Motorsport University Malaysia...

PROTON MANAGEMENT SHUFFLE. LOTUS FUTURE MANAGEMENT TOO?

2012-01-29T05:34:00.000-08:00

UPDATE:
In today's (31Jan'12) STAR newspaper.
New management team for Proton likely following takeover
It seems DRB-Hicom want their own people running Proton. Group Lotus is under review.

News reports quoting sources said DRB-Hicom was keen to reshuffle Proton's management in the next two to three weeks.

Without wishing to sound arrogant.
The GOLDEN KEY TO UNLOCKING VALUE IN GROUP LOTUS IS LAID OUT BELOW.

Please look at my webpage. http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com

Today,(30 Jan '12) I read that Dany Bahar is looking for Investors to buy Group Lotus with him.
Good Luck.
I have contacted the last three Group Lotus CEO's regarding my proposal.
One of them was very arrogant and rude, two were polite.
None of them have shown any interest in my proposal.

I hope the person/corporate entity that finally decides to move Group Lotus forward is persuaded by my educational argument.

I presented a paper at the last (2010) ASLI Automotive conference. I shared the stage with some of the Leaders of the Malaysian Auto and Motorsport industry.

Malaysians seem to interested in this. If you go back to one of my earlier blogs May 2010

Motor Sports: National Youth Skills Institute For Motor Sports In The Offing
SERDANG, April 5 (Bernama) — The Youth and Sports Ministry is mulling setting up a National Youth Skills Institute which will focus solely on motor sports, said its minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek.
He said the institute would offer courses related to the engineering and technical aspects of motor sports with the cooperation of the Sepang International Circuit (SIC).

I actually shared the stage with the Sepang Chairman. He never showed any interest in my proposal. Maybe, he likes the proposal but isn't to keen on me!

Anyway, I fully intend to contact the next Group Lotus boss, whoever he or she may be... I'm available.
In the meantime, I'll carry on annoying the guy below!

Dr.Mahathir was kind enough to allow the official ASLI media person snap us shaking hands. Dr. M was the keynote speaker.

Below is a visual from my webpage. Showing how the proposal would work.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE YOUTUBE PRESENTATION BELOW.
THIS IS THE CAMPUS IN JOHOR I WOULD LIKE TO PARTNER WITH!
ADD THE USA CAMPUS. GO TO MY WEBPAGE. THE UK CAMPUS. MAYBE OTHERS AS TIME GOES BY...

I HAVE A PLAN. HIRE ME! John Mansfield

2012-01-16T02:22:00.000-08:00

YES I HAVE A PLAN.
PROTON AND GROUP LOTUS HAVE TOP NOTCH MOTORSPORT ARMS.
WHY NOT USE THEM?
IF THE NEW OWNERS WANT SOMEONE WITH A PLAN HIRE ME!!
Please look at this video.

WHY HASN'T ANYONE DONE THIS BEFORE?

FA Chief Executive 2005 - 2008 Brian Barwick

Here is a portion of a STAR newspaper report on 17 Jan 2012.

The International College of Automotive (ICAM) established by DRB-Hicom can provide one of the best synergies and perhaps be the golden key to Proton's core competence to unlock the future for Proton, he said.

"ICAM, the only local centre of education that offers automotive courses covering both upstream as well as downstream of the total automotive value chain, also prides itself with a unique holistic teaching approach enlisting teaching personnel who are also industry professionals," he said.

Talk to these people about the academic campus down the road from the FIA approved circuit.

This isn't just a Noble idea. It makes financial sense. I cannot believe investors are not lining up for this! Check out my webpage.

A little publicity for the Children's book. Nook may be spun off.

2012-01-06T07:53:00.000-08:00

YES IT IS TRUE. ALL ROYALTY PAYMENTS FROM THE UPCOMING CHILDREN'S BOOK WILL GO DIRECTLY TO CHARITY... YES... DIRECTLY TO CHARITY.

INNOCENCE LOST IN THE ICE CREAM FOREST. Buy it with a clear conscience.

The book has been finished from a story and illustration perspective. Now Tilo my unpaid graphic expert will configure the book in epub for upload.

Today, I see NOOK the eReader arm of Barnes and Noble may be spun off. eBook sales have risen dramatically in the last year. The stock of Barnes and Noble has dropped.

INNOCENCE will be available on all major eReader sites and devices. The printed book will be on Amazon plus available in bookshops.

From an educational perspective, eBooks are great. No great big expensive pile of books to lug around. Download the books and then carry a reader or laptop.
Obviously, educational lectures and materials can also be downloaded.

My concept of twinning physical campuses and virtual learning makes more and more sense with each passing day.

UniKL Main Campus, Pasir Gudang, Johor.

2011-12-12T04:03:00.000-08:00

Book coming along. Video of a lovely new campus.

2011-12-06T03:29:00.000-08:00

Innocence lost in the ice cream forest is coming along.
I am hoping to have it available in the not too distant future. Tilo, my friend and graphic support has personal business to attend to this week. No rush.

This one of the illustrations done by team Werner, Claus and Tilo. I am very happy with the progress. The book will be publication quality. I am sure it will make money for the charity involved. None of the Author/Illustration team will receive any royalties. 100% of received royalties go directly to charity.

I saw this lovely new campus online. It is in Johor. A very good graphic visualisation.

Help with set up. Help with Book Project.

2011-11-24T02:25:00.000-08:00

I'd like to thank those who are helping me with the start up of the MUM project. Funding will come.
Plus the book project:
Innocence lost in the ice cream forest

I have chosen a charity. They have accepted the book. The graphics are coming along nicely.
Thanks to Tilo and Claus.
Claus is flying in to visit me today.

Lotus Genii-capital connection

2011-11-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

I have just found a Genii-capital video.
One of the founders is on the Group Lotus board. They own the Lotus F1 racing team.
I recently annoyed them with my webpage!
http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com/

They appear to have all the tools to make MUM happen.

I hope these guys and girls can see what I see...

My Corporate Social Responsibility project. Innocence lost in the ice cream forest.

2011-11-11T03:16:00.000-08:00

The Childrens book I have written "Innocence Lost in the Ice Cream Forest" is ongoing. The text is done. Tilo the graphic guy and his father are not impressed with it. At one point Claus started to rewrite the story on my behalf. I feel they would be happier writing and illustrating their own book.
Claus, Tilo's father is upgrading the illustrations to a level acceptable to Tilo for publication.
I have contacted Samye Ling a Monastery in Scotland. They have a charitable arm about them accepting the files upon completion. They could then publish them and get the royalties.
There are several options. You can go straight on Kindle. Add your details and upload files for pubication as an ebook. This option is free.
Alternatively you can open an account with pubishing distributers. I have targetted 3.

For ebook distribution: http://www.bookbaby.com/
This company will send the book to Sony / Amazon /others they charge $100 US Dollars and then $19 per year thereafter.

For Paperback distribution I have chosen 2 distributers: These are Print on demand companies.

https://www.createspace.com/ This distributer is owned by Amazon. They ensure Amazon always have copies available for sale. It is $39 USA dollars to join their Pro Plan.
http://www1.lightningsource.com/ These people can distribute to the rest of the Market. $75 USA Dollars set up fee.

An ISBN would be about £12 British pounds.

Samye Ling would need to pay out about £150 pounds to go this route.

I have tried calling my contacts (Samye Ling) Victoria and George on several occasions. I have gotten through on two occasions. No decision has been made. Victoria is happy with the script. She said it was delightful. (Someone likes it!)

I must say, I thought this would be really simple and plain sailing. It hasn't been.

My timing was. Text complete. Two day per illustration plus cover about one month. File conversion to meet the publishers requirements a day or two.
Send to Samye Ling. One day to open account and upload.

Fortuneately, we are all working for free. It would have been nice to have got the book online before the Christmas sales 2011. Tilo said maybe 2012.

Once competed and uploaded it will be interesting to see if it sells. I think it will. Others disagree. Thats life.

I had to change the script on several occasions to make it totally suitable for young children. I approached three charities that are secular and local to me with a view to gifting them the story.
For different reasons they fell by the wayside.
Hopefully Samye Ling will co operate in this venture.

Today, Sunday 13 Nov '11 I read in the Sunday Times. Penguin, are going to put a series of short stories on ebook platforms for between 99p and £1.99p.
The heading for the story was:
Penguin to boost short story with ebook only series

Here is a small portion of the article:
The low price means the Penguin ebook collection is unlikely to be very profitable...
It goes on to say:
(David Roth-Ey Digital director HarperCollins) He said: "For example, information books, for example a Collins bird guide, could provide very valuable real estate for advertising- in this case potentially a binoculars manufacturer."

I will probably include the "text donation" to SamyeLing info + the graphic company of tilo SAMA SAMA and also a mention of the Motorsports project.

So the charity will generate income (royalty + text donation) and publicity. My project will get publicised as will SAMA SAMA.

Claus the illustrator will send me some of his work today. Baby steps.

F1 Lotus and Caterham become standalone teams. THEY WILL WORK TOGETHER.

2011-11-08T04:01:00.000-08:00

It looks like the two Lotus teams have become their own entities.
Renault is now Lotus. Lotus is now Caterham.
Corporate politics are sadly amusing when viewed from the outside.
Both companies are now owned by Malaysians.
Proton is a Government linked company. It owns Lotus.
Caterham is owned by Tony Fernandes. He has the blessing of Dr. M.
In many ways he could also be described as a Government linked entrepreneur.

Joe Saward, a blogger who I read, has a theory there will be a Group Lotus buyout.
According to Joe this will be Genii lead. They will lead a consortium of Malaysian Government linked Entrepreneurs.
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/meanwhile-in-lotus-land/
As Proton is a government company the deal must be one that suits the current administration and so the people involved appear to be government-friendly entrepreneurs such as Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar...

Proton have denied this.

In any event it would be nice if any future Educational facility both Caterham and Lotus would be mature enough to work together.

Stranger things have happened.

Motorsport University Malaysia is a misleading title for my proposal. I would like to see physical campuses in Asia America and Europe

9 November 2011. I received an official "Team Lotus" communication.

It states:
Hingham, UK - 9th November 2011

Proton, Group Lotus, 1Malaysia Racing Team and its owner Tony Fernandes are delighted to announce that the legal dispute in the English Courts relating to the "LOTUS" and "TEAM LOTUS" brands has now ended amicably with the parties agreeing settlement terms earlier this month.

The deal also sees a working relationship established between the parties and they will work together on future projects in the automotive field.

DOES THIS INCLUDE EDUCATION??
I have had a couple of communications (which I haven't yet answered) from Malaysian Educational facilities who are very keen on participating in this.
I know from past experience that several British Universties would also be keen to participate.

Lets see some movement from the Group Lotus and Caterham entities.

I'm ready and waiting.

Pay scales for execs going up! Make me an offer I can't refuse! Dream big.

2011-10-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

Today, in the Guardian I read that Executive pay is on the rise!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/28/ftse-100-directors-earnings-rose-by-almost-half

Morally many people will see this as a complete joke.

Some examples of salary. Taken from the Guardian article.

The average bonus payment for FTSE 100 directors stood at £906,044 – a rise of 23% on last year.

Amazingly, I am only asking for £100,000 plus a generous performance related bonus package.

Why so cheap you ask?

Because I believe that my performance will put me and the company up there with the best.

I am not a banker. But I will help set up a sustainable successful long term business.

Make me an offer I can't refuse.

Here is the link to the SKY NEWS video.

http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16097985

Al Jazeera Count the cost interview with Tony Fernandes. About 17 mins in...
Quote: DREAM BIG

CSR project ongoing. No reply after 10 years on MUM proposal.

2011-10-24T04:09:00.000-07:00

Last week I sent the copy of my childrens book to a potential charity.
A little history. When I was last in Malaysia, my martial arts teacher asked me to write a childrens book.
Yacob my teacher is an artist and a professional childrens book illustrator.
I wrote an imaginative piece called "The Sensai and Whitey."
Yacob didn't want to illustrate it.
I left it a while. my friend Tilo, a web designer has a father who likes to do cartoons. He did a graphic diary on his Asian holiday. It was good. Tilo put some of his work on his webpage:

http://www.backpackingasia.com/Article/Backpacking_in_Asia_an_introduction/14

His father, Claus has been kind enough to work on my project. Tilo has been overseeing his contribution.

It is my intention to publish this book and give the royalties to Charity.

So as to avoid any revenue coming to me, I have requested the charities open a Kindle account. They can upload the file. The revenue will go directly into their account.

Firstly, I was going to put the book with a local (Basildon Essex UK) charity. They were totally happy to accomodate me.
However, without going into details, I felt very uncomfortable with their constant political waffle.
I decided against using them. I then went to my local Citizens Advice Bureau. I used to work there. They were between managers and did not seem interested.

I then went to a local Hospice. They were very professional, and ethical. I was impressed. However, they did not feel comfortable opening into a contract with Kindle/Amazon.

They did however tell me that they would not be associated with a book that used the term "Whitey" as it could be misconstrued. Political correctness was important.

The first book was about Whitey, his mum (Sensai) and his sisters. Some hugging and kissing took place.

At this point I rewrote the book so that nothing can be misconstrued. It was an interesting process. I feel that Yacob would illustrate this version. He wanted to put it forward for the Malaysian education board for schools.

My new illustration team were less impressed! They, without asking me came up with their own storyline and illustrations!

It caused a little friction, and for a while I thought the book was still born!

My latest charity is not secular. I am sorry for this. However, I hope that any money generated is used for the good of everyone, not just fellow travellers in their belief system.

A few weeks ago I sent a letter to some Lotus contacts, making them aware I have written an Open Letter to Dr. Mahathir.

Dr. Mahathir is adviser to Proton/Lotus and Petronas.

http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com/index.php?id=31

It's been ten years since I first annoyed Lotus management with this proposal. Their inertia is amazing.

Lotus Evora sales. Caterham Engineering Centre. My Project.

2011-10-13T04:02:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been filled with reports of Group Lotus being sold to Genii, strongly denied by Proton.
Parallel to this there have been articles on the companies car sales.
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/259509/

In the UK, Lotus sales are struggling, with just 272 cars registered in the first eight months of 2011, compared with 358 in the same period last year. That’s 24 per cent down in an overall market that’s down six per cent.

Another article by Richard Hammond.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/motoring/latest-news/2011/10/07/lotus-blossoms-with-improved-evora-s-115875-23471292/

This is the new 2012 Lotus Evora S, which the company says has 143 improvements. Is it wise to ’fess up to this?
I would imagine that if you had bought one of the earlier cars you’d be pretty miffed that Lotus had found 143 things it felt it had to change for the next version.

These days, a £62,450 sports car has some pretty tough competition.

Finally I read.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23996840-expanding-customer-base-helps-n-brown-fill-its-niche.do

The perfect City trader's car: it's flashy and unreliable...

The first thing you should do when you collect your complimentary Lotus Evora for a stylish weekend away is this: check the train timetable. And pack light, you'll be carrying the luggage home.

At least that's how it was for me. Twice.

It's just bad luck that a nearly new supercar should conk out two weekends running - statistically unlikely, you might say - but no one I asked who knows about cars seemed that surprised. (The first loan was a gift. The second loan an apology for the first. The third will be, I hope, of an entirely different car.)

Lotus is struggling.

Oh well I'm sure they can always get some Engineering work.

Speaking of which, Caterham have opened their car design centre on the Hethel Campus. I mentioned this yesterday in my blog.

I wonder if they will allow non descript OEM's to use their name with abandon in order to get work?

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/new_team_lotus_firm_to_create_sports_car_line_1_1086044

Caterham are opening a Technical area in the Hethel Engineering Centre!
I wonder where they think they will get their engineering staff from!
Here is a portion of the article:

“The new shareholders are committed to investing in an exciting range of global products over the next 10 years,” he added.
The new firm will also work for external automotive and aerospace companies.
The company’s new sports cars will be inspired by what it describes at the “lightweight, minimalist philosophy” of Caterham’s famous cult sports car the Seven. It will draw on the technology and materials of the group’s Team Lotus Formula One and Caterham Team AirAsia GP2 motorsport operations.
Mr Shute. who will be head of road cars, said creating the next iconic Caterham was an opportunity he couldn’t turn down.
“The core principles and ambitions of CTI have enabled us to attract some of the brightest and most respected talents in their fields.”
Caterham Cars’ chief executive, Ansar Ali, said: “To meet the challenge, we knew we needed to invest in a new operation that would have the scope, experience and vision to deliver.”

One of the campuses for my proposal is the Hethel Engineering Centre. So it would mean that Group Lotus Engineering Plus Caterham Engineering and a UNI would all inhabit the same geographical space!

Isn't life grand!

My childrens book is moving along. Hethel Engineering Centre to be Caterham Tech base.

2011-10-12T02:50:00.000-07:00

The graphics for my Childrens book are nearing completion. I was going to donate the book to a local Hospice. It depends on whether they are prepared to open an Amazon/Kindle account for me to deposit the book in. They would then automatically receive the royalties.
If not, I have another charity in mind.
Check my webpage under CSR. When it is completed I will put the details in there.
This is probably going to be the cover illustration.
The Title:
Innocence lost in the ice cream forest.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/new_team_lotus_firm_to_create_sports_car_line_1_1086044

Caterham are opening a Technical area in the Hethel Engineering Centre!

I wonder where they think they will get their engineering staff from!

Here is a portion of the article:
“The new shareholders are committed to investing in an exciting range of global products over the next 10 years,” he added.
The new firm will also work for external automotive and aerospace companies.

The company’s new sports cars will be inspired by what it describes at the “lightweight, minimalist philosophy” of Caterham’s famous cult sports car the Seven. It will draw on the technology and materials of the group’s Team Lotus Formula One and Caterham Team AirAsia GP2 motorsport operations.

Mr Shute. who will be head of road cars, said creating the next iconic Caterham was an opportunity he couldn’t turn down.

“The core principles and ambitions of CTI have enabled us to attract some of the brightest and most respected talents in their fields.”
Caterham Cars’ chief executive, Ansar Ali, said: “To meet the challenge, we knew we needed to invest in a new operation that would have the scope, experience and vision to deliver.”

On my plan, I have put the Hethel Engineering Centre down as a possible campus for the proposed University.

This can still happen. If Caterham and Group Lotus can work together I think that is great!

From a hardware perspective, Caterham products would be great trainers for students, who will I'm sure aspire to own them, and later in life maybe move onto an expensive Lotus.

Tony Fernandes Airlines fly to California, Malaysia, and the UK (not Norfolk presently...). So there is a lot of positive synergy there.

Great stuff!

Silverstone Circuit open up a school. Sunday Times 9th October 2011 pg 11

2011-10-09T04:58:00.000-07:00

The Conservative government are encouraging reform of schools. These schools are government recognised.
One such school has opened in Siverstone racing circuit.
A few quotes from the Sunday Times aricle (online subscription required).
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/

Silverstone university technical college, sponsored by Northampton University and Tresham college, is part of a group of new vocational schools promoted by Lord Baker, the former Tory education secretary. They are intended to provide technical and vocational training alongside a core curriculum for teenagers who are not well suited to academic study.

In England if your a failure academically, you become a trades person, (if you are lucky) hence the last statement.
There is an old saying:
In England if you are an Engineer they call you a Mechanic, in Germany they call you a Doctor.

Anyway, it looks more and more favourable for the Motorsport University proposal.

Formula One teams are considered to be potential employers of some of these students.

Another small portion of the Times article:

The Silversone college could also provide technicians for local F1 companies that have previously complained about the difficulty of finding skilled workers in Britain.

The time they are a changing... or at least they appear to be!

Here is the link to the BBC video on this new initiative.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-15246084

Bob Lutz is advising an electric truck company plus GM,Lotus and others. Albert Lam on FOX TV.

2011-10-05T03:30:00.000-07:00

I see Bob Lutz is advising another company.
http://jalopnik.com/bob-lutz
Via Truck company have got him onboard.
Their plan. Taken fron Jalopnik.

According to its web site, Via Motors is "a new kind of car company. We build electric version (E-REV) of your favorite trucks and SUVs."

Yes, a "new kind of car company" that makes electric vehicles out of other automakers' cars. Huh. Sounds sort of like Tesla Motors — except, if the images on their web site are correct, they're making electrics out of GM pickups, vans and SUVs rather than Lotus sports cars.

Well, if it worked for Elon Musk...

Albert Lam of Detroit Motors does a similar thing with Protons.

http://detroit-electric.co.uk/

If you go into this site you will see Proton make customised Gen 2 vehicles for Detroit Electric.

Albert Lam was head of Lotus Engineering .

I suppose Bob can use his influence to get a similar deal for his latest company with GM.

No R&D cost for BIW. Wait and see if the Truck is a reliable seller, then stick your electric drive train in and off you go.

Sometimes its not what you know, but who you know.

Good Luck to Bob.

If as one of Lotuses many advisers he'd like to give my proposal his thumbs up, please feel free. Sadly, I don't have the budget to pay for the endorsement!

By the way, I spent several hours with Albert in KL talking to him about the project when he was head of Lotus Engineering.

No Luck. But thanks for the time Albert.

I have just read that Bob has joint Current Motor Amps as an advisor as well. A Michigan based electric scooter manufacturer. Go Bob!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/current-motor-amps-its-leadership-team-with-stellar-appointments-to-its-business-advisory-council-headed-by-bob-lutz-2011-10-04

CSR I am getting a book Published... I hope!

2011-10-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

This is the proposed title page.
The Title will be Innocence lost in the Ice Cream forest.
My graphics guy is my friend Tilo's dad. We have a lot of misunderstandings. Lets see if we can complete the project. Tilo will get the files prepared for Kindle. A local hospice (http://www.stlukeshospice.com/) is the likely receipient of any royalties.
I want everyone to buy a copy!

I'm meeting Angel Investor tonight. Lotus plan to use Hethel Engineering Centre as Research Centre

2011-09-20T05:45:00.000-07:00

I'm off to St Albans (outside London,UK) today. They are having a talk by Angel investors. The founder of Angelsden.co.uk. has asked me to meet him afterwards.
I'm not sure I'm ready for funding yet. I look forward to chatting to him and another Angel Mandy who have asked to meet me outside of the actual talk.
I see that Group Lotus are hopeful of getting more government (UK) money.
EDP24 have written the following.

The Hethel Engineering Centre would also be at the heart of the vision, becoming the firm’s centre of applied research.

This fits in with my plan.

I have a contact in a business school. Apparently there are lecturers who want to put their names to my proposal. Have to see how that pans out.

Apparently, Johor Circuit is not for sale. I can work around that. Singapore might be better equipped for what I want to do. The Campus could be in the edu hub in Johor with working arrangements with the local circuits.

One step at a time...

2011-09-17T07:53:00.000-07:00

Today I checked out Linkedin. My brochure was a subject of most discussed on Linkedin a few weeks ago.
I looked up some old names.
I see Doug Chester is at Lotus. Doug last saw me outside a gym in KL and said "Hello you fat bastard." Previously I was supposed to meet him in a bar after work. I arrived at about 5pm and waited till 10pm. Apparently he turned up at 10.30pm. No apology. A pretty important person.
Another person I saw was Dave Fryatt. Dave was a pretty young detailer in Trafford house. He works for Doug I assume.
My old boss at QED is still there I would think. He emailed me daily and phoned me weekly when I was in Lotus. He was desperate to get a job. QED went bankrupt. I put in several recs to employ him, but Kevin (General Manager) was not in need of his services.
John (my direct boss for a time at Lotus) hired him after I had been laid off. John appears to be his hero. They have similar lives outside of work. Each to his own.
I stayed with Mick (in KL) for a couple of weeks at his request, and couldn't wait to get away.
There is another expat who I had a constant problem with. Again he was close friends with John. He could just go to John, and he could do whatever he liked. I don't miss him at all!
So I have to say, I have no-one in Lotus Malaysia who I would call a close personal friend. They are corporate relationships. Each man for himself.
I will return shortly. Of that I'm sure.
This project is bigger than any individual. It will be a success. It will make a positive difference to peoples lives, and will be a financial success. Thats enough for me.

Today I googled Motorsport University Malaysia

2011-09-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

Today, I google Motorsport University Malaysia, My site came up fourth on the list when I got to Uni... so that is good.
Above my site when I clicked Motorsport University was this site!
http://motorsport.smcuniversity.com/

It appears to be a Swiss Uni. I am not sure of it's accreditation. It offers online learning.

When I first mooted this idea in 2001 only Cranfield offered specific Motorsport courses at Masters level.

Dave Taitt and Glyn Owen were working in parallel to me. Dave Taitt now chairs the Hethel Engineering Centre.
My immediate management in Malaysia showed no interest in persuing this. In fact just before I left a rather rotund and egotistical member of the management team berated me for about half an hour in front of a local member of staff.
To this day, I have not succeeded in convincing Group Lotus that this is a good idea. Shame!
Once again, I read Joe Saward today.
Here is a portion of his article on McLaren.

McLaren powers ahead of new technical centre
September 16, 2011 by joesaward

It will also accommodate spaces for teaching and training, which will enable McLaren to play a significant role in developing new and advanced technical engineering skills in partnership with local schools and colleges.

I have to think that one day soon (It's been a decade!) the people at Group will forget their ego's and embrace a very sensible and financially viable idea. (Even if it is a little outside the box.)

As a CSR project I have written a Childrens book, it is presently being graphically enhanced. The royalties will go to a local (Basildon, Essex) charity.

The Title will be:
Innocence lost in the Ice Cream Forest.

It will be available on Kindle.
Buy a copy it is going to a very good cause...
More on that when it is completed.
Enjoy the weekend

Green Technology. Online Learning. Sport...

2011-09-01T04:51:00.000-07:00

Today, I read a Joe Saward blog on green technolgy in F1.

Why F1 is heading hybrid
August 31, 2011 by joesaward

There are already some hybrid technology in F1, with Williams’s relationships with Porsche and Jaguar and the new link between Team Lotus and General Electric seems to be heading down the same path. And even Ferrari, which is not in favour of electric cars, is putting KERS into its latest models.

The times are changing – and F1 needs to keep up.

Green technology is a growing field (sorry about that). Enviromentmental agency's abound. Lawyers specialise in environmental law.

The site I have identified in the USA has permission to be turned into a solar farm, obviously the site has the potential for track and academic studies as well.

http://www.cbre.com/USA/US/CA/South+Bay+LA/Property/hondatesttrack.htm?pageid=2

http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com/index.php?id=29

What a lovely synergy!

CB Ellis still have the site for sale.

I have had some interesting feedback in recent weeks. The UK has a free research centre I have utilised!

Mark my researcher recently sent me this site to check.

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Statistically since year 2000, internet usage has grown 480.4 %

30.2 % of the worlds population has internet access.

360,985,492 people had internet access in year 2000 today that figure is 2,095,006,005

This why I feel that online study is so important. It crosses borders. It makes the revenue stream potentially huge.

My dad spends about £ 55 on Sky TV, a subscription service that delivers programming over the internet and Satellite.

Why does he pay so much? He has two tv's... loves sports... and likes the Gold channel that shows old programming. Fortuneately he can afford it!

Thats about £600 per year for a subscription.

Interestingly, you can study online for £3000 and get a degree. So over three years, this is only £400 per year more than my dad spends on SKY!
http://www.rdi.co.uk/about-us-%7C-distance-learning.html

I would expect the on Campus portion of the learning experience to be far more expensive.

I must say that Phoenix University in the states charge far more than this for full online degrees.

Sadly, we aren't opening for business next week! Maybe next year...

Most discussed Slideshare presentation on Linkedin

2011-08-17T02:42:00.000-07:00

This is the most discussed Slideshare presentation on Linkedin today.

official-flyer-for-motorsport-university-malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean

It looks good to me. Thanks to Tilo for the graphical assistance!
You might want to checkout my webpage.
http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com/

I have updated my campus locations to include the USA. Check the Global page on the website.

Here is my older presentation. Feel free to discuss that too!

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean

While your at google John Mansfield under video and see my TV interview!

Birthday time.

2011-08-08T04:52:00.000-07:00

Today is my nieces birthday. Congratulations Kate. Mine is on Wednesday the 10th and Siti who is a friend in Malaysia is on the 27th, coincidentally the same day as my brother who is no longer with us.
Today I see an article on the Telegraph website.
It is about the lotus Range extender.
This technology was on show some years ago at the Geneva Motor show.
At present, the downside is that the Emas has a top speed of 60mph, which would mean mixing it with the trucks, but the supercharged version of the engine would address this with a cruising capability of 70-75mph.
I must say I hope the Emas city car can do at tad more than that top end.
At the show the Lotus guy who showed me the engine said that this was the technology that would save Lotus!
This was in Mike Kimberleys time.
I never convinced Mike to support THE MOTORSPORT UNIVERSTY CONCEPT.
Hopefully over time I can convince the new management team.
This concept is really the way forward for Lotus.

Open University in England charge £5000 per academic year

2011-07-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

The BBC ran an article on 20th July 2011.
Open University sets £5,000 tuition fees

When I made my presentation at ASLI I used the figure of approx £1000 per student.
Prices for a formal recognised degree are rising.

Interestingly, the article states that the OU is still the cheap alternative!

The Open University has announced tuition fees of £5,000 per year for the equivalent of a full-time place for students in England from next year.
This will mean that the Open University, which provides degree courses by distance learning, will have among the lowest fees in England.

Vice chancellor Martin Bean promised "high-quality, flexible and great value-for-money education for all".

Assuming most people are only doing half an academic year per calender year this comes to £2.5Billion revenue per year for one million global students at English OU prices.

According to the RHB figures for Proton Holdings

Proton revenue for 2010 was RM 8,232.9 million this is about £1.7 billion

Perhaps these figures are just a bit too much for Proton/Lotus to comprehend.

Business plan approval by Malaysian PM. Ebook for charity funding?

2011-07-18T03:27:00.000-07:00

Today I approached my buddy Tilo to get his Dad to illustrate my Kids Book:
http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.blogspot.com/search?q=whitey
His Dad has a unique style. It might work. I have suggested he makes it into an Ebook and add it to his site. www.backpackingasia.com
Download the book and make a charitable contribution at the same time.

The Malaysian PM was in Hethel to visit Group Lotus recently. He gave his approval to their Five year plan.
How about http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com/

Dany should share this page in particular: GLOBAL OVERVIEW
http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com/index.php?id=29

Here is a Bloomberg video of Group Lotus and a few experts give their views on its likely success.
I have to say if they incorporated MUM it would definitely work. I am biased though!

Makerbot Video... I like this! BPP Ceo on the BBC

2011-07-04T04:39:00.000-07:00

About 17 years ago I was contracted into a General Motors Tech centre in Flint Michigan. One day I passed by a multi head cutter producing a clay version of a door trim.
My thought then was "The end is in sight for clay modellers."

Now, a few grey hairs later we have Makerbot for about a thousand pound sterling.
Here is the video.

If I was in the Design office now, I would definitely buy a couple of these. Virtual is great, but it's so nice to be able to pick something up and feel it and look at it on your desk.

On the BBC yesterday Show me the Money aired episode 32. BPP CEO Carl Lygo appeared on it. It is available online in the UK for the next week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012jgjm

Private Universities are being accepted into many markets. The Apollo Group (BPP owners) are very successful.

Burnley football College student promo video.

2011-06-20T04:19:00.000-07:00

As Burnley FC have got themselves the support and funding to open up a college at their place of business, I thought I would add their promo video to attract students.
Good luck guys!

Those in favour... Please speak up!

2011-06-15T04:07:00.000-07:00

Still waiting for the Green light for the project. I had no idea I could be this patient!
It is my hope that Tun Mahathir likes the idea and puts in on the Proton/Petronas table for discussion and financing.
It would be nice to think that my name would appear on the ensuing org chart.
I read on a blog (Lotusbuzz) that the old Group Lotus CEO is in hospital with a lung condition.

My only contact with him was by telephone. It was obvious that many people had spoken to him about me. Mostly in order to ensure that I was not hired!

One thing I would like to clear up. I do not have an axe to grind with anyone associated with the Hethel Engineering Centre. The previous head of engineering Dave Tait was instrumental in setting the centre up. I met the man once and shook his hand. He seemed to be very personable. End of story.

I don't intend to answer any other accusations or libelous statements. I do occasionally wonder what makes some people tick.

I'm sure that Tun Mahathir is his own Man and will see through the BullsDoody and make up his own mind.

It would be nice if those who see merit in this would speak up.

Once again for those of you who cannot envisage this, here is a link to the SkySports video on the Burnley football college... 'Why has nobody thought of it before?' -Brian Barwick FA Chief Executive 2005 - 2008

Formula1.com has an article on how a former F1 in schools student got a job at Red Bull F1 team. Adrian Newey is a patron of F1inschools. It reads like an adfomercial.
Here's the link: A dream realised - from F1 in Schools to Red Bull Racing

I read on the forums that Tony Fernandes was interested in buying Group Lotus at one point, pre Dany Bahar I imagine. I attended an ASLI Auto conference with Alex Yoong a couple of years ago. Alex told me he had met a Lotus Engineering Man on a plane who had suggested he do some work with Lotus Engineering Malaysia (Part of Group Lotus).
Alex now does Driver development for Team Lotus...
Here is his boss on CNN:

NAZA (Partners in Team Lotus) open Automotive college.

2011-06-13T03:37:00.000-07:00

On the weekend, I emailed decision makers in Proton/Petronas and shared the following links:
http://bcove.me/4g0rrpsp SKYSports News

This video shows several high level people talk of their revolutionary Football College in Burnley.
It is worth viewing. I wish I could get like minded people to work with me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13730531 BBC Audio Link

Maybe now that someone has actually done this, albeit in Football, some forward thinkers in Proton and Petronas will see the light.

The partners of Tony Fernandes are (NAZA) made some educational news too...

NAZA a car assembly and sales company in Malaysia, whose name you see emblazoned on the Team Lotus car are opening an Automotive college.
Here is the Bernama Link to the story.

Help, Naza To Jointly Establish Automotive College

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 (Bernama) -- Help International Corporation Bhd and Naza Education Sdn Bhd have set up a joint venture company, Symphony Haven Sdn Bhd, to establish and operate a college that specialises in offering courses in automotive and transportation management.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia Friday, Help International Corporation said the focus would initially be in Malaysia with a view to expanding to Asean countries.

"The establishment of this automotive college is part of Help's diversification plans to offer technical and vocational training for the nation," it added.

Burnley University opens for business. If Football can do it... Why can't Motorsports?

2011-06-11T01:44:00.000-07:00

UK university to offer only football business degrees -BBC Audio file link.
Today Sky sports (UK) showed an interview with Brian Barwick, the former FA chief asking him why no-one else has ever thought of this!
Sky Sports News Video link
He seemed to be quite proud that he and his partners were such ground breaking thinkers.
Burnley is charging £6000 per year for it's services. The degrees will be transferrable to other disciplines outside of football.
Sounds good to me!
Another site http://www.freshbusinessthinking.com/ Has the following quote:

Brendan Flood, who sits on the board of directors at Burnley FC, is one of the chief investors in the new project, and he has put together a high profile board of advisors.

The non-executive board includes Brian Barwick, former chief executive of the Football Association, Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, and Burnley fan and former Downing Street press advisor Alistair Campbell...

"Football involves more than just the game, off the pitch there is the media and marketing, supply chain management, logistics, business and finance and we want the UCFB graduates to leave with transferable skills that they could just as easily take to Mars or Deutsche Bank as a football club," Wilson (chief executive of UCFB) said.

The centre will offer three-year courses, accredited to a leading university:

BA (Hons) Football Business & Finance (three years)

BA (Hons) Football Business & Marketing (three years)

BA (Hons) Football Business & Media (three years)

Hopefully, one day I can get some high profile investors to join with me in a Motorsport University.
Obviously, I am hoping to combine physical campuses with online learning to target one million students.

Now that other people have started to do this maybe people will be less sceptical about the idea.

Time will tell. Enjoy the weekend.

Private University in UK starts soon... Not the Motorsport variety!

2011-06-06T04:45:00.000-07:00

Is Grayling's New College a New Oxbridge? - Times

I bought the Sunday Times this week it has another couple of articles...

The Univesity proposes to charge £18,000 pounds per year. Private Universities are able to charge whatever they deem appropriate.

Interesting stuff. Education in the UK, like the National Health service is largely under the rule of the government.

As a matter of political principle many people in the UK are opposed to Private Universities.

Obviously, as a former employee of Lotus, when asked to set out a plan for training I immediately thought higher education. Elite but not exclusive. Elite but inclusive.

Presently, I target One million students. Three physical campuses on three continents.

Hethel/UK/ Europe - Johor / Malaysia / Asia - California /America/ North America

Online access - Globally available, and increasing in its availability and power daily.

Group Lotus with much support from their shareholders are well positioned to do this.

Recently Group Lotus have announced possible layoffs due to the failure to obtain regional funding for Hethel.
Here is a project that was partially funded by the government.

Air Asia Flies to the UK,Malaysia and America (California) so they could also participate if they hugged and made up with Group Lotus. I'd love to use the Lotus 7 cars at the campuses Caterham or Westfield, so there is room for discussion there too.

Tony Fernandes just got another award... he's a Tan Sri now. A Malaysian title. Well done Tony.

A few years ago I was interviewed by Bernama, Astro TV in regard to this project. It's now on Youtube.
I have added it to this post.

Lotus lay off 99 people, blamed on UK Government and the Regional Grant Fund

2011-06-03T03:45:00.000-07:00

Lotus are to right size the company again!
Job losses imminent at Lotus - The Manufacturer site.

After missing out on £27.5m in funding from the Government's Regional Growth Fund, Lotus has announced that 99 jobs are to be cut at its plant in Hethel, Norfolk.

Geoffrey Mead, employment partner at Eversheds, explains the current law: "You come across employers who will keep the number of redundancies below 100 to have a period of 30 rather than 90 days. You might say that is a bit sneaky but it is structuring your decisions to comply with legal requirements." He said Lotus could save significant wage costs – “60 days’ pay for up to 99 people” – by doing this.

I am on the outside looking in. I seem to remember Proton writing off all Lotus debts and right sizing the company under the previous CEO...

Now they have loaded the company up with debt and are also right sizing the company again. Dany and his team are certainly different. I have never met any of them. My experience with the previous CEO was a little negative. Plenty of people within Lotus seem to have taken the opportunity to promote themselves at my expense, our telephone conversation was interesting to say the least!

I don't see any out of the box thinking here. Designing and producing cars is what car manufacturers do. Laying off people to increase profit also comes into play, especially at Lotus. Sponsoring an F1 team that is known as Renault is a great deal for Renault who sell them the engines.

As I say I am on the outside looking in. Presently it doesn't look pretty. I'm sure there are plenty at Lotus that say I don't either!

Such is life.

As you know I have identified a campus in California. This campus would serve North America. The estate agent is CB Ellis Richards.

Here one of their UK consultants explains his view of the Regional Grant Fund... Maybe someone at Proton or Lotus should speak to them...

Private Universities UK America and Malaysia

2011-06-02T05:28:00.000-07:00

The 3 continents of Asia Europe and America are now served by private Universities in England Malaysia and America.
I have noted that in England there is some negative discussion.
Guardian Article:

Britain is to have its first new private university for more than 30 years, it was announced today...

BPP, which offers business and law degrees at 14 sites across the country, will become a university college with immediate effect.
The move – approved by the universities minister, David Willetts – signals the government's desire to expand the number of profit-making private sector institutions in higher education.

Provided that the institution meets the highest Educational standards I don't see a problem. Malaysia has withdrawn licences from institutions that fail. This is correct.

I see no reason why we can't achieve the required standard set by the various Ministries of higher education.

I have the original Bernama TV interview (John Mansfield) on Youtube.

2011-05-27T04:08:00.000-07:00

Tilo, my friend and graphical support person has found the original Bernama TV interview. It is now on Youtube.
The quality is much better than the old version.
Since this interview was shot, I have moved on a little with the concept.
Johor is now the proposed site in Malaysia/Asia.
Hethel is still the European site.
California is home to the North American campus.
One million students globally is the target.
See my open letter to Dr. Mahathir for more details.

Hyundai Proving grounds video.

2011-05-24T04:33:00.000-07:00

In my open letter to Tun Mahathir, I said we should open up 3 campuses.
One was in California. It is in the same vicinity as the Hyundai facility with similar size. Hyundai spent $50 million to build theirs.
Here is a video of the facility.

Bernama the Malaysian news agency has handed back the TV portion to the Government.
About 5 years ago Bernama TV interviewed me.
Here is that interview. My buddy Tilo has a version of the video that is pristine. I might upload that version shortly.

Obviously since this interview, SepangF1 has been replaced by the Johor circuit.
Lets see what materialises.

Illustrator needed. The BBC do good educational programming.

2011-05-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

Last night the BBC showed a very interesting programme:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011dcb2/Richard_Hammonds_Engineering_Connections_Series_3_Formula_1/

The BBC make some very good educational products, often in association with the Open University.

This programme featured Team Lotus. Showing F1 applications and their engineering connections.

I have updated my childrens story. It needs an illustrator that can do it justice. Heres the latest version:

The Sensei, a wise and learned woman, addresses her superhero pupils

Superheroes! Are we ready for an adventure?

Yes Mam!

Whitey is lost in the jungle of ice cream cones and chocolate. We must save him!

(Young superheroes sometimes get lost in the forest of ice cream cones on purpose.)

On planet marzipan children had to be very careful not to wander into chocolate lakes, fizzy drink fountains, and most dangerous of all the ice cream cone forest!

This was a dangerous mission… Even the sensei really liked the ice cream and chocolate forest. When she was younger, she too, had got lost in the forest many times.

However, if they wanted Whitey to keep his superpowers they needed to save him and soon.

After 5 days in the forest most superheroes lost their ability to jump large logs and things.

After 10 days they could hardly walk, and their bottoms started to make loud noises!

Each superhero was special. Some could break ice cream cones with one blow.

Others could turn chocolate into broccoli… which is really healthy, and very good for superheroes.

Whitey was only learning to become a superhero and didn’t understand how dangerous the forest of ice cream cones and chocolate could be.

He sat on a chocolate log and ate all the ice cream he could!

Whitey was making the chocolate log creak and his bottom was making funny noises.

Outside the forest Whitey’s superhero family prepared to save him.

Once inside the forest the superheroes had to be focused.

They had to save Whitey from the forest. Luckily the sensei had magic powers.

Sensei would dress Whitey's sisters as princesses.

She could magically turn Whitey into a frog.

Frogs hate chocolate and ice cream.

Frogs love princesses!

So that’s what they did. Whitey croaked for joy when he saw them.

Once out of the forest Whitey was kissed by the sensei and returned to his old self.

“And what” asked the Sensei “have we learned from this?”

“Planet marzipan can be a dangerous place for superheroes.” Replied Whitey “but it’s a very safe place for frogs though!”

The Sensei laughed as only Mummies can. “Moderation in all things, is a lesson we must all learn” she said kindly.

They hugged again. "Time for bed" said Sensei.

Open Letter to Dr. Mahathir

2011-05-04T04:02:00.000-07:00

I recently wrote to Dr. Mahathir.
As I did not get any confirmation that he has recrived it, I have published it here.

10th May 2011 update:
I have been in contact with Maznah at the Perdana Institute.
Tun Mahathir has now received this letter
Dear Tun Mahathir,

My name is John Mansfield, The rotund gentleman to the left is me.

Tun, I would very much appreciate it if you would take the time to view my webpage:

http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com/

And read through some of my blog entries.
http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.blogspot.com/

I was fortunate enough to work for Lotus in Malaysia some years ago, and presented a simple paper regarding

Motorsport University along side the then CEO of proton Tengku Mahaleel, and Tun's Son Dato Mokhzani at the ASLI Automotive conference.

Tun, as adviser to both Proton and Petronas, you should be made aware that:

1. The UK government is now encouraging private Universities to set up in the UK.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/chalk-talk-why-private-students-arent-the-way-to-ease-the-fees-pain-2267474.html

*BPP own the Phoenix University in America. It has about 1/2 Million online students and makes a very healthy profit.
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/university-of-phoenix-wises-up-apol-itt-stra-ceco-dv0705.aspx

2. Group Lotus are partners in the Hethel Centre.
http://www.hethelcentre.com/about/our-partners.php

The Group Lotus Hethel Site has been approved for upgrades. This could include a trackside campus.

3.There is a site for sale that would make a wonderful campus in North America.

http://www.cbre.com/USA/US/CA/South+Bay+LA/Property/hondatesttrack.htm?pageid=0

4. The Johor FIA approved circuit is for sale.

We set up physical campuses on three continents. Europe (Hethel) Asia (Johor) and North America (California).

Private Universities are accepted in our chosen countries. We add an online element. Target One million students worldwide.

Lets bring Motorsport technology to the world in an ethical, affordable and profitable way.

Thanks for your time.

Should you wish to meet me, I will make myself available.

John Mansfield
(Tun has my contact details, as have the management at Group Lotus.)

All things Lotus lead to Malaysia!

2011-04-27T06:02:00.000-07:00

It's official Team Lotus or 1MalaysiaF1 now own Caterham.
Team Lotus is owned by Tony Fernandes and his partners.

I've just posted this comment on the Independent site:
This is great news. Now Team Lotus have an F1 team which feeds into a sports car manufacturer.
Group Lotus must be very jealous!

The Independent also wrote a negative article on the UK coalition governments attempts to encourage private Universities in Britain. I have to say I think a well run Motorsport University would be great! I am a little biased though...

Westfield has entered an agreement with DRB-Hicom to assemble and import their cars... the Lotus 7 replica being the most well known.

Group Lotus is owned by Proton.
Oh well... There is something quintessentially British about Malaysia.

For a country that hardly buys any Lotus cars they certainly are into the brand.

From the Motorsport University perspective Caterham and Westfields allow the students to self assemble and are much cheaper than the real Lotuses coming down the line.

This combined with Team Lotus actually being an F1 team would have a great synergy.

Group Lotus have the finance and political clout to make this happen. They don't appear to have the will.

When I was punting the idea around in KL. Tony Fernandes partners NAZA were often mentioned as bumiputra entrepreneurs who might be interested in the project. Alex Yoong knows all about my plans. He is part of their team. Lets see what transpires.

Interesting times.

BPP (owners of Phoenix University) to take over failing Universities in the UK?Tony Fernandes a Caterham Director!

2011-04-26T03:55:00.000-07:00

The ongoing furor over University fees continues in England...
BPP, the owners of the American university Phoenix has been approved to dispense University level education in the UK.
This article was printed by The Mail.
Failing universities face being taken over by private companies

I used Phoenix University a benchmark from a profit point of view when developing a business plan.
They have about half a million students and make a profit of about 13% of turnover. Their fees are much higher than those used in the Malaysian OU for example.
Search this Blog for Phoenix if you want to know more.

Tony Fernandes is a clever boy. He has become a Director of Caterham cars. Good for him.
Now he has a company that can produce sport cars that are affordable with an F1 link.
Sounds familiar!

Tony is not yet in the same position as Group Lotus regarding my plan. Group own an FIA type track in Hethel, which could easily become a campus. He could buy Johor Circuit and the Californian campus, and then enter into negotiations with Snetterton.
Why not?
Group Lotus have known about this proposal in one form or another for nearly a decade. No movement. Sadly.

My old Bernama interview has been uploaded to YOUTUBE

2011-04-21T04:22:00.000-07:00

Still waiting for Group Lotus to adopt my proposal.
Google video is shutting down. I have moved the Bernama interview over to Youtube.
This video was done years ago, and my buddy Tilo doctored it so that it could be uploaded easily. The quality took a hit... If only I could get my hands on the original!

As you probably know, I have now changed direction. Johor FIA approved circuit is now my preferred Malaysian site.

Hethel is my preferred European site. Whilst I have identified and informed Group Lotus of my proposed campus in North America.

Should they decide to delve into this they will see that a very good business case can be made for this.

As Group Lotus has failed in it's attempt to get a Regional Development Grant with it's present plan, a new Educational addition to it might well open up the UK Government coffers.

I think it will. We are talking tens of millions of GB Pounds here. Maybe they don't need the money!

Here is a video of a CB Richard Ellis consultant giving an overview of the new Regional Development Grant requirements. CB Richard Ellis are the Estate Agents for the proposed campus in North America.

Dany Bahar has his own blog... http://lotusdanybahar.wordpress.com/

2011-04-19T04:11:00.000-07:00

I just read some of Dany Bahars new blog. It's OK.
You can't make comments... Otherwise I would be writing to him now!
Hopefully, Dany and the Proton/Group Lotus team read my blog.
Yesterdays entry on the funding they missed out on proves that their plan needs a little tinkering.
They should follow my suggestions.
There is an old saying 'You can bring a horse to water... but you can't make him drink!'

The UK government does not have as much invested in Lotus as Proton and the Malaysian tax payers. If you want their money you need to add something to your proposal.

Lotus fail on first round Grant bid with UK government. Dany Bahar to present updated proposal?

2011-04-18T02:53:00.000-07:00

Sadly Group Lotus Have failed in their first attempt to gain a £27.5million pound grant from the UK Government.
Taken from The Manufacturer website

Norfolk car manufacturer Lotus has expressed its dismay at missing out on £27.5m worth of funding through the Regional Growth Fund which it would have used to expand its production facilities and invest in R&D.

The second round – for the remaining £950m – is now open for bids and will close on July 1.

I have posted a business plan of sorts which could be tweaked and improved to dovetail into the present Lotus business plan.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Open University Business Plan - March 2011

Then I bet you would get the funding. On an even more positive note, the UK Governemt would also be incentivised to ensure that the educational side of the plan succeeds.

Incidentally. CB Richard Ellis- The company in charge of the sale of the Honda Test facility in California have released a video on the latest round of Regional Growth Funds. Perhaps Dany Bahar might get them involved on a consultancy basis for the next round. They will benefit from Lotus purchasing the California campus.

Group Lotus gave the Hethel Engineering Centre a campus within their campus for the princely sum of £10. The Local government have spent about £8 million on hardware.
I am not sure how successful it has been thus far. An initiative from Group Lotus to up the partnership from an educational standpoint, to allow Motorsport related activities and educational endeavour within their FIA type circuit area may well be looked upon as a welcome addition to the present business plan.

I have no doubt that Lotus can get any and all Educational certification required.

The hardware side would then feed into the online side of education. TV programming could be produced as is now the case with Open University. Online courses could be run etc.

Group Lotus can then buy a North American Campus and the Johor Circuit in Malaysia.

You then have Europe, Asia, and North America covered from a hardware campus perspective.
Add the virtual campus... and voila!

Go for it Dany. In the short you will get the £27.5 million loan. In the long term you will have the foundation for a long term sustainable business.

Group Lotus get their financing in Place. Good. Now a Motorsport University makes even more sense!

2011-04-15T02:56:00.000-07:00

Dany Bahar has been given the money to turn Lotus into a money making entity.
Good!
Now dovetail the University proposal into your plans.
Upgrade Hethel with students in mind. Consider the needs of the disabled in any structure you build.
Take the time to look at my proposal. Give it your approval stamp.
Then the additional funding to buy the Johor campus (price unknown), the (two) North American campuses will materialise. Less than 4 million for the real estate.
Once an educational unit under the group Lotus banner materialises, you will be fighting off international institutions of high repute who would like to participate, and lend their name and expertise to the venture.
Believe me. The four wheeled side of the business is only the tip of the iceberg as far as potential is concerned.

Burnley Football club to open University...

2011-04-11T05:31:00.000-07:00

Oh well. The F1 in Sepang was good. Lotus Renault got their second podium in two races. Well done.
Proton and Genii are set to work closer together.
Genii being venture capitalists can certainly help with new ideas and concepts.
Talking of which!
Burnley Football cub are opening their University in September.

A portion of the Lancashire Telegraph article:

BURNLEY FC’s dream to create the country’s first ‘university of football’ is to become a reality in a major boost for the town...

Bosses at the University and College of Football Business (UCFB), which offers three-year degrees accredited by a university in the south of England, said they hope to have capacity for 1,000 students within a few years...

Gordon Birtwistle, Burnley MP, said: “I believe that this will be the only one of its kind in the world. It is an inspirational idea that will have such a positive impact on the town.
“The club has done it all on its own and to see it come to fruition is an amazing feat of achievement.”

The courses offered will all be BA (Hons) degrees in Football Business and Finance, Football Business and Marketing and Football Business and Media, and all will be over three years.

Philip Wilson, chief executive of UCFB, said: “Football involves more than just the game, off the pitch there is the media and marketing, supply chain management, logistics, business and finance and we want the UCFB graduates to leave with transferable skills that they could just as easily take to Mars or Deutsche Bank as a football club.
Mr Wilson said the college would be advertised via UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

Nice to see someone else can think outside the box. I wonder if Genii would find something like this interesting.

Lotus plus Genii with a little Proton Motorsport thrown in... add a few World renowned educational institutions (Lotus Renault are based in Oxford) you get the idea.

Good Luck to all the Lotus participants in Sepang! Private university in England owned by Phoenix?

2011-04-08T06:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend in Malaysia they have two Lotuses and one Malaysian backed Mercedes team. Hopefully, they will get someone on the podium!
Whilst in malaysia I have studied a little Martial arts. One of my teachers Sifu Wong has a son who normally competes in GT racing in Japan. He is good, according to his father. Claudio Berro might want to take a look at him for Lotus. I'm sure Alex knows about him.

I have just read an article in the Guardian about the first new private University in England.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jul/26/first-private-university-30-years
In the comments they say it is owned by Phoenix University.
I used their financials to sell the idea to Lotus.
Interesting times!

Proton and Lotus Renault Management in Malaysia for the F1 Grand prix

2011-04-07T04:25:00.000-07:00

I see that the Renault team have had a Proton plant trip (Shah Alam) and that the Lotus Rnault management team are in town (Kuala Lumpur). Pic borrowed from Paul Tan

I sincerely hope this talented team take the time to discuss the MUM project.
It dovetails nicely into their plans domestically in both Malaysia and Hethel.
Hethel has been approved for updates and expansion.

It's global reach also ticks the correct boxes for established and developing markets.
Financially it works (in theory).
Lets do it.

Tun Mahathir interview on meet the boss TV

2011-03-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

Tun Mahathir is both adviser to Petronas and Proton/Group Lotus. As such his views are of interest to me.

Here are a few quotes from the interview.

Tun Mahathir: Well I used to say that when you are short to be noticed you stand on a soap box. So for me the Petronas Twin Towers is my soap box, so to speak because then I can be tall and be seen. So you have to do something that is out of the ordinary so that people will notice you. When I started as Prime Minister, Malaysia was quite unknown. People keep on asking, “Where is that? Where is that?” So in order to be noticed we have to do certain things that will strike people as something radical and unexpected and because of that they notice

Tun Mahathir: Well one of the things that people must learn is that when going into business the cost you sold much more than what you pretty because there will be pillars. There’ll be a lot of shortcomings and you have to overcome them. It takes a long time before you can really get things running smoothly. So unless you have deep pockets you shouldn’t try to go into things that you really do not have enough knowledge about. But this is a government entity and it’s the government’s policy to introduce industries, heaving industries. We know we took a risk. There have been failures among the projects but there have also been successes.

Tun Mahathir: You have to know where you are going. You have to set a target for yourself and you have to know the environment. You have to have knowledge and you have to learn the skills, the technology or the way of doing things, of managing as it are. There are lots of knowledge input inside a business.

Me (John Mansfield): I have to think that this OU proposal would meet with Tun Mahathir's approval.

It is out of the ordinary. The world will take notice.

There are achieveable targets. Phoenix University has a half a million students on one continent. Why cant we target one million globally?

The project needs deep pockets. Petronas could help here on many levels. They have a private University. They have a huge Motorsport related budget... Why not marry the two?

Proton and Lotus produce design and manufacture cars. They both have motorsport divisions.
If Petronas can pump money into Mercedes and Yamaha projects, why not into this?

Tun, your adviser to both companies. Do the right thing.

Open University Business Plan - March 2011

2011-03-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

1. Content

1. Content

2. Executive Summary

3. Business Concept and Strategy

4. Organization and Management

5. Revenue Streams

6. Market Analysis

7. Competitor Analysis

8. Market Strategy

9. Risk Assessment

10. Financial Forecast

2. Executive Summary

Education.

Knowledge economy.

First world economy.

Three phrases we hear often.

Why? Because we all aspire to be the best we can.

When I worked at Lotus it was a matter of pride that we were considered cutting edge.

My view point is that we should capitalise on that.

How?

By leveraging our technology capabilities with a certificated educational body or bodies and package that capability into saleable modules accessible globally online.

I intend to lead this project.

My background is automotive. I have worked in design for many blue chip automotive companies in Europe, Asia and North America.

I am the Senior Adviser at Backpacking Asia. I have tapped into their expertise periodically, particularly when producing videos and presentations. I consider them part of my team.

In addition I am on the board of a UK media company.

I have identified 4 (four) campuses.

Europe:

Hethel Engineering centre in combination with the Group lotus Campus.

Asia:

Johor FIA approved Circuit

North America:

An oval circuit between Ann Arbor and Lansing – For sale $350,000

The Honda test facility California – For sale $3,000,000+

I would expect to be hired by the funding conglomerate on a £100,000 basic annual salary, with an extensive executive package in place.

My team would be my choice chosen by me after funding is in place. Trust me I will employ capable people.

I see funding coming from the Group Lotus owners. Petronas are major share holders. They have an extensive interest in Motorsport. They sponsor Mercedes in F1 and Yamaha in Moto GP. They are very active in Malaysia.

Proton produce production cars and have a Rally team. Tengku Djan, who I would like as a team member is a well known Drift champion.

Group Lotus is in F1 Indy car and many other motorsport activities.

Petronas, in addition have a fully functional private University in Malaysia. When the oil runs out this proposal could have them morph into a world leader in Online Education.

The combination of real world corporations joining hands in a global educational venture should not be underestimated.

3. Business Concept and Strategy

The concept is simple:

Group Lotus develops two engines for their sports car range:

Certified Educational institutions are brought on board to participate in the development.

The Design and marketing process is documented and modulated.

Saleable modules are then approved for sale as educational commodities by the board of Higher education.

These Modules now have educational value.

They are sold online to markets where they are recognised and approved.

3.1. SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

Using the Lotus Brand is a definite plus. Having the funding in place using the financial and educational backing of Petronas is paramount, at least in the early years.

Proton and Group Lotus have a long term plan to participate in Motorsport while actively developing new products which lend themselves to educational modules.

Petronas can participate in Motorsport as more than just sponsors.

3.1.2. Weaknesses

Historically, corporations look on ‘Training’ as a loss making enterprise. This attitude is disastrous.

As yet funding is not in place. A large sum is needed to buy the campuses and upgrade them.

Educational partners will need paying before we sell any products. Presently the funding is not in place.

3.1.3 Opportunities

Phoenix University in North America has approximately half a million students. It operates in a developed market.

This proposal covers North America Europe and Asia. I see the established markets being important. The developing markets in Asia are the most interesting in terms of growth.

One million online students is in my opinion an achievable goal.

3.2.4. Threats

Ferrari . Mercedes. BMW.

All of these companies have the same potential to enter this market.

4. Organization and Management

I would enter Group Lotus as an executive. I would hire from within and without as appropriate. Getting top people will not be a problem.

I have never met an educational entity that did not show an interest in participating in a project like this.

5. Revenue Streams

Using Phoenix University as a benchmark.

One million students = £ 4billion pounds per year (approx)

Using Malaysia OU student fees:

One million students =£ 1 billion pounds per year (approx)

Globally, it would not be unrealistic to expect £2 billion pounds per year revenue from one million students.

A 10% profit margin would give you £200,000,000 pounds per year profit.

I would hope to achieve this within ten years.

This does not include the positive effects this global exposure will have on Proton, Group Lotus, Petronas on their sales of cars and lubricants.

Additionally, I have not included merchandising etc.

6. Market Analysis

The online educational market is well established in America. Phoenix University has half a million students.

Britain has an Open University which partners with the BBC.

Malaysia has several OU facilities.

The online market for education is growing. The internet is everywhere. It is becoming more accessible daily. Online payment is easy.

In the Developing markets Qatar and Malaysia have western University campuses. This trend seems set to continue.

Group Lotus is well known brand globally. This project will bring it and our partners into contact with a paying global audience.

7. Competitor Analysis

Presently, OEM’s have not ventured into education as a core business.

Educational suppliers are more likely to come onboard as partners, as opposed to competitors.

Once we are successful there will be others eyeing the market.

8. Marketing Strategy

Promote Education through Motorsport. On a more rudimentary level F1inschools already does this.

This project will target a more adult audience. We offer a University quality product, which has a tangible value to the student.

Dany Bahar is the Marketing man for Lotus. I would defer to him on the marketing possibilities. Marketing could and should be tide into our partners needs.

9.1. Risk Management Plan

Risk can be a real problem. Banks get greedy and ignore it. The consequences are there for all to see in the global economy. Japan is presently suffering greatly from a tsunami. There is a real possibility of nuclear radiation spreading across the region.

Risk needs to be addressed.

Here is a very simple overview of risk.

Negligible Risk:

Operational performance of a specific area of the business would not be materially affected.

Low Risk

Slight inconvenience / difficulty in operational performance of a specific area of the

Business.

Medium Risk

Operational performance of the business would be compromised to the extent that revised

planning would be required to overcome difficulties experienced by a specific area of the

business

Very high Risk

Operational performance of a specific area of the business would be severely affected with the

business unable to meet a major portion of its obligations and liabilities.

Extreme Risk

The business would be rendered dysfunctional.

With this plan there are several risks:

Initially the cost of set up needs to be covered. As the process of buying the campuses and bringing the educational partners onboard has not begun we are looking at open ended finance.

The possibility of governments preventing the use of the internet for educational purposes is real. Having the courses approved by the appropriate governmental bodies is paramount. Non approval is not an option.

The product needs to be of good quality. This is paramount.

The product should be accessible by handheld devices, accessible globally.

A world war would render most of these devices unusable. Countries falling out with each other and refusing to allow their citizens access to our product is an ongoing risk.

Our products would be non political in nature. Engineering, Marketing, Sport psychology, Law are not political or religious.

The chances of people losing interest in improving themselves by education are very low.

Competitors:

Other OEMs entering the arena: Near future Low Risk/Medium Log Term High Risk

Technology:

The Likely hood of our partners becoming complacent and dropping their standards should be monitored constantly- Medium risk

The ability to sell online is becoming easier day by day – Negligible Risk

Marketing

Marketing should be done in tandem with Proton/Lotus/ Petronas.

Motorsport events can and should be utilised. Dealerships should advertise us visually.

Our corporate partners should include us in their marketing.

Over time word of mouth should cement our reputation.

Global

Political instability globally affecting our markets – Low Risk our products are non political/religious.

Virtual learning affected by World War – Could affect ability to sell online –Low (I hope)

Global Economic Downturn-Medium Risk- Our products are competitively priced. We offer a good product. We might even have an upturn in sales during a global recession.

Human Resources

Constantly monitor our employees. Professional development of employees should be under constantly review.

Take customer feedback on lecturers seriously.

Complaints –High Risk.

Deal with complaints promptly. Find root cause :-Lecturer/course/student/other and have procedures in place to deal with the problem.

Key staff recruitment and retention:

Good working environment and rewards. People should be proud to work for us. They should rewarded according to their abilities appropriately.

10. Finance

Shortfall of cash:- Presently a problem. Petronas have the financial clout to alleviate this problem.

A law suit: Possible: We have race cars and workshops on our campuses. Health and safety are issues. Legal documents need to be signed by clients when involved in high risk activities.

10. Financial Forecast

10.1. Revenue

One Million students using Phoenix University figures approx £4 billion pounds a year.

One Million students using OU Malaysia fees: Approx £ 1 billion pounds per year.

10.2. Expenses

Presently I have 4 proposed campuses:

Europe:

Hethel Engineering centre in conjunction with Group Lotus campus. Cost negotiable.

Asia

Johor FIA approved circuit:

Cost Unknown.

North America:

Oval Circuit Michigan between AnnArbor and Lansing $350,000 USA

Honda Test facility California $3,000,000+

Variable expenses:

Costs for staff and educational partners/suppliers unknown at present.

Income/Profit Loss

Initially start up costs will be in the millions.

After ten years profits should be in the Billions and profits in the hundreds of millions:

Example : £2 billion revenue. 10% profit margin.

Profit: £200,000,000

Happy St Patricks Day. My minimum salary requirements. Make me an offer.

2011-03-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd wish everyone a happy St Patricks day.
It was some years ago on this day that an old manager from Lotus phoned me out of the blue, and had a little hissy fit over the fact that I considered myself management material.
This Man was instrumental in getting the training division of Lotus closed. I personally found him to be an obnoxious egoististical person. Can't get on with everyone!
I got my CRB check back on the 11 March. So I'm clear to work with vunerable people, in the UK at least.

As a person of undoubted management ability, I would like to state here and now that it will require a substantial offer to obtain my services.

A Good company pension.
A comprehensive medical plan.
A company credit card.
Minimum six weeks paid holiday a year preferably more!
A salary commensurate with my undoubted talents. £100,000 (Basic) plus:-
Stock options and bonuses to reflect the success Lotus and Proton will enjoy when I come on Board.

The company will need to talk to my tax adviser in America, before I accept any offer.
I am able to legally work in both the UK and America. I need a visa for Asia.
Lotus. You know how to contact me.

Tengku Djan to race in Qatar. How much for Johor circuit? Qatar Education hub.

2011-03-11T04:01:00.000-08:00

I see that Qatar are having a Formula Drift race. Most of the racers are American. Two are Asian. Tengku Djan is one of them.
http://www.princeofdrift.com/2011/03/09/fd-qatar-here-we-come/

Tengku means prince by the way. Djan is head of Motorsport at Proton, the owners of Lotus. I used to sit about ten feet away from Djan when he was part of Lotus Engineering Malaysia.

I bet Djan can tell me the price of the Johor circuit! I have met with Johor management before. They expressed an interest in buying the circuit for themselves, however, he never gave me a price. Sometimes people can be a bit secretive.

Alex Yoong mentioned it was for sale when I was at the ASLI conference. He might have even mentioned a figure. I forget. It is for sale that much I know!

Djan seems to be a lot more interested in pursuing his dreams ontrack, than helping me promote this project. Understandable, but a little frustrating!

Despite all this, I can still see the vision becoming reality...

Speaking of Qatar the BBC has run an article on their new educational hub

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12680358

It quotes malaysia as a success with UK Universities operating abroad.

"The host countries, quite reasonably, tend to apply quite a lot of conditions and there have already been some failures where the universities can't make a branch campus work," says Mr O'Leary.

"But Nottingham's campuses in Malaysia and China do well - largely, I think, because graduates get a Nottingham degree and the university uses its own staff."

Newcastle University is setting up in Johor. I'm sure the would be partnering a real world industrial partner such as Lotus. They would probably jump at the chance.

Costs for proposed hardware for the MUM project. BBC article says University Education £50 Billion industry

2011-03-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

First Johor Circuit.

Based in the Iskandar region of Malaysia. For sale: Price unknown.

Lots of Land for development. The region is supposedly crying out for high tech projects.

Second Campus: USA California.

Honda have left their Desert testing facility. Cost $3million +

Huge Campus would cost ten times that much to build from scratch.

Third Campus Michigan: Between Lansing and Ann Arbor: Cost $350,000

Cheap, again would cost ten times that much to build from scratch.

UK Campus : Hethel Engineering Centre: Land gifted by Lotus: On the same site as Group Lotus

Cost to buy:: Not Applicable

TODAY MARCH 3RD: Group Lotus HQ expansion plans approved

Any introduction to a willing financial partner would be much appreciated.
Using Malaysian OU figures Revenue for One Million full time students about One Billion Pounds.
A 10% profit margin gives 100 million profit.
Using Phoenix figures from America the figures are much higher.
British Universities can now charge £9000 per year to local students. Much more to foreign ones.

A recent BBC article quote:
"Universities are being seen as a key to the new economies, they're trying to grow the knowledge economy by building a base in universities," says Professor Altbach.

Families, from rural China to eastern Europe, are also seeing university as a way of helping their children to get higher-paid jobs. A growing middle-class in India is pushing an expansion in places.
Universities also stand to gain from recruiting overseas. "Universities in the rich countries are making big bucks," he says. This international trade is worth at least $50 billion a year, he estimates, the lion's share currently being claimed by the US.

New York University in Abu Dhabi: The university's president says this is the era of "global networks"

Proton to submit roadmap to the Malaysian government

2011-02-25T04:03:00.000-08:00

Proton car company is Malaysian. It has thus far been protected by the government. This is due to end by 2018.
They have been told to give the government their roadmap for the future.
This a portion of the STAR report.

“At the end of the day, we want our automotive industry to remain and be competitive,'' said Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI) chairman Datuk Kamaruddin Ismail in an interview with StarBiz recently.
“We have asked Proton and Perodua to present their competitive roadmaps and from there, we will chart it.”

Post liberalisation, MAI intends to make Malaysia the most choice destination for automobile production in South-East Asia. To accomplish that, the country will be looking in-depth at the skills the auto industry in Malaysia will possess and offer to foreign companies.

I sincerely hope that Proton includes my MUM proposal in roadmap.

The Government is aware of the proposal as I presented it at the ASLI Automotive conference this year. I met the Proton MD personally, I mediated during his presentation, and even got to shake hands with the Proton adviser Dr Mahathir.

Many thanks to the ASLI team for giving me the opportunity.

Last week Motorcycle news reviewed the new Ducati cruiser, the Diavel. The journalist says the product has:

SIP... Style Innovation and Performance.

These are qualities we should expect from Proton Lotus and MUM.

Here is the video:

Regime Change. The world moves on.

2011-02-22T04:40:00.000-08:00

Today, I have just completed a new CRB form. Should I be successful in getting MUM off the ground it will be useful. As a board member of Essex Media Workshop I need one any way.
Criminal Record Checks are a necessary requirement if you deal with vulnerable adults or children.
The world is changing. Libya is big news today. My father worked in Libya for many years. Green Square is normally where Colonel Gadaffi held his public executions, or stonings. Today it is a place of public demonstrations, against the regime.
The world is changing.
I sincerely hope for the better.

No news from any Lotus or Proton people regarding my proposal. Sad to say this is taking forever. I made an early version of this proposal in 2002 whilst working for Kevin Elgood and John Robinson in Bukit Jalil.
Suffice to say I was a little ahead of my time!
However, since then Lotus has undergone several regime changes and the world has moved on.
I am confident they will see the light eventually...

Waiting for Lotus... A story I made up. Anyone want to illustrate it?

2011-02-02T04:34:00.000-08:00

I'm still waiting for Lotus to accept my proposal...
During my time in Malaysia, I have had several people want to go into business with me.
One, Sensei Yaacob (Shorinji Kempo) is an illustrator. He asked me to write a children's story.
He wanted to get a good story, and maybe present it to the government for printing, and use in primary schools.

Here is my first attempt:

The Sensei, a wise and learned man addresses his superhero pupils.

Superheroes! Are we ready for an adventure?

Yes Sir!

Whitey is lost in the jungle of ice cream cones and chocolate. We must save him!

(Young superheroes sometimes get lost in the forest of ice cream cones on purpose.)

On planet marzipan children had to be very careful not to wander into chocolate lakes, fizzy drink fountains, and most dangerous of all the ice cream cone forest!

This was a dangerous mission… Even the sensei really liked the ice cream and chocolate forest. When he was younger he had got lost there many times.

However, if they wanted Whitey to keep his superpowers they needed to save him and soon.

After 5 days in the forest most superheroes lost their ability to jump large logs and things.

After 10 days they could hardly walk, and their bottoms started to make loud noises!
Each superhero was special. Some could break ice cream cones with one blow.

Others could turn chocolate into broccoli… which is really healthy, and very good for superheroes.

Whitey was only learning to become a superhero and didn’t understand how dangerous the forest of ice cream cones and chocolate could be.

He sat on a chocolate log and ate all the ice cream he could!

Whitey was making the chocolate log creak and his bottom was making funny noises.

Outside the forest Whitey’s superhero friends prepared to save him.

Once inside the forest the superheroes had to be focused.

They had to save Whitey from the forest. Luckily the sensei had magic powers.

He could turn Whitey into a frog. Frogs hate chocolate and ice cream.
He would get the superheroes to dress up as princesses.

Frogs love princesses!

So that’s what they did. Whitey croaked for joy when he saw them.

Once out of the forest Whitey was kissed by the sensei and he returned to his old self.

Planet marzipan can be a dangerous place for superheroes. It’s a very safe place for frogs though!

Trulyasia.tv Interview today. Herry co founder of backpacking asia interviewed.

2011-01-28T21:25:00.000-08:00

I have been asked to do an interview with Trulyasia.tv today (Malaysia). The interview will take place today between 5pm and 7pm.

It is not MUM related.
The TV team are here to look at Red Palm. Red Palm is an award winning hostel in KL.
I can't embed the interview, as it has not taken place!
I am back in the UK next week. Among other things I have to be available for a board meeting at a Media workshop I am involved in.
As for the MUM project. I have not been contacted as yet by any of the powers that be...
An update: I was not interviewed. Herry, co founder of backpackingasia.com was filmed. Herry and the other founder Tilo filmed and edited my webpage video.
Info needed to access video:

1st Column: 3 letters that describe your Mother

2nd Column: Four numbers that describe perfect vision.

They are both younger and better looking than me!
Sofie, the owner of the hostel is a very special person, I genuinely feel the video team made an error in not filming an interview with her. I'm not calling the shots.
I will embed the video in any event when it comes online.

Southampton University to open a campus in Johor. Lotus v Lotus carries on (YAWN). Albert Lam on his vision for electric cars.

2011-01-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

Today I read that Southampton University are opening a campus in Johor:
This is from the NST (New Strait Times)

KUALA LUMPUR: The University of Southampton, world renowned for its engineering programme, will open its first overseas campus in Johor next year. The University of Southampton Malaysia Campus (USMC) will be sited at Iskandar Malaysia's EduCity in Nusajaya, Johor, and its first intake will comprise of 60 students.
They can choose any of its undergraduate and postgraduate courses in electrical, mechanical and aerospace engineering...

Khaled (Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin) said with 403 private colleges, 20 public universities, 45 private universities and 15 foreign branch campuses, Malaysia had great potential to tap into the education need of the region...
"We aim to recruit an additional 150,000 foreign students by 2015," he said, adding there would be no ratio for local and international students for private universities.

It would seem that Johor is crying out for educational partners. It has an FIA approved track that needs redevelopment.
I can certainly see a synergy here.

Meanwhile the Lotus v Lotus saga drags on.BBC

Malaysia has three F1 teams it sponsors or owns. What a crying shame they can't all just funnel their energy and technology through a University.

I found this CNBC interview with Albert lam online. I spoke to Albert several years ago in the Hilton, Brickfields Malaysia. It was a neutral venue, where I could converse with him without any outside interruptions (as in all companies, there are some very ambitious individuals working for Lotus).
Albert as CEO of Lotus engineering at the time. "Show me the revenue stream" was his mantra.
He did give me a couple of hours of his time, which was good of him.

An interesting property for sale. A potential Campus?

2011-01-15T06:34:00.000-08:00

Today, I saw an interesting article in Autosport...
Buy your own test track!

The test track, previously owned by Honda is available for $2,742,000 ($6,000 per acre). For sale by:
Cantil Properties.

It is 120 miles from Los Angeles. Lotus seem to have a fixation with California, so I have to put this forward as a potential American campus for the virtual university plan.

The site is just outside of California city.

Click this link to view a flash presentation.

In order to dovetail with the group Lotus vision of having a global presence in Europe (Hethel) Asia (Malaysia-Johor) and North America (Michigan/California). It would be appropriate to have some physical campuses to compliment the Virtual university.

Apart from being in California, the site is purpose built for vehicle testing. It would cost a fortune to replicate from scratch.

http://www.dtgenterprises.com/addg_ca.asp
LARGE CORPORATIONS ARE LOCATING NEW FACILITIES IN CALIFORNIA CITY!
The Hyundia-Kia officials and the California City mayor cut the ribbon on the automaker's new $60 Million North American auto test center. This brand new 4,300 acre Hyundia-Kia facility includes a 30,000 square foot office complex and vehicles are tested on a variety of surfaces including a 6.4 mile oval track, a 2.75 mile winding track, and a 3.3 mile hill road. A two million square feet vehicle dynamics area is also included.
Honda also operates a 3,800 acre test facility just North of California City. This facility includes a 7.5 mile oval track, a 4.5 mile winding course, and four courses to test motorcycles & ATV's.[(Presently for sale at $2,742,000) you can spend $10 million on additional development/upgrades and still be only at 20% of Hyundai's outlay].

Just a thought.

Bob Lutz was being optimistic at 60% chance of success. Lets make it 90%

2011-01-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

A happy and healthy New Year to everyone.

In a recent Telegraph interview Dany Bahar was interviewed on the future of Lotus

Bahar wants the engineering side to create at least one third of the company’s profits in future, with the other two thirds coming from building 6,000-7,000 road cars a year.

“In future we will be fighting in every sports car sector,” he says.

I'm not an accountant. So I have kept this real simple.

7000 units x 100,000 plus pounds average saleable value per vehicle = 800,000,000 Pounds total

So using these figures,Lotus can expect to achieve a total revenue of 0.8 Billion pounds per year on car sales

Assuming Lotus covers its R&D costs by 2015 and achieves a profit margin of 25% per car. Lotus can expect approx 0.2 Billion pounds profit per year...Add 0.1 Billion profit from Engineering services.

Compare this to Phoenix (virtual) University figures for 2010.
Here is a portion of their financials for 2010.
OutlookFor the full year, analysts expect Apollo to grow revenue 23.3% to $4.9 billion. Earnings should exceed $5 per share and grow approximately 20%.

So the present Lotus plan has a potential of generating revenue of 1.2 billion pounds per year.

The University idea has a potential revenueof ($4.9billion)3.1 billion pounds using official Phoenix figures as a benchmark.

I don't envisage the University having a 25% profit margin. I would hope however, over time, to have 1 million customers as opposed to the half a million that Phoenix has presently.

I would expect a truly global customer base.

Assuming an eventual customer base of 1 million students globally a 6 billion pound revenue stream would be possible:

Using a 10% profit margin for the University:

Yearly Profit for Virtual University: 600 Million pounds

Using a 25% profit margin for the present Lotus plan:

Yearly Profit for present Lotus plan: 300 Million pounds

The present plan only represents the tip of the iceberg... Look deeper

In my humble opinion adding a virtual University to the plan raises the chances of success from an optimistic 60% (Bob Lutz) to a realistic 90%.

BTW: The British OU celebrates its 40th birthday on the 3rd January. Congratulations!

Out with the old in with the new!

2010-12-29T19:59:00.000-08:00

This is my last entry for this year.

My previous entry was sent to Group Lotus top management.

Motorsport university ... Show me the money... Billions

Here is a small portion...

^{Using this as a template: 1 million students would mean 10 billion dollars revenue.}

^{This is far more than I projected using Malaysian Open University figures 4-5 billion Malaysian Ringitt (1 billion plus American dollars)}

^{Presently Phoenix seems to operating on an income that is 13.4% of Revenue...}

^{On a 10 billion Dollar revenue that would be 1.34 Billion dollars a year.}

^{So far no reply}

^{During the ASLI Conference I used the 1 billion Dollar figure as the total revenue stream. I may well have undersold the project.}

^{Never mind.}

^{In 2009 I attended ASLI} ^{with Alex Yoong as my guest.}
^{Alex was Mister popularity and got some work out of the conference (Bufori). Later joined the Tony Fernandes F1 team (now Team Lotus) as Driver Development coach.}

^{This year I attended with a couple of my team. People are aware of the project.}

^{Here is Tony with some of his 2010 friends. (Courtesy of lotusbuzz)}

^{Times change.}

^{I fully expect the project to get funding in 2011.}

^{Goodbye 2010... Hello 2011}

Motorsport university ... Show me the money... Billions

2010-12-21T07:02:00.000-08:00

At a recent ASLI conference I presented my Motorsport University Malaysia concept.
As I need investors, I had to mention the revenue stream.
I used the Limkokwing projection of one million students in ten years time.
Today Phoenix University is probably the Leader in for profit virtual education.
Here is a portion of their financials for 2010.
OutlookFor the full year, analysts expect Apollo to grow revenue 23.3% to $4.9 billion. Earnings should exceed $5 per share and grow approximately 20%.
Third Quarter Sales and Profit Trends
... Net income fell 11% to $179.3 million, which was still a very healthy 13.4% of revenue. Share buybacks reduced the hit to earnings, which ended up falling 6% to $1.18 per diluted share. Excluding the charges above, earnings came in ahead of analyst expectations.

From Wikipedia
The University of Phoenix (UPX) is a for-profit institution of higher learning. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Group Inc. which is publicly traded (NASDAQ: APOL), an S&P 500 corporation based in Phoenix, Arizona.
As the university with a student body in North America second only to the State University of New York, it has a current enrollment of 420,700 undergraduate students and 78,000 graduate students,^[2]^[3] or 224,880 full-time equivalent students.^[4]

^{So Phoenix University has approxiamately half a million online students, and has revenue of aproxiamately}

^{$5 billion dollars American.}

^{Using this as a template: 1 million students would mean 10 billion dollars revenue.}

^{This is far more than I projected using Malaysian Open University figures 4-5 billion Malaysian Ringitt (1 billion plus American dollars)}

^{Presently Phoenix seems to operating on an income that is 13.4% of Revenue...}

^{On a 10 billion Dollar revenue that would be 1.34 Billion dollars a year.}

^{It is always possible to spend more than you earn. However, if you can get a high quality educational product out there, that has value for the students, you can certainly generate a healthy revenue stream.}

^{Claudio Berra (Motorsport Director Group Lotus) recently stated:}
The 2011 season would also see Lotus in GP2 and GP3; in ALMS with an LMP2 entry; a Lotus presence in GT2/Endurance racing; a full season of Lotus Cup races around the world, specifically series in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and the Middle East with 40 to 50 cars each weekend, and Lotus Academies just about everywhere there is a Lotus Cup.

Incidently, there is an oval track for sale not too far, 60 miles from the Lotus Ann Arbor facility asking price $325,000 USA.
Springport Motor Speedway is a 3/8 mile high banked asphalt paved oval, located in South Central Michigan

Below is the video (Part 1) showing the track being built. It was a $million++ project at the time 1989.
It needs an innovative new owner..

Combine this with the track (I believe it's for sale ) in Johor, and the facilities at Hethel and you can easily incorporate this into the Group Lotus 5 Year Plan.

To quote Nike... Just Do it (Dany Bahar)

Lotus propose a new family of engines. Omnivore based? Embed of Jackie Stewart

2010-12-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I posted on Lotusbuzz.com
I asked if they thought the company (Lotus) would resurrect the 918 turbo.
Wayne the moderator said it would probably be an Omnivore based product.
He posted a link to this video.

I have to assume that Lotus will justify the Research and development costs by factoring in the likely-hood of selling the technology to other OEM's.
Showcasing the technology in Lotus products would then make sense.
However, they would have problems covering Research and Development should there be no takers..

I still think that by incorporating the MUM proposal into their business plan, and selling the technology as an educational product would help mitigate the risk.

In view of Group Lotus re-entering F1 Motorsport with Renault next year, I have embedded a video of Jackie Stewart... Motorsport gives back to society is one of his themes.

Dany Bahar to commision new Lotus designed engines...What an opportunity to resurrect the 918 turbo...

2010-12-17T20:18:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a week since ASLI. The phone has not rung off the hook...
Interestingly, Lotus via Dany Bahar are talking about designing a family (V6 and V8) of engines.Normally, designing engines from scratch for a run of 6000 vehicles per year (estimated) would not make sense. When Lotus as a division of GM helped design the ecotec it was with a view to use in Opel/Vauxhall and Holden cars, plus in later years the USA.
I have to think the business case was for a lot more than 6000 units per year.
The V8 is for the exotic end of the market... I'm guessing 1000+ units a year.
Dany Bahar must be hoping for a massive profit margin per vehicle to cover Research and Development.
If he cuts corners and the engine is a dog ... Goodbye Lotus (seriously).
Here is a link to an article in autofieldblog

entry dated 18 feb 2010.
General Motors is again making an investment in manufacturing capability in the U.S. Today it announced it will be spending $494-million—yes, just short of a half-a-billion, which somehow sounds more impressive—for the production of the next-generation Ecotec four-cylinder engines.
The primary recipient of spending will be the GM powertrain plant in Tonawanda, NY. It will be receiving $425-million to obtain the capacity—meaning facility renovation, new machinery, equipment, and tooling—to produce 370,000 engines per year. It also means the creation of about 470 jobs.

May I suggest, he incorporates my project into his business plan, and designs the engines in tandem with a renowned educational institution, and use the design material in educational modules. If the engine is good the design data will be in demand with students world wide in subscription form modules.
Working with an educational partner from the outset will impact R&D costs negatively, however Ministry of Education approved modules will give long term returns on investment.
The Hethel Centre sits on the Lotus site. Lotus (Proton) effectively gave the this land away.
It is public knowledge that the land was provided by Lotus at nominal cost.
The Hethel Engineering Centre has to date spent 7.4 Million pounds on the educational facility.
Lotus is a partner.
If Dany Bahar is serious about building an FIA approved track on the Hethel site. He is a long way to fitting the template set out in my webpage.
I'm sure the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) with whom he is negotiating a loan would be very pleased to think that some of the loan may be used to promote education within the area.
While writing this I came across an interesting article: Perhaps Lotus are thinking of using their old 918 V8 turbo...
Gas2.org has written an interesting piece:
The 918 engine’s architecture was designed with an eye towards modular construction, such that the engine could be manufactured as a twin-tubo V8, a single-turbo inline-4, a supercharged V6, or even a naturally-aspirated V10 … this “modularity” is a well-practiced black-art at Lotus, which uses the same basic modular chassis to produce two generations of the Elise and Exige sportscars, as well as the GT1 Elise, the Opel Speedster...

You’ve got to hand it to Bahar. He’s not a car guy, but he seems to have a good business head on his shoulders, and he may be the guy who finally turns the world’s best engineers into the world’s smartest car company.

Sources: Autocar, Wired, a long and sad series of lonely Saturday nights in college spent reading Motor Trend.

Interesting article. If this is an old off the shelf design, then maybe a sensible business case can be made for it's resurrection in 4-6-8 and maybe 10 cylinder iterations. Teaming up with educational institutions still makes sense. They may even digitize some of the design data for a nominal fee...

I must say that Dany Bahar has not said they will use the 918 turbo as a starting point.

I participated in the ASLI Auto conference. Presented MUM. Attended the KLIMS KL Auto Show.

2010-12-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

I just spent two days at the ASLI Auto conference. I got to rub shoulders with Malaysia's movers and shakers. I appreciate the opportunity to present my proposal to an audience who may be actually be able to move it forward.
I presented with Tengku Mahaleel, who took centre stage, and SIC chairman Dato Mokhzani, or Dato Mokzee as Tengku Mahaleel referred to him.

Apparently, I made the evening new on the first day TV3. I had an interesting time. Lets see what happens.

Here I'm shaking hands with the major mover and shaker, Tun Mahathir (Dato Mokzee's dad). He was gracious enough to have his photo taken with me.

I have to say Tun Mahathir obviously has an influential circle of friends. Seen here with Hilary (at another event I hasten to add).

Many thanks to Kenanga of ASLI for being so supportive.
The KLIMS Auto show was interesting. I'm glad that Malaysia can hold one. Sadly the UK has missed out in the last couple of years.
I moderated a couple of the ASLI Sessions:
Session 3 : Green Technology (Matthias Gelber - The greenest Man on the planet - was very entertaining and informative).

I sat beside Dato Zainal MD of Proton. He was very composed, and comes across very well.

Session 4 NAP (National Auto Policy.) I was sat beside the new MD of Perodua Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh. He had only been in the job 70 days. Once again he was very pleasant.

Tengku Mahaleel was a handful. He went over his presentation time, and got gonged several times!

I presented in session 7 Motorsport potential and promise:
Thankfully, I let my video do most of the talking!
I made up a short powerpoint from my webpage which I presented afterwards. I am capable of confident public speaking. I was disappointed with myself for not practicing more before the event.

Neither of my fellow participants had official presentations. Tengku Mahaleel invited some of his friends to the function. He got them to ask him questions about the old days, and how cheap it is to race at grassroots level... (Cheap is a relative thing... I don't think Tengku and his friends are from working class backgrounds).
Tengku Mahaleel received good feedback for his efforts. (10/10 from some people).Dato Mokhzani spoke off the cuff. He is chairman of the Sepang F1 circuit. He was polite, and answered questions from the floor in a straightforward manner.
Click here to view webpage:
Click here to view video. username: mum password: 2020

All in all a very pleasant couple of days. Alex Yoong should try and make an appearance next year.

Many thanks to Hanis and Herry for the support on the day! Plus Tilo for graphics on the video.
A special thank you to Armin for letting me borrow a few pic from his blog:
http://arminbaniaz.com/2010/12/3rd-kuala-lumpur-international.html

3rd Kuala Lumpur International Automotive Conference

View more documents from Synergistics Limited.

Dany Bahar, Bob Lutz and Claudio Berra hold a conference...

2010-11-23T05:41:00.000-08:00

As I have said before, next week I will be attending the ASLI automotive conference in Kuala Lumpur 1-2 December 2010. It precedes the KL Auto show.

I read in Autoweek .com that Dany Bahar held a conference in an expensive mansion last week.
Here is a small portion of the Claudio Berro presentation...

Then it was motorsports director Claudio Berro's turn with the laser wand. Berro is also from Ferrari. He started by saying that the Indianapolis 500 "is the most important race anywhere in the world," letting us know where Lotus's priorities stood. He reiterated Lotus's participation in the IndyCar series, in GT4 with the Evora and the availability of the Type 125 semi-F1 car for private gentleman racers. He said that Lotus's IndyCar entry in 2011 will consist of "two or three cars," and the following year Lotus would provide "bodywork" for IndyCars.

The 2011 season would also see Lotus in GP2 and GP3; in ALMS with an LMP2 entry; a Lotus presence in GT2/Endurance racing; a full season of Lotus Cup races around the world, specifically series in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and the Middle East with 40 to 50 cars each weekend, and Lotus Academies just about everywhere there is a Lotus Cup. That is a tremendous amount of motorsports, even by pie-in-the-sky standards

Bob Lutz earned his crust with this comment.

"Of course they have a chance," said Lutz, perhaps being a bit too blunt. "If you do nothing, then it's certain death. If you make a massive investment, then it's maybe death. When faced with the choice of maybe dying and certainly dying, you always pick maybe dying. I learned that in military aviation."

We all die, thats a fact of life. Lotus appears to be in the middle of a rebirth. I hope they grow up big and strong...
At the ASLI conference, I will be presenting the slideshare presentation below.
In my opinion this presentation dovetails in well with the new racing plans envisaged by the company. The same can be said of the plans for the new economic corridor planned for Johor.

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

Team AirAsia versus Lotus Renault?

2010-11-19T04:52:00.000-08:00

Today I received my newsletter from team AirAsia instead of Lotus racing... Oh well.

I am looking forward to flying to Malaysia next week. I am participating in the ASLI auto conference that precedes the KL Auto show.

1-2 December 2010.

http://www.asli.com.my/cgi-bin/event_calendar.cfm

I am sure that it will be very interesting to hear some of the people on the inside speak!

The chiefofficers.net site had an interesting article:
http://chiefofficers.net/888333888/cms/index.php/news/special_interest/motorsport/motorsport_battle_over_lotus_name_becomes_surreal

I have to think Tony Fernandes is a little annoyed.

I'm sure he will get over it.

I certainly hope that I can get some practical support for my MUM proposal during the conference.

Enjoy your weekend!

This is the basis of my ASLI presentation:

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

Tony Fernandes may not use Team Lotus name, although he legally owns it. ASLI Automotive conference coming soon. Go it should be interesting.

2010-11-15T04:58:00.000-08:00

Renault have sold their 25% share in the F1 team to Proton.
Proton will now spend Euro30 million a year for the privelege of promoting the Lotus brand. Tony Fernandes has stated he does not intend to have two Lotus named cars in F1. I have to assume we will now have an Air Asia /Tunes / Naza named car on the grid.
http://paultan.org/2010/11/13/telephone-interview-with-tony-fernandes-of-lotus-racing/
Tony now owns the Team Lotus name.
Oh well.
I'd be happy to use the Team Lotus name in relation to my MUM proposal.
Base it in Johor. MUM could quite happily co-exist with both Tony and Proton as an independent educational entity.
I will be at the ASLI automotive conference in a couple of weeks. I'll punt the idea around there.
http://www.asli.com.my/cgi-bin/event_calendar.cfm

This years conference will have a Motorsport portion.
http://www.asli.com.my/cgi-bin/details.cfm?type=conference&id=286

It would be nice if Alex Yoong and Tengku Djan could attend.
Alex works with Tony Fernandes.
http://paultan.org/2009/09/26/alex-yoong-lotus-f1-deputy-team-principal/

Djan is head of Proton Motorsport

I'm sure that Proton will send some big hitters, I'm not sure about Group Lotus (Dany Bahar) or Tony Fernandes.

Tun Mahathir is a keynote speaker...
Resolve Lotus issue amicably, urges Mahathir

It should be interesting in any event!

I will be at ASLI conference. I might raffle Italian Job script for charity. Group Lotus Team Lotus saga goes on.

2010-11-09T05:03:00.000-08:00

Today, I confirmed again my attendance at this years ASLI Auto conference. I will be a panellist in 3 sections. The conference coincides with the KL Auto show.
The ASLI auto conference 1-2 December precedes the Auto Show

I have an early 'Italian Job' script I might raffle to attendees. All procedes to charity. I'm waiting for ASLI to agree.
The Lotus Formula 1 saga goes on...
Here is a portion of a David Hunt interview.
http://www.theracedriver.com/2010/11/david-hunt-exclusive-on-team-lotus/

Let’s be clear: Group Lotus has never raced in F1, and, despite what it now claims on the freshly-applied murals on the Proton Building at Hethel, it has no F1 World Championships, Grand Prix wins, poles or even races contested in its history. Their claims are as ridiculous as if I had announced a new sports road car from Team Lotus which followed in the long tradition of Team Lotus road cars such as the Elan, Esprit, Europa etc. I would have been passing off; my claims would have been laughable and Team Lotus would have been demolished in court if it had dared defend litigation from Group. In my opinion that is what is likely to happen to Group in the litigation now underway in the British High Court. It is also my opinion that they know that as well as I do, which is why they have attacked now. I believe they are counting on it never reaching the court hearing and a ‘Malaysian settlement’ resolving ‘ownership’ of Team Lotus in their favour.

David Hunt is obviously of the opinion he has sold the rights to Tony Fernandes.

I think from an educational perspective this could be an interesting thing to study. I'm sure we could do an interesting Law Module using this whole thing as an example.

I'm looking forward to the conference. I certainly hope some good will come out of it.

Team Lotus or Air Asia Renault F1. Why are Group Lotus only now interested?

2010-10-22T03:36:00.000-07:00

The argument about Tony Fernandes using the Lotus name goes on...
Tony has agreed to set up what was going to be the Lotus technology centre in SepangF1. Now it will be called?
Group Lotus have spurned the opportunity to set up there over the years preferring to stay in Bukit Jalil (Where?)
I must say I wish Tony well. He is doing what I wanted to do!

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

Never Mind.
There is an FIA approved circuit in Johor. Up for sale, and dying to have a project like Motorsport University Malaysia onboard.
Maybe Tony Fernandes should show the initiative to become involved and watch Group Lotus suddenly become interested...
Just a thought... Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Rita Forst beer drinking songs ... Mum a Mia!

2010-10-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

Whilst working in OPEL Reusselsheim, I as a member of the USA team found my German counterparts to be friendly and helpful.
There was a faction who felt that OPEL as a German manufacturer in the mould of BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz etc had the upper hand when it came to technology and quality.
While I was there we had engineers from Sweden (Saab) Australia (Holden) and they were just starting to use Fiat drivetrains (Italy).
The Opel tech centre is home to many nationalities. Generally, they get on...
During my time at Opel, Rita Forst was head of Powertrain.
Today Rita effectively heads up GM Reusselsheim.
Bloomberg reports that Rita is encouraging the singing of Beer drinking songs when dealing with non German colleagues...

As an executive at the carmaker’s powertrain unit, she’s belted out German drinking songs over dinners with Swedish colleagues to loosen people up. While heading GM’s diesel engine development center in Turin, Italy, she set up exchanges between German and Italian employees who were reluctant to cooperate.
“You can only work in a globalized environment if you know, accept and adapt to various cultures,” the 55-year-old German said in an interview. “That can lead to friendships and makes things a whole lot easier.”

I'm not sure how the Swedes reacted. However,Saab has since been sold off...
Here is a video from this years Paris Show. Nick Reilly, Rita's boss opens and Rita finishes.

I enjoyed my time at Opel. I wish them well.

All you potental funding partners out their contact me through my web page:
http://motorsportuniversitymalysia.com/

I will be participating at this years ASLI automotive conference in KL 2-3 December 2010.
You can meet me there, if you wish to send a delegate.

On a funding note: Malaysian PM Najib announced his budget today.
A portion taken from the Star.

FIRST STRATEGY: REINVIGORATING PRIVATE INVESTMENT
19.Another PPP(Public-Private Partnership Initiatives) project identified is the Academic Medical Centre. This project is a joint venture between Academic Medical Centre Sdn. Bhd. and Johns Hopkins Medicine International as well as Royal College of Surgeons Ireland. This project involves private investment of RM2 billion

The text of Najibs speech starts with the words:
1.Praise be to Allah, for enabling me to table the 2011 National Budget. Indeed, this is a significant budget. This Budget is a precursor in our final efforts towards achieving Vision 2020, which is 3,365 days or 9 years, 2 months and 17 days away.

As you can gather, Malaysia is a Muslim led country. I'm not sure if Rita will be sitting down with Najib for a beer drinking song session any time soon.
Secondly, Malaysia is striving to become a fully developed nation by 2020. It's neighbour Singapore has already achieved this.
My proposal would be on the border between the two nations.
I'm neither a Muslim nor a German beer drinker.
However, I must fully endorse Rita's statement:
“You can only work in a globalized environment if you know, accept and adapt to various cultures,” the 55-year-old German said in an interview. “That can lead to friendships and makes things a whole lot easier.”

On that note,
I'd like to wish everyone, everywhere, a very happy weekend.

Proton name probable divisions. Fiat 500 fails test...

2010-10-12T04:11:00.000-07:00

In todays EDGE publication, space is given to the Lotus business plan. The funding is coming largely from bank loans.

In terms of financing for the Lotus project, Syed Zainal said the over-£300 million capital expenditure would be 80% funded by borrowings from local and international banks.

I must say I hope it works. One of the main reasons Lotus was bought was technology transfer.
This was not mentioned. I assume Tony Fernandes will do this under the TEAM LOTUS banner.
Group Lotus had the chance to set up in SepangF1.
Tony Fernandes will be successful, I wish him well.

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

According to the EDGE the new divisions will be:
Group restructuring and consolidation

The Lotus project is part of Proton’s group restructuring plan to create four core operating units that are each a profit centre, to be modelled after the Petronas group organisational structure.

The four core units are Lotus sports car division, Proton-Lotus engineering division, Proton manufacturing division and Proton distribution division. It is learnt that a restructuring plan is due for implementation next year.

This is based on the Petronas structure.
Petronas were asked to set up a University. That is now in existence. It has formed a partnership with TEAM LOTUS in Sepang, as has UTM.

Lotus gave the land to Hethel engineering centre, which is based on its site. This actively works with Lotus to educate people in the local area.
Group Lotus (and by default Proton) have never tried to replicate this Educational facility/technical assembly area/ track model in Malaysia.

Whilst it ticks all the boxes in the UK it is considered a no go in Malaysia. ODD.

Perhaps someone within Lotus / Proton should look at both the Lotus UK site and the Petronas educational initiative.

Check out my wesite for some ideas... http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com/
As an aside Fiat have lost there deal for supplying learner cars to BSM (British school of Motoring).
Here is a quote from the Mirror.

DRIVING school giant BSM has been forced into a U-turn after instructors gave its new Fiat 500 a thumbs down.
Instructors preferred the Corsa’s larger size, five doors and steel wheels, which cannot be scuffed like alloys.
The deal is a boost for Vauxhall, with studies showing 70% of drivers buy the make of car they learned in.

Proton are trying to become the Learners choice. They will give instructors special deals.
Shame they can't bring this same philosophy to education in general.

Dany Bahar to invest £800 million into Lotus. THINK ABOUT IT!

2010-10-05T02:46:00.000-07:00

Dany Bahar made an appearance on ITV news:

He said that Lotus will invest £800 million in the next ten years.
Investment in Hethel will be dependent on the British government offering financial incentives.
I think Lotus should invest in Hethel. I hope the British Government feels that way.

Obviously, You are revamping the track, and Group Lotus have given Land to the Hethel Engineering Centre.

OK.
How about investing in Malaysia?
You are owned by Proton. They have a major shareholder in Petronas. The company adviser is the ex Prime Minister of Malaysia.

As a Malaysian owned entity, I think Dany should also look to Malaysia. Not only at Protons huge excess of manufacturing capacity, which he could potentially utilise, but also at the MUM proposal.

If investment in a circuit and the infrastructure requires Malaysian Government incentives, you have access to all the governmental departments. The company Senior Adviser can present your proposal on behalf of the company.

You are asking your Senior Adviser to protect you from Tony Fernandes and Team Lotus. They are using the arguement that Group Lotus haven't done anything for Malaysia/ ASEAN.

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

THINK ABOUT IT!

Video. Dany Bahar on the future of Lotus Motorsport. Porsche to enter F1? Paul Ritchie on the Porsche Hybrid.

2010-10-04T03:44:00.000-07:00

In view of all the controversy over Team lotus, I thought I would embed this video I found on youtube.

I hope Dany starts to see the educational benefits of motorsport and looks to set up a facility in Malaysia to compliment his commitment to Hethel.
Hethel + Malaysia + China sounds good to me.
Just as an aside. I read that Porsche may be entering F1. Here is a portion of a Crash article:
Earlier this year, Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich had hinted that the Ingolstadt manufacturer and F1 'do not fit' on a technological basis – with the inference being that if one of VW's two flagship names does join the grand prix grid, it will have to be Porsche.

My only dealings with Porshe were in the USA where I was invited by John Packwood then a senior advisor to Porsche engineering in Troy Michigan and Paul Ritchie General Manager/CEO, on a boat trip with Dave Jones.
Both John and Dave were former presidents of Hawtal Whiting, a now defunct design house. I used to work for Hawtals.
Previously they all (John, Dave,Paul and myself) worked at both Fords and Hawtal Whiting. The ever present PA Moira was also onboard.
I had a long talk with John about my MUM proposal, he let me drive his Porsche. John and Dave were nice guys.It was a good day.

I'm sure Paul is excited about entering the world of F1.

Here is a video of Paul Ritchie in his present role as President of Porsche Motorsport:

I wish Paul, John, Dave and Moira all the best.
I do feel that Lotus has the possibility of competing with Porsche on all levels.
I look forward to being a participant in that competition...
Here is the company car that I'd like...

Riad Asmat has a point. Group Lotus have been sleeping...Dany Bahar to the rescue?

2010-09-28T02:52:00.000-07:00

Today, I received another email from www.lotusracing.my Tom Webb.
In view of yesterdays post regarding naming rights I found it interesting.
Tom quotes Riad Asmat. Riad used to work for Proton, Group Lotus owners...

Now we look to the future. The details of what has been going on behind the scenes are now coming to light, and that’s good because it means the shareholders of Proton, the government, will now know the truth of what has been going on. However the important thing is to look at what we are doing to guarantee future success. We have already invested heavily in ensuring the Malaysian / ASEAN motorsports platform grows, something that cannot be said for our colleagues at Group Lotus.

This slideshare gives a little history to the Group Lotus story regarding the SIC SepangF1 track.

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

Yesterday, I quoted an article written by Bernama, the Malaysian media agency:

SIC, Lotus to jointly develop world class Motoring industry
SIC chief executive officer Razlan Razali said:
We have sent proposals to the finance ministry, not only for the Lotus technical centre, but also to repair and upgrade the circuit.

I assume the circuit are referring to Tony Fernandes and his business partners when referring to the Lotus technical centre. I would be amazed if Group Lotus had anything to do with it.

Riad Asmat is quite right to bring this issue up. Group Lotus were in a position to set up an academy/technical centre in SepangF1 (SIC). They remain in Bukit Jalil (Where? I hear you say).
I guess Group Lotus are above working with the ministry of finance.

Luckily, should the management wake up from their slumber, Group Lotus still have a plan B - Johor.
I have removed my slideshare version of the plan.
Google: Motorsport University Malaysia or click here to see my webpage.

Sadly, Johor is even further from the wonderful expat watering hole that is Bangsar...

Perhaps the new Group Lotus CEO, Dany Bahar will now view my proposal personally.

Team Lotus rights are causing a little controversy... Proton withdraw support

2010-09-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Paul Tan a respected Malaysian blogger reports that the TEAM LOTUS issue is still unresolved.

Here is a small portion of his posting:
Chairman of both Proton Holdings Bhd and Group Lotus, Dato’ Sri Nadzmi Mohd. Salleh said, “We believe the Lotus brand to be one of the most valuable brands in Formula 1 today. We are the owners of this brand, and will take all necessary steps to protect it. Tony Fernandes has no rights to use the Lotus brand in the 2011 Formula 1 season, and we will strongly resist any attempts by him to use our brand without our permission and will withdraw our sponsorship of the Lotus Racing team.”

“To put it simply, Group Lotus is everything Lotus. The fact that 1 Malaysia Racing Team entered into an agreement with Group Lotus to use the brand means that both Mr. Fernandes and 1 Malaysia Racing Team recognises and acknowledges Group Lotus’ rights,” he added.

Interesting times...
Tony Fernandes has set up his racing team in SepangF1 (SIC), his Airline, Airasia, is also positioned there.
The National news agency has written this article today:
SIC, Lotus to jointly develop world class Motoring industry
SIC chief executive officer Razlan Razali said:
We have sent proposals to the finance ministry, not only for the Lotus technical centre, but also to repair and upgrade the circuit.

I have to assume that the government are now backing Tony Fernandes in his plans for a Motorsport base in Sepang.

So what are Proton going to do? They are now in a confrontational position.
Should they wish to promote Group Lotus in Asia, basing it on the Educational model I have put forward, Johor FIA approved circuit might be worthy of consideration.

Lets see how this pans out... Alls well that ends well.

Team Lotus name officially sold. Tony Fernandes has the rights.

2010-09-24T03:39:00.000-07:00

Today, I received my usual Lotus Racing update via email.
The email comes from www.lotusracing.my Tom Webb
Here is a portion of the content:
Tony Fernandes, Lotus Racing Team Principal, is delighted that the hard work that has been going on behind the scenes to make this acquisition can now be announced, saying: “Kamarudin, Nasa and I are absolutely delighted to have completed this transaction - It’s difficult to express just what it means to us to now be able to say we are Team Lotus, one of the most iconic names in any form of sport worldwide, but we have been working very hard to make this dream come true, and today it has. My thanks go to David for looking after the Team Lotus brand so well over the period of his stewardship, and keeping the integrity of Team Lotus together. We are very excited about now taking over the brand and after our first year in Formula One™, we believe we are ready to do justice to the legacy we have inherited. These are heady days for Team Lotus, and it will be a very exciting process for the team we have in place to help us achieve our goals, on and off track.

Fair enough. Proton, the owners of Lotus are official sponsors of Tony. So they have a finger in the pie whether Team Lotus is owned by Tony and his business associates or Group Lotus.

Historically, both Lotus Cars and Team Lotus came under Colin Chapman.

Times change.

Both Tony Fernandes and Dany Bahar (Group Lotus CEO) appear to know where they are heading.
Group Lotus are still in racing, but not under the Team Lotus banner.

I have no axe to grind with either party. It's a big world, I'm sure there is enough room for both of them.
I still see this project taking off in Johor... However, here is my Bernama TV interview based on the initial idea of using the SepangF1 circuit.

Have a lovely weekend.

Group Lotus Dany Bahar v Tony Fernandes Air Asia?

2010-09-23T02:57:00.000-07:00

On the 14 September I made an entry entitled:
Team Lotus. Tony Fernandes has bought back the name.

I have just read an interesting article on Speedtv.com entitled:
F1: Dispute Over Lotus Name?
A battle over the rights to the Lotus name seems to be emerging...

It appears that Group Lotus are also trying to use the TEAM LOTUS name. This is a portion of the article:

Intriguingly, UK government documents from the Intellectual Property Office show that Group Lotus applied on July 15 to use the name Team Lotus in connection with a raft of activities, some of them way beyond motor sport, but mostly connected with the sort of souvenirs and memorabilia that you might associate with an F1 team.

From my perspective as a person set on promoting a training facility which delivers learning from a base that has a core activity of Motorsports, this is an interesting development.

Sadly, I only see them approaching this from a merchandising view. A GP2 or GP3 team based at a circuit with a real world team operating in the real world sharing their experience with a college would be great.
Sport Science, Law, Business plans, Journalism, Design, Logistics... Motorsport covers them all plus much more. People tend to focus on driver training. This is only a small portion of the whole.

I hope Dany Bahar takes a little time to consider my proposal. Tengku Djan as head of Proton Motorsport might want to make him aware of potential campuses outside of SepangF1 within Malaysia.

Believe me, align this institute with Group Lotus under the Team Lotus Banner and you will have zero problem bringing some of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world onboard.

We can obviously produce college t-shirts, mugs, even computers with the company logo on if this is deemed to be an ethical and profitable endeavour.

The following Slideshare presentation is an old one initially set around SepangF1. This is obviously where Tony Fernandes has set up both is Airline and Motorsport operations. Group Lotus might want to consider Johor FIA approved circuit.
In the UK Lotus has both a circuit and a college (Hethel Engineering Centre) close by...

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

Senior Advisor Role. Me and Dr. Mahathir

2010-09-20T03:32:00.000-07:00

I am a Senior advisor on a travel website. As such I don't have to do much work, I just advise other people how to. I enjoy it. Not everyone takes any notice. Such is life.
In Malaysia they have a very influencial Senior Adviser. Dr. Mahathir. He is the official advisor to Petronas the national oil company, and Proton, the national car company.
He is far more influencial than me.
On occasions Dr.M (as he is often referred to in Malaysia) often acts as the spokesman for Proton.
He has stated that Proton is profitable, and is not actively looking to tie up with a partner.
This is a portion of an EDGE article:
KUALA LUMPUR: PROTON HOLDINGS BHD [] is financially stable and sees no hurry in merging with other car manufactures, according to its adviser Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"Financially, Proton is still okay. We too are not very anxious to merge at this moment,” the former premier told reporters after launching First Sovereign Advisory Sdn Bhd on Friday, Sept 17.
Dr Mahathir was asked to comment on the national carmaker’s possible plan for merger after recent news report stated that DRB-Hicom was not actively looking to acquire a stake in Proton.

Proton own Lotus. Lotus are spending a lot of cash on new products. I have to think that this investment money comes from Proton. Proton is Malaysian government owned.

This brings me to my proposal. As one senior adviser to another, I would like to ask Dr.M to have a good look at the Motorsport University Malaysia proposal, after which, realising the enormous potential benefits he should recommend a huge funding allocation in order to make the dream a reality.

Dr. Mahathir will be at the ASLI Automotive conference. If I am lucky he may get to see my presentation there. Stranger things have happened!

As Senior advisor to the travel website, which I must say is excellent, I should be attending the Travel industry conference next week. Sadly I am otherwise engaged. I have borrowed a small portion just illustrate the numbers bandied about. This refers to malaysia only and is taken from the ASLI webpage.

By 2015, the government aims to achieve RM115 billion in revenue and provide 2 million jobs by deploying key strategies aimed at increasing high-end travelers and promoting high-growth tourism segments.
As I write it is about 5 ringitt to a British pound, so Malaysia is looking at a 20 Billion pound industry!
Universities download lectures Tourists download travel advice

In any 24-hour period, there will be 45,000 Open University students working online.
BBC online articleMy proposal would complement this. People visit Britain to visit Oxford and Cambridge. Because they are famous University towns. Students, both local and foreign will add to the economy. The University will create jobs, not only for lecturers, but a whole slew of support staff.
As this will be a physical site with a virtual arm, the project will 'Advertise' the area. The synergy between this project, Proton, Tourism, a Knowledge based economy, a tourist based economy, are very apparent to me.

Please check out an earlier entry that deals with Universities using downloads to share information:
http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html

Bernama article on DRB Hicom. Proton for sale?

2010-09-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

Bernama has an article today:
It relates to DRB Hicom and it's finances.
Part of the article refers to the possible sale of Proton to DRB Hicom.
DRB Hicom presently have agreements in place with Volkswagen and Westfield cars.
Please read my previous entry:
Hicom already have a college dedicated to automotive study.
Motorsport University Malaysia would have a great synergy with this potential new entity.
Just to change the subject slightly. I have added a video from youtube showing the R3 division of Proton.

R3 is the motorsport division of Proton. Tengku Djan heads it up. Oh Kah Beng is GM for Lotus cars Malaysia.
I'm sure they enjoy their jobs! All the best guys.

Team Lotus. Tony Fernandes has bought back the name.

2010-09-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

Team Lotus is now under Tony Fernandes. He has succeeded in getting the rights to the original Lotus racing name.
Lets hope he can bring back the glory days. Maybe if Proton are keen to give part of Group Lotus to their management team, they should ask Tony if he wants a piece of that action. Just a thought.
Motorsport University Malaysia is still alive, at least in cyberspace!
I have deleted my newer slideshare. So I will embed my old one.
Enjoy!

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

My friends in KL have launched their new website. I hope the feedback is positive.
I am always interested to hear from anyone able to offer a good funding package for this project.

john.mansfield@motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com

BBC article on UK Graduate Numbers.

2010-09-07T04:00:00.000-07:00

The BBC has run an article today:
7 September 2010
Last updated at 10:09
UK slipping down graduate league
By Sean CoughlanBBC News education correspondent

The article addresses the coming public services cuts.
Here is a quote from the article:

Lack of places

Taxpayers benefit from investing in higher education, says the OECD. Even though the government subsidises students, this is outweighed by the increased revenue from higher tax from better-paid jobs.
The OECD says that in the UK each extra graduate brings $89,000 (£58,000) to the taxpayer over a working life.

Sadly, it looks like funding for UK Universities is not ring fenced from government cuts.

People are very keen for their offspring to get a good University education. The demand is there. Foreign students coming to the UK may well find getting a visa to study is difficult.

I imagine good quality UK institutions will be more willing to embark on joint enterprises with ethical good quality partners.

From the perspective of Motorsport University Malaysia this could actually be a good thing.

Sadly, for British Universities generally things are not improving.

Another quote from the BBC article:

Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of leading universities, warned that other countries would benefit if the UK cut spending.
"While our universities are bracing themselves for a period of austerity and uncertainty, other nations are rightly pumping billions of dollars into their institutions at this key time before the world economy picks up," said Dr Piatt.

IMO this is the right time to fund this proposal.
I am ready and willing to help.
john.mansfield@motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com

Just out of interest here is a chart showing the top ten Universities: 4 are British 6 are American

Graph borrowed from Daily Mail 8 Oct 2009

Investors welcomed.Uk targets student visa's

2010-09-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

In the UK the new government has targetted student visa's as a way of reducing immigration into the UK.
Supposedly, this will not impact people coming to the UK for bona fide degree courses.
More people seem to want to go to college than there are places to accomodate them.
The MUM project is still my main focus.

If you wish to support this project feel free to contact me personally on:
john.mansfield@motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com
Sadly, I am looking for large corporate support, and as such offers of small amounts will probably not be welcomed...

Investors, welcomed!

Pic borrowed from http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/

Here is the slideshare version of my website:

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more documents from johnsean.

F1inschools final to be in Singapore. 16 year old tests for Lotus. My wish List. Funding needed.

2010-09-02T02:25:00.000-07:00

I see F1inschools will be having their finals in Singapore this year.
I met the founder in Malaysia with his 'Local' team a few years ago. They were local business owners.
Andrew Denford is a charismatic guy. He now has a major sponsor in LG. Andrew himself, owns a company that sell CNC machines,
Here is a small quote from blogs.bettor.com
Participants compete for the prestigious Bernie Ecclestone World Champions trophy along with a chance to get a scholarship at City University, London for a chance to study Automotive and Motorsport Engineering.
Andrew invited me to one of these finals in Australia. I didn't go. He was kind enough to send me plenty of pictures with him and Bernie!
F1inschools have Lotus racing among their associates.
Today, I received a press release from Tom Webb, that a 16 year old actually tested for Lotus!

Duxford, UK 1st September 2010
The Imperial War Museum runway at Duxford played host to the youngest ever test driver in Formula One™ history today, with 16 year old Nabil Jeffri seeing his F1™ dream come true as he conducted a day of aero testing for Lotus Racing on the museum’s Cambridgeshire runway. Fairuz Fauzy and Heikki Kovalainen were both on hand to lend their advice to the young Malaysian and Nabil, a key member of the AirAsia ASEAN Driver Development programme, completed the day’s testing, and gave the team valuable pitstop practice throughout a busy day on track for the Anglo – Malaysian squad.

Group Lotus have produced a pretend F1 car. It costs approx one million USA dollars.
How about letting MUM have a couple of these?

Motorsport University Malaysia could do with a couple of these!

I certainly wouldn't mind getting one in CKD form, and allow the students, under supervision to assemble/drive one.
If I'm making a wish list the Foggy Petronas bikes sitting in Basildon would be nice too.
Check out my previous post.

I have made it known that I am looking for funding for this project. I am available to head it up.
Feel free to contact me on the address below:

john.mansfield@motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com

Proton to issue 20% of Lotus to new Dany Bahar Management team. Does Tengku Djan have a plan?

2010-08-31T03:08:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend.
Today I read that Proton is contemplating (giving) issuing 20% of Lotus to Dany Bahar and his team. This is by way of an incentive to turn Group Lotus into a profit making entity.
The sentence below is taken from a BorneoPost article.

Proton was also contemplating to issue new shares amounting to 20 per cent of Lotus to its new management as a motivating tool to help in making the turnaround plan a reality.

Previously, I have made an entry where this was a 40% share to Dany Bahar.

I have to assume ownership must have been on the table when Dany Bahar was brought onboard.
What has this got to do with Motorsport University Malaysia?

Well, other than Dany has shown absolutely no interest. Nothing I suppose!

Proton have their own Motorsport Division, headed by Tengku Djan. Whilst I have been able to talk to several Lotus CEO's, Tengku Djan has been very non communicative.

Djan is also a successful Drifter. He has taken part in Red Bull sponsored events, and has helped produce the Proton Satria Lotus machine. So there is a connection between him and Dany. Dany was marketing chief for Red Bull before joining Ferrari and now Lotus.

Ultimately they have the same management team above them.
pic borrowed from geartinggi.com

I have sent my proposal to Proton Management. I obviously presented an early iteration to Group Lotus management when I was there. It was not well received at that time. However, the management that poop pooped the idea have all since left Lotus.

Djan worked about 3 metres from me during this period. He was very quiet. He still is.

Djan has been aware of this proposal for a long period. He is head of Motorsport within Proton.

Does he have a plan?

Here is MUM on Slideshare.

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more documents from johnsean.

Proton to setup strategic units. Tengku Djan to head strategic Motorsport division?

2010-08-26T03:47:00.000-07:00

Proton, upset at their inability to ink a deal with Volkswagen, are to set up strategic units. The object is to allow Proton to work with other entities whilst not compromising itself as the official carmaker of Malaysia.
It has no trouble inking deals with local government run Universities. UTM recently signed a professorship deal with them. I'm not sure what that entails. However, both entities come under the Malaysian government.
Pic borrowed from Paul Tan

Proton has two production facilities. Shah Alam is supposed to be sold.
Why not reinvest the money into buying the circuit in Johor? Set up your Motorsport division there.
Obviously, between Proton R3 and it's links with Lotus racing and group Lotus you have a good base. Throw in local companies Malaysian and Singaporean, plus any other interested parties, and you have a wonderful environment for Motorsport University Malaysia... a private University able to work with all entities on legal/ethical educational projects.
Tengku Djan is head of Motorsport. He should make his voice heard in the boardroom.
Show them my proposal. Use that as a starting point for discussion.

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more documents from johnsean.

Dany Bahar, should also look at this personally. The formation of these business units gives him a wonderful opportunity to form an alliance with Djan on this.
Lotus should look at the global impact of this proposal. As should Proton.
I am available should you require my services:
john.mansfield@motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com

British students consider studying abroad. Newcastle Uni Promo video.

2010-08-23T03:53:00.000-07:00

Once again I would like to remind you that I am available for hire:
johnmansfield@motorsportunivesitymalaysia.com

This week, in the UK much has been made of the public spending cuts. Many students are unable to get places at UK Universities.
The BBC showed a clip of the Petronas Towers and a representative of Newcastle University asking people to consider studying in Malaysia.
Newcastle have opened a campus in Johor.
Here is a promo video for Newcastle University:

My sister went to Newcastle University many years ago. I attended her graduation. In a week or two my niece (Kate), will be studying Law there.
I wish her all the best!
I have met lawyers through my volunteering with the local Citizens Advice Bureau in Basildon. Without good contacts within the law community it is difficult to get started on a good career.
Luckily, Kate is a lot smarter than her uncle. I'm sure she will get excellent grades, and do very well for herself.
The last time I visisted my old College (Chelmsford) it was to get paperwork for the American immigration authorities. Most of the teachers had left. Chelmsford is now a University. I have to be truthful and say I did not enjoy studying there!
Life is always throwing up odd situations. Here I am promoting an educational project. It is my dream project, and I am sure it will come to fruition. However, I myself am not an academic.
Such is life.

Volkswagen partner DRB-Hicom

2010-08-16T03:11:00.000-07:00

Westfield recently inked a deal with DRB-Hicom to produce it's sportcars in Malaysia.
Westfield are available as kits

DRB-Hicom recently opened a new Automotive college: Please refer to my earlier post
Now DRB-Hicom and Volkswagen are going to produce CKD vehicles together!
Proton held this deal up. DRB-Hicom were asked to make way, by the Malaysian government for Proton.
VW and Proton never managed to ink a deal.
My only experience with VW management was 20+ years ago in Spain. They had bought the Spanish national car company and had set up shop in it's Martorell tech centre. I am sure they will have quality control people and management in place shortly.
What will happen to Proton? They are looking to find synergies with the other Malaysian based manufacturer Perodua.
Both have Malaysian government influence.
Dr. Mahathir started Proton and is still influencial. He is officially Proton and Petronas advisor. He gave Tony Fernandes his blessing to start Air Asia. Please check my previous entry.
Tony is now principle of LotusF1 Racing. Dr Mahathirs son is also involved with Motorsport and is chairman of SepangF1 circuit, where Lotus racing are based.
It is my plan to set up in Johor circuit. Lotus have always been my partners of choice. Johor circuit is being 'reactivated'. Please check my previous entry
DRB-Hicom certainly have the potential to participate.
Should Proton close Shah Alam, perhaps Tengku Djan could move his RaceRallyResearch skunkworks to Johor circuit. It would be interesting to see what breathed on campro engine could achieve in a Westfield...
Share the technology with the students... Let them get involved in the assembly process... Show them how to drive... etc.

MV Augusta sold for a buck... Why not a circuit?

2010-08-11T02:57:00.000-07:00

Todays internet reports that MV Augusta has been sold for One Euro.
Here is a Quote or two from the Motorcycle.com article.

MV Agusta Sold for 1 Euro
Harley-Davidson to provide 20 million euro in escrow
By Motorcycle.Com Staff, Aug. 10, 2010

In addition to the $109 million spent to acquire MV Agusta, including $70 million to pay off existing debts, Harley-Davidson has written off $162.6 million in taxes for the Italian brand.
This isn’t the first time MV Agusta has been sold for 1 euro. In 2005, Malaysian carmaker Proton, which holds majority ownership of Lotus, sold its ownership MV Agusta to Italian finance company GEVI SpA. Proton originally paid 70 million euro for MV Agusta a year earlier.

Claudio Castiglioni and Son pic borrowed from article

Here is a footnote to a Wall Sreet Journal article:
A footnote: There is a certain element of should-have-known-better in this story. This isn’t the first time Harley-Davidson has had a hard time with an Italian acquisition. In the 1960s it bought a stake in Aermacchi, a maker of small off-road bikes as a way to expand into new markets. Eventually it bought the whole company, but thatmove also eventually failed and Harley sold Aermacchi in the late 1970s. The sellers and buyers: the Castiglioni brothers.

MV Augusta has been changing hands a lot recently. When Proton sold it, there was a lot of controversy.

I wish someone would sell me a circuit for a buck and then give me a huge working capital! I promise you won't be sorry!!
I'm serious about this.

I am available for such a project. It would be an outstanding success.
Think about it.

Birthday tomorrow. Lotus offer a really expensive track car. Type 125

2010-08-09T03:13:00.000-07:00

On a personal note. It's my birthday tomorrow. Another year gone. I'm feeling great. Long may it continue.
Lotus racing are offering a hugely expensive track toy for rich clients.
Lotus Type 125 (borrowed pic from Motorauthority.com)

I have no idea if this will be produced in Malaysia where Lotus F1 have their campus in SepangF1 or in Norfolk... two possibilities, the F1 site or Group Lotus could build it under contract in Hethel.

From my perspective, I would like to tap into the F1 technolgy and spread it to people at an affordable rate.
However, it must be remembered that people who can afford to race are either very well connected, wealthy, or very fortunate to be spotted by one of the former.

We aren't talking about throwing down two article of clothing and starting a game.

If you want to race legally, you need a proper track, safety equipment, and in some cases very expensive machinery. However, if you are successful you get well rewarded.

From an educational perspective, you can obviously run driving schools. Most circuits offer this. However, I see much more than this.
Business planning/Marketing/Engineering/ Design/ Legal / Sport psychology... the list goes on.

This brings me to an article in a Malaysian paper The Sun. I quote:

Falling FDI – serious concern but not panic

Instead of selling palm oil and rubber, Malaysia should export plantation management services as well as plant biotechnology products like oil palm clones that are high-yielding, disease-resistant and faster-growing.

Malaysia should also help ease the establishment of schools and universities aimed at providing an Asian-centric education for 21st century Asia. The curriculum should be multilingual with emphasis on the region’s history, geography, economics and sociology. Properly managed with international accreditation, such educational institutions could enhance Malaysia’s appeal in attracting foreign students.

Although Singapore and Thailand already have international educational establishments, these are largely foreign transplants. Similarly, China, India and Indonesia have excellent universities. However, these tertiary institutions may not focus primarily on preparing students for employment in Asia or in a globalised world.

You may ask why a person brought up in England and a USA citizen is pushing for a University in Malaysia. I have worked in Europe and America (obviously). However, when I worked for Group Lotus in Malaysia, This idea was my 'Baby'.
We were encouraged to set up a training establishment by the 'Government'. I was tasked with coming up with a plan.
I put forward a plan to set up on a track. Given the Lotus history as a company, I felt this was a good fit. My immediate management were not supportive.
Call me stubborn, but I still think it is a good idea. Hence this blog. It obviously could be put into practice elsewhere. I don't know of many government owned companies who have potential use of government owned circuits. Lotus had the opportunity. They chose not to go further. That does not mean that I as a person cannot push the idea privately, in the public domain.

Tengku Djan should ask to moderate ASLI auto conference

2010-08-05T01:50:00.000-07:00

I am back in the UK. The political news is centred around Pakistan. Sadly they have a natural disaster which has left many dead and homeless. The new UK government has annoyed the Pakistani government.
Domestically, the banks are again making huge profits. The new UK government has announced it needs to cut back it's spending. So pensions and the unemployed are under review!
All is not well in the UK

I should point out here I am available for hire!
You can directly contact me here:

john.mansfield@motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com

It is my intention to attend the Automotive ASLI conference in DECEMBER.
I am confirmed. I will be on the stage twice.
Automotive Conference December 1-2 December PWTC Kuala Lumpur

The conference will have leaders from both Group Lotus and Proton.
I would imagine it will be a wonderful networking opportunity. I don't expect I will get to have an audience with Tun Mahathir, although it would be nice!
I hope to rub shoulders with Dany Bahar and Proton upper management.
It would be nice if Tengku Djan could make an appearance. I feel that his Motorsport background and corporate position, he is head of Proton Motorsport would be appreciated. Maybe he should contact ASLI and ask if he can moderate...
They have someone down to moderate session 7.
SESSION 7:
FORMULA ONE (F1) RACING & MOTORSPORTS: THE POTENTIAL & THE PROMISE
The person was my guest last year. He has not confirmed. I think Djan in many ways would be a more rounded moderator.
The unconfirmed speaker is a TV presenter among other things, and as such is an accomplished speaker. Djan has a slightly different background. I worked with Djan at Lotus, and I think he would do a good job.
Djan phone up ASLI and offer your services!
Incidently, I met Djan's dad there last year. He was kind enough to give me Djan's telephone number and took a couple of my leaflets for him.

I am available for Job offers: A new Lotus Seven?

2010-08-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

Today, I would like to make it clear I am available for Job offers:
Please feel free to browse my webpage:
http://motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com/

You can directly contact me here:
john.mansfield@motorsportuniversitymalaysia.com

I have a brief CV on the Left filed under About Me:

The web, Autoexpress in particular are reporting on the new Lotus product line.
Pic borrowed from http://www.caradvice.com.au/76816/lotus-to-unveil-four-new-concepts-at-paris-auto-show/

I am now risking the wrath of Lotus!
In my opinion a new Seven is a wonderful idea. A starter racing car suitable for track useage is great.
£60,000 for one is a bit rich!
Colleges offering students driver training would love to be able to offer it to them in vehicles about one third of that price.
If as I suspect you are targetting Middle aged/old wealthy people who can afford to drive their vehicle down to the local breakfast joint and throw their Lotus key fob on the table while they wait to be served... OK.

Marketting wins. (Maybe).

Anyone got Westfields number?

Dr Mahathir Petronas and Lotus advisor has commented on Lotus product range.

2010-07-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

Recently, Lotus have been sending out press releases on the upcoming Paris Motor Show.
The inference is we will see a glimpse of the future product range.
The ex PM of Malaysia is the advisor to Petronas and Lotus. He is hugely influencial.
Before Tony Fernandes embarked upon Air Asia he made sure he got his blessing.

Tun Mahathir ordered the building of SepangF1 circuit.
Petronas sponsor the Malaysian F1. Proton are sponsors of LotusF1 run by Tony Fernandes.

Here are Tun Mahathirs comments on the new product line up from Lotus. This is taken from a recent Chedet entry, entitled: PROTON'S PROGRESS

5. My next stop was the Lotus factory where the Elise and Evora sports cars were being produced. Lotus had not done well and was losing money. But the new CEO, Dany Bahar has put new life into the management bringing in experienced people from well-known racing teams and sports car producers.

6. New sports cars were being designed and they looked as good as the Ferraris and the Aston Martins. I test drove a turbo-charged Proton Exora, an electric Tesla which Lotus was building for an American company and the Lotus Evora.

7. A lot of Proton engineers were working with Lotus engineers contributing to the development of Lotus cars.

As you probably know I have bugged numerous people with my MUM project. Tun Mahathir is among them!
Unlike Tony, I have not recieved any blessing!

In Paris,I have to assume that we are going to the concept cars that Tun Mahathir descibes "as good as Ferraris and Aton Martins."

I'm flying back to the UK with Tony's Airline on Sunday. I'll miss Tony's LotusF1 team racing in Germany. Hopefully, they will pick up a point or two.

I'm looking forward to seeing my father and the neighbours. I have a board meeting on Friday. It will be nice to have a chat with everyone.

My focus is now on Johor. Any influencial people with access to finance and Tun Mahathir please feel free to contact me!

Dany Bahar, CEO and co-owner of Lotus Group, in an interview with auto motor und sport

2010-07-18T02:00:00.000-07:00

A German magazine has an online article. An interview with Dany Bahar. They introduce him as the co-owner of Lotus.
Lotus-Chef Dany Bahar im Interview"Spielen bald in der Porsche-Liga mit"

Dany Bahar, Chef und Miteigentümer der Lotus Group, im Interview mit auto motor und sport-Redakteur Jens Dralle über die Ausweitung der Modellpalette mit E-Versionen und die Vervierfachung des Absatzes.
Miteigentümer = Co-owner
Dany gives an overview of the 5 year plan for Lotus.
When asked about the present 50/50 split between Cars and engineering, he said he expects that to become 90% cars in the next five years (Middle term).
Derzeit machen Lotus Cars und Engineering je rund 50 Prozent des Umsatzes aus. Wird das so bleiben?
Dany Bahar: Nein, das Verhältnis wird sich deutlich zugunsten der Auto-Sparte verschieben. Mittelfristig rechne ich mit rund 90 Prozent

Absolutely no mention of educational products! My proposal would use hardware (Cars) and engineering for educational purposes. It would complement his plan not compromise it.
Whilst it has been mooted that Dany Bahar was offered a part ownership deal by proton it has since been denied that any such transaction has taken place.

I thought I would add my old Bernama TV interview for those of you who haven't seen it.

I am a speaker at ASLI Automotive Conference in December. Lotus to produce IRL Aero Package?

2010-07-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have been invited to present my MUM proposal.

The conference is in December.
Hopefully, by that time I will have some positive developments to report!

This will coincide with the KL Auto show.
Motorsport and it's influence, educational and otherwise will be on the agenda.

It would be nice if members of Team Lotus made an appearance. I'm not sure about Group lotus. Last year top level Proton management attended. The then Group lotus CEO also made a short appearance.
Hopefully, this year the new CEO Dany Bahar will feature.
Last year Alex Yoong was my guest. I hope he returns this year.

Since last year a new entity Lotus Racing headed by Tony Fernandes has come into existence.
1Malaysia F1Team are a new F1 team presently based in Norfolk. Long term, they will be based in SepangF1, where they are setting up a centre.

I have to ask the question. From a racing perspective Tony Fernandes run the F1 team. Group Lotus run a Lotus branded team in the American IRL series (I used to volunteer at the old CART Belle Isle race).
However, Here is a portion of a recent Autosport article:

The Lotus Group is already involved in the branding of Takuma Sato's KV Racing car.

Lotus Racing boss Tony Fernandes hinted at an increased role (for Lotus F1 racing) after yesterday's announcement.

"Lotus Racing congratulates the IndyCar Series on this exciting news and supports the revolutionary concept of a standard safety cell with various manufacturers producing aero kits," he said.
"We look forward to seeing more details on this future car strategy, and hopefully, allow our involvement in the series."

Team Lotus (1malaysiaf1 team) obviously have an aerodynamic team in place, computational and physical (wind tunnel).

A small part of an interesting article from SpeedTV.
Open Source Aero
• It is still frustratingly undefined, but the panel will require aero kits to be made available to whomever wants to buy one. Whether that means HVM Racing can buy the current version of a Ganassi aero kit, or if a Ganassi would get to use the kit for an exclusive period before others could buy it is unknown

Maybe we can expect a few Air AsiaX and 1Malaysia decals on next years IRL car(s)?

The new IRL rules allow for several engine manufacturers. Lotus (both team and group) have agreements with Cosworth. See if anything develops there.

This is my slideshare presentation:

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

In my personal opinion roadblocks to Motorsport University Malaysia need to be removed.

2010-07-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

Today, I booked my ticket back to the UK. I have a father who hasn't seen me for a while. A media company who I have neglected needs a visit.
I enjoy Malaysia and have become friends with the people who run the place where I stay. Very nice people.
My contact with the people I worked with during my time at Lotus has been limited. I have found that work relationships don't necessarily transfer into personal friendships.
I have to say that my continual promotion of the MUM project has more to do with the belief that is a project very worthy of consideration on many levels and not just because I want to work with the people in Lotus ( nothing personal).
My vision, historically has not been looked on favourably by Lotus management. One former Lotus engineering CEO was kind enough to give me several hours of his time a neutral venue away from any negative opinions. Sadly, he could not see a revenue stream, only a noble idea. Perhaps I didn't explain myself properly.
I sincerely hope that any obstacles to this project are identified and seen for what they are. All projects encounter roadblocks. Normally they are removed.
Here is a slideshare version of my webpage. Make up your own mind.

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more documents from johnsean.

A potential Lotus collabaration? A three wheeler to make you smile.

2010-07-08T08:08:00.000-07:00

Today I saw two articles in the Daily Mail.
One showed a car designed by Gordon Murray who designed the McLaren supercar.
Pic from Daily Mail

A small portion of the article:
So when can you buy one? Gordon Murray's design and engineering company, based near Guildford, Surrey, is not a car factory. He will not make T25s, but instead sell the rights to use the manufacturing process, called iStream, plus the design of the car itself, to a manufacturing firm.
He is reluctant to say whom he is talking to, but confirms he's in serious discussions with at least eight car firms.
'I would love, absolutely love, the car to be made in Britain,' he says.
In addition, the basic blueprint can be adapted easily - for a bigger car, a four-seater, a convertible or a van. His design allows the T25 to be sold for £6,000, at a profit. Including taxes. It is quite possible that T25s will be on sale by 2012.

I would hazard a guess that one of the firms he is talking to is in Norfolk... Just a guess.

Secondly, according to the China Car Times Youngman have bought the rights to sell their products under the Lotus brand. I know Lotus supply Engineering services, and they are a customer. I find it hard to believe that lotus have actually agreed to let them market and sell them as actual Lotus cars.
A short quote from the article:
...originally Youngman were importing CKD kits from the Malaysian firm but later were given carte blanche rights to start designing their own range of cars under the Lotus branding...
Maybe they put a designed by Lotus badge on the back.

The second article made me smile so I thought I would share the accompanying video with you.

No news on MUM. The vision is waiting patiently before becoming reality.

Universities putting their lectures on itunes. Time to change the mantra.

2010-06-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

As you probably know I am promoting MUM. The basic concept is to set up an institute of higher learning on a race circuit.
One side of the equation we have cars workshops lecture halls... all based at a working circuit.
On the other side I see virtual learning.
Today, I read an article on the BBC:
pic borrowed from the BBC

Open University claims record iTunes downloads
The article is very interesting:
The global figure for downloads from iTunes U has reached 250 million.
"The way people want to learn is changing," says Open University vice-chancellor, Martin Bean.

The Open University, once parodied for its late-night television shows, is now pioneering the use of the internet to reach its students.
Chart toppers

It began putting material on Apple's iTunes U service in June 2008 - and in two years has had 20 million items downloaded.
"There is a real worldwide hunger for learning," he says.

Such iTunes downloads are now available from many leading universities - putting lectures and materials in reach of an online audience.
Oxford University last month announced that there had been more than three million downloads of its tracks on iTunes U.
The current top 10 includes Cambridge University's "The art of asking the right question" and Warwick University's "Sex in the Ancient World".

I still find it hard to believe that I could not convince Lotus that this project has potential. I have to assume it is a bit like GM.
At GM the mantra was "We can't make money from small cars".

At Lotus it was "We never make money from training". (Sadly Lotus don't make money period.)

Maybe it's time to change the mantra...

One million downloads at RM50 (10 Pounds) is RM50 million.
That sounds like a revenue stream to me.

The new management team are commited to turning a profit. This obviously has the potential to do so.
Thought I would add a positive review of the Satria.

Autocar reports Bob Lutz is possibly joining Lotus

2010-06-29T04:15:00.000-07:00

Autocar is reporting that Bob Lutz is considering an appointment with Group Lotus.
I have been fortunate enough to have worked with GM in the States. I never had the pleasure of working with or for Bob Lutz. However, he is a great speaker, very charismatic and I'm sure he would be a great figure head for Lotus.
In my humble opinion he has the X factor. That certain something that makes you look up and take notice. It was no coincidence that GM stuck him in front of TV cameras at every opportunity.

When I worked in Germany for GM my Opel "Boss" was Dieter Bratke. After the project was over, Dieter was seconded to Detroit where, I'm led to believe, he was part of the Bob Lutz team. Herr Bratke was a very smart man. I enjoyed working with him. He has now retired from GM.
As I have said before, I have done work for the present GM president Mark Reuss. When I worked with Mark he was a release engineer. I found him to be honest, straight forward, hard working and serious. Nothing wrong with that.
I wish him well.