such a car.
However Max, while you are right in some respects you fail to realize (or
mention) the usefulness of such a car. It doesn't matter if Rover turns a
profit on these cars, or how many cars they produce for that matter. All
Rover has to do is turn out a batch of these supercars, and establish itself
as something that equaled or beaten the McLaren F1 road car in top end speed
and you have birthed a media machine. This is the real payoff, the entire
Rover group will be viewed in a new light.
If they do badge the supercar as an MG, everyone will want to own an MG...
just for what the marque will then stand for, much like how MG had used Land
Speed records to promote its cars from the late 20s through the mid 1950s.
Everyone knows an MGA can't do 254.444 MPH (or whatever it was), but I
assure you that figure helped sell many MGs.
Not only that, look at Audi this year at LeMans. Granted there were no cars
to really rival the Audis competitively, but the Audis finished first,
second and third in what most consider the toughest endurance road race in
the world. The fact they they may have spent a billion dollars to achieve
this, doesn't matter because they were featured on the front page of the
sports section in every worthwhile international newspaper.
Building a supercar is a fine move for the Rover Group, and I hope Mr.
Towers doesn't stop there (lets get MG back into the racing scene, back to
LeMans and Sebring!)
Once you create a viable supercar you create an instant and immortal legend
in the automotive world.
Cheers,
Kai
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