Caterham/Lotus/F1 they're all together now

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/2011-04-27-2715195948_x.htm

I'll be interested to see what comes out of this, other than expensive!

Will they call the 7 a Lotus again then?

New Caterham 7 to weigh 3200 pounds and seat 5.

Team Lotus is not the same company as Lotus Cars.

ArthurDent wrote: Team Lotus is not the same company as Lotus Cars.

Correct. I suspect a battery of lawsuits will help relieve some of the confusion.

Tom Heath wrote:

ArthurDent wrote: Team Lotus is not the same company as Lotus Cars.

Correct. I suspect a battery of lawsuits will help line some pockets.

Fixed that for you.

So lets see, trying to make this all straight

Group Lotus...

Producer of street cars, F1 partnership with Renault running the black and gold F1 cars.

Team Lotus

Malaysian startup that acquired the name rights through means that are being somewhat questioned. They are running the BRG F1 cars and they just acquired Caterham

Caterham

Started life as a Group Lotus dealership (perhaps before there was a difference between group and team) that was sold the rights to produce the Lotus 7 when Lotus (group, team, whatever in that era) stopped producing it. They have now been acquired by the Team Lotus startup that is being sued by Group Lotus for questionably of using the name Lotus.

Is that straight?

Hmmm this seems like a good thing, but I'm not so sure.

In reply to Apexcarver:

You forgot the part where Caterham and Team Lotus hold true to the Lotus ideals while Group Lotus is focussed on building 3,400LB Elise's and 4 other identical-looking overweight bloatmobiles and throwing 100% of their brand equity away in an insane bid to become the next Aston/Ferrari/Porsche that doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of working.

At least there are some similarities:

Oh, wait.