Lotus
Team Lotus Acquires Caterham
Looking to establish itself as being more Lotus than Lotus, Team Lotus Enterprise has announced the acquisition of Caterham Cars – the self proscribed custodians of Colin Chapman’s ultra-light Seven sports car. In case you haven’t been following the Lotus soap opera as of late, Team Lotus is not Lotus Cars (the company that builds…
Team Lotus Looking To Buy Caterham
Earlier this year, Team Lotus, (a private company) has been in legal battle with Group Lotus (the manufacturer of Lotus cars) over the rightful use of the company’s name. Since the case is still in court, Lotus essentially has two teams in Formula-One at the moment. Now news comes that Team Lotus wants to tie…
Lotus Ends Production of Toyota Powered Elise, Exige with Final Editions
With the supply of Toyota Twin Cam 2ZZ-GE four-cylinder engines now used up, the Norfolk based sports car maker is deciding to send the two models out with bang, offering a run of Final Edition models.
Lotus Rejected By British Government In Quest For Funding, New Esprit May Be Built Outside UK
Lotus may build their next generation Esprit sports car outside of the United Kingdom after its request for a $50 million loan to build a new factory was rejected by an investment arm of the British government. The loan was intended for a new factory in the Norfolk area of Britain, which would employ 1200…
Lotus Range Extender Engine Under Serious Consideration by Three Automakers
While Lotus is best-known for its light weight sports cars, the automaker’s engineering division is earning a reputation for green technology. One of the most recent projects to come out of Lotus Engineer is a range extender engine that works similar to the one found in the Chevy Volt. The 1.2-liter 3-cylinder powerplant makes 47-hp…
Bob Lutz to Introduce Lotus Evora S and Evora IPS at New York Auto Show
Much of the excitement surrounding the Lotus brand as of late has been about ultra-expensive future models, but Lotus also has a fair share of excellent performance machines on offer right now. Included in that list are two new additions, the Evora S and Evora IPS, which will make their North American debut at the…
Lotus Looking For Government Backing For Its Future
Last year, some American car companies looked to their government for financial help to keep them afloat and use the money to develop new products. Some of them have actually used the money properly and produced some decent new models. Over in the U.K., Lotus is looking at the British government to help out in…
Lotus Engineering Claims Lots Of Interest For Hybrid Engine
The hybrid engine that first appeared in the Lotus Evora 414E concept is supposedly attracting interest from 3 major manufacturers, according, according to a Lotus official. Chief project engineer Lee Jeffcoat told Inside Line that there is interest from “several OEMS in 5,000-10,000 units annually, for a potential annual output of 30,000 engines,” as well…
Lotus Cup USA Season Begins At Willow Springs
The first round of the Lotus Cup USA kicked off this past weekend at Willow Springs Raceway, with Jack Fried taking the overall win in the awesome, track-only 2-Eleven sports car. Fried won after race leader Andy Kern bowed out with mechanical problems, but Kern managed to take the overall win in the Time Attack…
Geneva 2011: Lotus Elise Club Racer Gets Smaller Engine, Lower Curb Weight
With the Lotus Elise now offered exclusively in Europe with a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder rather than the old 1.8-liter mill, it only makes sense that the limited edition Club Racer mode would follow suit. Power is rated at 134-hp and 118 lb-ft, although an optional Club Racer Power Pack (off-road use only) ups those numbers to…
Geneva 2011: Lotus Evora Enduro Concept Previews Future GT2 Race Car
Lotus continues to push ahead with its motorsports programs, unveiling at the Geneva Auto Show the Evora Enduro Concept that will form the basis of the British sports car maker’s GT2 race cars. Very much a test mule for those future cars, Lotus plans to develop this platform for competition by (what else?) using it…
Lotus Elise Club Racer Revealed With Less Weight, New 1.6L Engine [Geneva Preview]
Due to increasingly strict fuel economy standards, Lotus was forced to scrap its 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine for the Elise and Exige in Europe. The good news is that the smaller 1.6-liter engine now in use helps cut a little more weight from the car, dropping it down to just 1,931 lbs. For years Lotus has…
Revamped Lotus Evora to Get More Aggressive Styling, Improved Interior
Now that Lotus is under the tutelage of Danny Bahar, the company is trying to revamp the Evora, a car many enthusiasts forgot even existed. Lotus’s “Porsche-killer” seats four (two adults and two man-children in the backseat) in the guise of a grand tourer, but sales in North America have been sluggish, to say the…
Tecnocraft Releasing Carbon Fiber Parts for Lotus Exige and Elise
With the new Lotus models looming on the horizon, current Lotus owners may be looking for new ways to spice up their ride before the new model range kicks off in 2015. Tecnocraft, an American manufacturer of carbon fiber products, seems to be listening to the demand, developing a program for the current model Lotus…
Mansory-Tuned Evora to Debut on Lotus Stand at Geneva Auto Show
Lotus has just announced it will debut a Mansory-tuned version of its Evora sports car at the upcoming Geneva Auto Show. In a brief statement, the British sports car company makes it very clear that this is in now way a new version of the car, not is it a facelift, but simply a look…
F1 Driver Robert Kubica Seriously Injured After Rally Crash, Might Miss Entire 2011 F1 Season
Robert Kubica, one of Formula-One’s finest drivers, suffered a terrible crash over the weekend, when his Skoda Fabia rally-car slid off the road and hit a church wall. The crash took place just 4-miles from the start of the Ronde di Andora rally in Italy. The 26 year-old Polish star has suffered massive injury to…
Lotus Originals Merchandise Line to Debut at London Fashion Week in February
Lotus CEO Danny Bahar has made it clear that he intends to rely on the British automaker’s glorious history in order to rebuild for the future. And while at the forefront of that plan is the launch of an all-new lineup of cars, it’s little surprise that the former head of Ferrari’s marketing department will…
Lotus Evora Police Car Hunting Down Speeders in the UK
Having a little fun in their own backyard, Lotus has lent out a brand new Evora to the UK Police Force, more specifically the Central Motorway Police Group. Lotus’ hot new sports car features the traditional British Police flair on the exterior, including neon yellow accents contrasted by a dark, rich blue. The themed Evora…
Lotus Plans Evora Refresh, New Exige Before Major Debuts
Although the onslaught of all-new Lotus products is still years away, the company is apparently plotting to inject some new blood into the company portfolio in advance of their rebooting as a brand. The mid-size Evora will allegedly get a refresh in 2012, about a year after the new, more powerful Evora S debuts. The…
Red Bull May Develop In-House Engine For Formula 1
With their supply of Renault engines set to dry up after 2011, and new engine regulations coming into place in 2013, current champions Red Bull are said to be looking at producing their own engines, with one rumored partner said to be Volkswagen. “We are on standby for an interesting partnership, and even the idea…
Lotus: New Era, New Cars, New Photos
The Lotus story continues to intrigue with plans to deliver five all new cars over the next five years. After debuting all five concepts at the Paris Auto Show, Lotus then brought its traveling road show to the LA Auto Show. Now the storied British brand is keeping the hype alive by releasing a selection…
Lotus City Car Concept Headed to Production in 2013
Lotus, a company best known for producing great sports cars like the Elise and the iconic Esprit, is about to head into a whole new direction. While it will continue building sports cars, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar has announced that in October, 2013 the company will produce its City Car, which was shown as a…
Lotus May Develop In-House V8 Engine for Esprit
While the upcoming Lotus Esprit has been announced using a supercharged version of the Lexus IS-F’s 5.0-liter V8, that may all change when the new high-powered exotic comes to market in 2012. Lotus CEO Dany Bahar, in an interview with AutoCar, commented that the storied British sports car maker is now examining the possibility of…
Lotus Has a 60 Percent Chance at Success Says Bob Lutz
You’d expect that with Bob Lutz signing on with Lotus as a consultant that he’d be endlessly spouting-off about the brand’s endless possibilities and bright future. Not so. Instead, the always candid former head of General Motors is giving the British sports car maker’s plan for the future a 60 percent chance at success. That…
