As rumours swirl about the future of Lotus and its boss Dany Bahar, one senior executive remains fully committed to the Norfolk car maker. The only problem New York rapper Swizz Beatz, ‘vice president of creative design and global marketing at Lotus’, seems to have is how to fit his ‘entourage’ (every rapper must have one) into his two-seat company car.
But I’ve just discovered that Swizz has a typically ‘creative’ solution. I’m currently working in New York. Strolling back from lunch in trendy Soho I spotted a sharp-looking red Lotus Evora pulling out of a valet parking lot. And who should approach it but Mr. Beatz himself, surrounded by an entourage consisting of attractive women, a large bodyguard, a driver and a small child, but not, to the best of my limited pop knowledge, Swizz’s wife, singer Alicia Keys.
Swiss Beatz: how to fit a rapper’s entourage in a Lotus Evora
They’re not all going to fit in that Evora, I thought. The ladies were quite thin, but the bodyguard was massive. I wondered if Swizz should have taken a vice-presidency at a car company with a more practical line-up. Hyundai, perhaps.
But Swizz, showing the vision that has propelled him quickly through the executive ranks at Lotus, had specified his Evora with one of the less well-known options: a colossal Chevy Suburban to follow it around.
The practical solution: a Lotus Evora and a Chevrolet Suburban
Swizz chucked the keys to one of his attractive young assistants, while he retired to the blacked-out rear of the Suburban, which was undoubtedly more comfortable over Soho’s famously wonky cobblestones.
At least Lotus (or should that be ‘Lotuz’?) is plainly still paying him, unlike their F1 team.
And Swizz was simply taking Lotus founder Colin Chapman’s famous ‘add lightness’ mantra to a new level: even the brilliant Chapman never considered cutting his own body weight from his cars by not getting into them.
@thebenoliver