Lotus might really be posing to become a dominant player in the sports car business. So far, they’ve made quite the track cars with the Exige, Elise, and the Evora. All of them already look pretty decent.

But imagine what Lotus can do with some Italian influence. Ferrari’s designer Donato Coco has moved to Lotus as new Director of Design.

If you’re not familiar with Coco’s resume, his previous works just include Ferrari F430 Scuderia, the Ferrari California, the 599XX, and the 458 Italia.

Among those, maybe he sneezed a bit designing the California but given that resume, he should rank quite high in automotive design echelon.

Source: Lotus

Lotus is really poised to make an impact with their F1 venture next year. And that doesn’t mean that they will be forsaking their production car line up as well.

Meet the 2010 Lotus Exige Scura – a special edition Exige that will be featured in the Tokyo show. The show is rather stale with everyone else pulling out so that wuld make the Scura one of the more interesting sports car at the show.

The car’s powered by a supercharged engine complete with an intercooler that dishes out 260 horses. Might not be much but in lightweight car, that’s a lot. 0-62 mph is pegged at just 4.1 seconds and the top spee, 152 mph.

For added tech goodness, the car has a launch control system, variable slip traction control, and two-way adjustable dampers for personalized ride and handling.

Lotus might not make the fastest supercars but their line of agile sports cars are sure to give sports car enthusiasts viable options even if they don’t have the money to buy Italian exotica.

Source: Lotus

Agile car enthusiasts in the US would have something to cheer about. Not that it’s easy to pony up $65,690 for a track day car but at least one can play “I Spy” with the Lotus Exige in mind.

Lotus has just unveiled the new 2010 Exige S240, it’s basically an updated Exige with a few visual and aero enhancments.

Powering the car is the 2ZZ-GE engine with VVT-i from Toyota that dishes out 240 hp and a max torque of 170 lb-ft. (No shit, Sherlock. That’s why it’s called the S240.)

Mated to a 6-speed proper manual, the car can go from 0 to 60 mph in just 240 with a top speed of 150 mph. It might not be the fastest on the long-distance straight but it sure is quick.

Visual enhancements include a revised front end and improved aerodynamics. For the ecomaniacs, the fuel economy figures are 20 mpg city/26 highway.

Source: Lotus

The Lotus Evora has been racking up awards. Aside from being quite the competent track car, the Evora offers quite the comfortable drive giving sophistication to the typically tradition of discomfort of super cars. So basically, the Evora is an every day super car.

Though one can argue that the Evora isn’t really a super car since it only packs a mere 276 bhp and doesn’t quite blitz straight lines in sub-4 seconds. In a race, drivers would have to drive hard, fast, and perfect for it to go toe-to-toe with other super cars.

However, Lotus is free to make changes from the stock Evora to make it more race worthy. Check out the Lotus Evora Type 124 Endurance Racer. For starters, the 124 packs 394 bhp and dropped 440 lbs, significantly increases the car’s power to weight ratio.

The powertrain has been upgraded to integrate a six-speed sequential gearbox with flappy-paddle shifters. The car’s equipped with a roll cage, long-distance fuel tank, race brakes and ABS, adjustable dampers and aero bits including a carbon fiber rear wing, diffuser, and front splitter.

The car is set to see action in 2010 to 2011.

Lotus, which in recent years, have made its name by developing pocket supercars that lives by their agility and ability to finesse their way through corners and the company is poised to return to Formula One next year.

The effort is no less led by the Malaysian government itself. It won’t be a start-from-scratch effort either since the team will be taking over BMW Sauber. The team will be backed by the other Malaysian giant Petronas oil.

The influx of esteemed European officials into Lotus has brought in fresh ideas such as competing in the world’s largest motorsport. The arrival of former Ferrari exec Dany Bahar as Lotus CEO is said to have spurred on the effort.

Several other teams aside from Lotus (like Aston Martin and USF1) are looking into participating next season and the FIA is reported to be still deliberating the issue.

Any way you put it, even Lotus road cars are quite the track machines. The Elise, Exige and Evora are all more than capable in rounding corners better than some of the most expensive super and hypercars in the market. So one can just anticipate how much sharper a track-focused Lotus can be.

Check out the new Lotus Exige Cup 260 – still a road-going Exige but meant to be track-ready. The car packs 256 bhp – might not seem much but Lotus believes in amazing power-to-weight ratio accomplished through lighweightedness.

The 260 sheds nearly 84 pounds from last year’s model bringing its weight down to 1,962 lbs thanks to carbon fiber work. Lotus also revised the engine sub frame and added other lightweight bits like a new battery, alloy wheels and a new flywheel.

All of that enables the car to go from 0-62 in just 4.1 seconds. Since Lotus is also a master of handling, we’re pretty sure that the car can round corners with a potent combination of control and flair.

Source: Autocar

Toyota should take a hint from Lotus. Sports cars should pack more punch, not succumb to ecomentalist asthma. And Lotus uses Toyota engines.

Lotus just announced that it will be offering a supercharger kit for naturally aspirated Elise and Exige models. This is the same supercharger found in the beefier Elise SC. The kit is fitted to the Toyota 2ZZ-GE engines that two nimble Lotus cars pack.

The kit consists of a integrated intake manifold, high-flow fuel injectors and a re-programmed ECU. These increases the power by 29 horses from 189 hp to 218. The max torque is also increased to 155 lb-ft from 133 and is reached at lower revs of 5,000 rpm instead of 6,800 rpm.

If you’re worried about emission and other state laws, Lotus guarantees that the kit is legal in 50 states.

“Lotus Elise and Exige owners are genuine driving enthusiasts and that’s what has attracted them to Lotus cars in the first place,” said Lotus Cars USA, Inc. Director of Operations Arnie Johnson. “They will fully appreciate the dramatically enhanced driving character these Lotus Supercharger Kits will bring their vehicles and the peace of mind from a fully warranted, factory engineered kit.”

Fancy one? Just contact your Lotus dealer.

One of the most successful racing teams of all time could make its return to Formula One for the 2010 season, as Formula Three team Litespeed awaits FIA approval for their entry next year as the latest incarnation of Team Lotus.

“Team Lotus is synonymous with great British engineering and F1 innovation, such as the Lotus 25 being the first monocoque chassis in F1 and the introduction of groundbreaking sponsorship, both of which easily demonstrate why ex-Lotus personnel would want to bring this championship-winning name back to the formula,” said Litespeed team principal Nino Judge.

Judge, along with engineering director Steve Kenchington have managed to get permission to use the Lotus name from current team owner David Hunt. To bolster their bid, the two will be enlisting the services of Johnny Herbert, who drove for the Lotus F1 team and will now be a driver manager and commercial ambassador. Litespeed also tapped Mike Gascoyne, who previously worked with Toyota and Force India as the technical director and is now excited about the prospects of reviving Lotus for F1.

New entrants are keeping their fingers crossed until the announcement of successful bids are made on June 12.

Lotus says that the upcoming Lotus Esprit sports car is still on track for a release in 2012, just as the new Elise is still within schedule to start selling by 2011. This is despite the current economic conditions, which have reached a point where making the Esprit depends largely on the sales of the company’s recent Evora sports car.

The Lotus Esprit will likely be a longer and wider Evora, sporting a mid-mounted V8 engine of which the specifications haven’t been disclosed yet.

There is also a two-seat Evora convertible in the works for 2012, although sources say that the Esprit could get launched much sooner. This is especially true if the economy and sales of supercars start to get better. Expect the Evora convertible to get the go-ahead earlier if sales don’t pick up fast.

It would seem that the recession is severely making Lotus hold back on its programs. While the release of the Esprit isn’t all that threatened right now, Lotus’s plan of doubling production figures to 8,000 units a year by 2011 looks bleak at the moment

Lotus is introducing a cheaper but feature-packed variant for its Elise sports car, dubbed the “Purist Edition”. The car will be built around the Sports trim, complete with the optional Touring features. More importantly, it will start of at $44,920—over $3,000 cheaper than the base Elise.

The car will be powered by a standard 1.8-liter engine that pushes it to the tune of 189 horsepower. The top speed is at 150mph, with a 0-60mph time of 4.9 seconds. Lotus says the car is good for 21mpg in city traffic, while it gets 27mpg on the highway.

Only the iPod interface, leather-trimmed transmission tunnel, and leather door inserts aren’t included among the Touring options included in the Elise Purist Edition. It will be available in three colors: Ardent Red, Monaco White, and Saffron Yellow. The car will have a black leather interior, a leather Momo steering wheel, a CD player, and a starter button. Yokohama tires and 17-inch alloy wheels are also included.

Lotus is hoping that the lower price for a feature-packed trim will get more people to buy the car from US dealerships.

Source: Motor Authority

Lotus has taken advantage of its lightweight design philosophy and more efficient engines to give its Elise and Exige considerably improved fuel efficiency and emission levels.

The Lotus Exige S, for example, gets a hike to 37.2mpg, from 34mpg flat in the previous model. The Lotus Elise SC gets 33.2mpg efficiency, and the CO2 emission levels are at 199g/Km.

“We are at the cutting edge of green transport technology and we will continue to push the boundaries with our green research and environmental strategy,” said Lotus CEO Mike Kimberley. “We are keen to ensure that Lotus as a company and its products offer an ethical, green option that appeals to our customers.”

Kimberley promised that Lotus will keep on improving its design philosophy to make their vehicles greener and more efficient. They even released a comparison chart, pitting the Lotus cars’ efficiency and CO2 figures against such vehicles as an SLK55 AMG and a Ferrari F430 Spider. There’s really no comparison, though, as one’s not likely to be buying those cars for their green qualities.

England’s wind power specialist Ecotricity is embarking on a project to make its own electric sports car. The company is currently working with a handful of engineers on a Lotus Exige, with the aim of making it a zero-emission, wind-powered sports car.

Before your amazement kicks in at the mention of the word “wind-powered”, it is only true for the fact that the electricity used to charge the proposed car will be generated by wind turbines in the company’s wind farms. Ecotricity is, after all, the biggest supplier of green energy in the UK and has billed itself “the world’s greenest electricity company.”

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince went so far as to describe his company’s electric sports car as something “way ahead of Tesla, and F1 technology”. A couple of brushless motors drawing power from 96 Li-Ion batteries make the sports car run.

The six-man team working on this electric sports car is spending considerably less on the car’s development, especially when you think about how Tesla’s Roadster cost around $100 million to develop. Then again, the Ecotricity team didn’t have to work from scratch thanks to the existing Lotus Exige (bought on eBay, nonetheless!).

Source: Motor Authority

Lightweight, functional, and eco-friendly—that’s the 2010 Lotus Exige S for you. Revealed at the Geneva Motor Show, the new supercharged sports car has updated styling features and lower CO2 emission levels.

The 2010 Exige S sports three air vents up front, while its underside has a composite front air splitter designed to keep the air channeled away from the tires. Influenced by the design of the Lotus Exige GT3 concept, the Exige S also has a rear wing to increase downforce and lower the drag coefficient.

The car also comes with a high-definition liquid crystal display (LCD), through which the driver can view some vital information on the car’s various systems. The LCD is mounted beside the instrument panel. Launch control is also programmable through the LCD. The car also has adaptive stability control for the customizable suspension system.

Mileage is at 27.7mpg and CO2 emissions have been considerably lowered, giving the Exige S excellent efficiency and eco-friendliness. With its impressive figures and advanced features, the 2010 Lotus Exige S really shines a light on the current design philosophies of the brand.

Source: 4wheelsnews

If you missed out on science class when they taught you the food chain, omnivores are animals that are basically both carnivores and herbivores. They eat anything. An omnivore engine, on the other hand, isn’t a machine that runs on either meat or plants. Lotus’ flex-fuel engine concept dubbed The Omnivore, which will be shown to all at the Geneva Motor Show, will be able to run optimally regardless of the type of fuel fed to it.

Much has gone into making the concept engine get the most work out of whatever kind of fuel. This is because, in the past, flex-fuel engines have proved to be inefficient because of the different types of fuel having different combustion properties. Flex-fuel engines that have come before just weren’t able to burn other fuels optimally.

The Omnivore has a single-cylinder design to facilitate adjustments by engineers. Lotus has designed it to work well with various fuel types as well as with electronic control systems. Additionally, The Omnivore utilizes a two-stroke design that comes with an air-assisted direct injection technology developed by the Orbital Corporation of Australia.

If they can streamline this engine to take advantage of standard fuel and higher-octane alternatives, then this could be the start of something big.

Source: Autoblog Green

Italian vehicle tuner UK Garage has come up with the Lotus Extrema, a modified and V8-equipped version of the Lotus Exige sports car. The car features extensive redesigns and a choice of V8 engine to be installed.

The new customized body kit immediately stands out, with a profile that is unbelievably low and absolutely stunning. Compared to the standard Exige, the wheelbase of the Extrema was longer and its track was made wider to accommodate the V8 and the wider tires. The car also features suspension kits from Koni, full roll cage, AP Racing brakes, and a system that provides video-recording capability.

The engine choices for the Extrema include a 420-hp and a 500-hp LS3 V8s, a 520-hp LS7, and a 638 LS9 supercharged V8, all from GM. There is also an option for a lighter, 2.8L V6-equipped variant, along with the Superlight option that weighs in at a mere 750 kilograms and can go from 360 to 450 horsepower for its 2.6-liter and 3.4-liter variants, respectively. Lastly, buyers can also get a road-legal variant.

The UK Garage Lotus Extrema looks really good, from the previewed white finish and Exige Mark-II reminiscent body kit. The price is nothing to scoff at, though, and UK Garage is based in Italy.

Source: Motor Authority

The Lotus Evora emerged as the iMotor Magazine’s “Overall Most Rated Car of 2008”, garnering overwhelming support as 95 percent of the mag’s readership voted for the sports car launched July of this year.

Mat Watson, iMotor Magazine’s editor, said that “it’s clear the iMotor readers rate the forthcoming Lotus Evora more than any other car we have featured in the mag. It’s ‘rated’ score of 95 percent is truly impressive and enough to see it beat brilliant machines such as the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 and Nissan GT-R. There’s clearly a lot of excitement for this new Lotus.”

The Evora follows the tradition of having a name that starts with the letter ‘E’, and was coined from the word ‘Evo’. The sports car is powered by a 277 horsepower 3.5-liter V6 engine and combines a good mix of design and performance.

Mike Kimberley, CEO of Lotus, said that the award was special in that “it demonstrates that we have produced a car that already has a fan base amongst the cognoscenti, despite the car being a few months away from the sale date in the spring.”

Source: Motor Torque

With the wavering profits for practically all companies in the automotive industries, it is so rare to find an automaker that isn’t so far in the red. Lotus is one of those rarities. The company is one of the few to post positive profits for 2007, with a £2 million gain.

This goes against the trend of car companies that have posted annual losses thanks to the continued hike of gas prices and the global financial crisis. Lotus was able to do this by focusing on other ventures, including engineering and consultancy. Lotus Engineering is geared towards development of lightweight vehicles and technology for fuel-efficiency.

“Over the last few months, the demand for our green and environmentally sustainable technologies has increased,” said Mike Kimberley, chairman of the Executive Committee of Lotus. “Many of the world’s car companies work with us on alternative-fuel vehicles, electric and hybrid vehicle solutions and lightweight structures.”

At this point last year, Lotus sold 605 cars. This year, the company has sold 600. This is a very small differential that is reflective of the effectiveness of the company’s focus and cost-cutting measures. Lotus also undoubtedly benefitted from being a relatively-smaller car company.

Source: Autocar

Lotus and their lightweight and nimble fleet are at it again, adding yet another incarnation of the Exige to the lineup with this 2009 Lotus Exige Cup 260. The car will serve as a replacement for the 2008 Exige Cup Car and not without changes. The 2009 Exige sport more carbon fiber chunks, trimming down 86 lbs – a testament to the lightweighted obsessiveness of Lotus. That’s just for starters.

Powering the 2009 Exige is a supercharged and intercooled engine capable of 257 hp with a maximum torque of 174 lb-ft. This, combined with a 1980-lb frame propels the car from 0 to 62 mph in just 4.1 seconds. It’s top speed is pegged at 152 mph. Fuel economy comes in at a 26 mpg.

Aside from the carbon fiber bits slapped all over the body, it also features a full-length carbon fiber roof scoop that both trims down weight and ensures efficient cooling through the intercooler. The Exige Cup 260 is now on sale in Europe.

Source: Lotus

After a year of waiting and a lot of teaser and spyshots, we finally get to see Lotus’ latest 2+2 midsized engined sportscar. Still dubbed as Project Eagle, the car is Lotus’ new model since, uh…, oh yeah, the Elise back in 1995. And it will be featured in the BIMS in a week’s time.

Though, ironically, the car isn’t 100% Lotus at all. Slapped on is a 3.5L Toyota V6 producing 280 PS. Hehe. But since Lotus has made an expertise out of weight reduction and lightweightedness, we can only expect some great agility and handling from the people who gave us the Elise and according to their engineers, it’s faster than both the Exige and the Elise around the Nurburgring. The car’s prototype was clocked to do 0-60 in just sub 5 seconds and can go to a max speed of 160 mph. Not too shabby.

Inside, you can bask at some generous amounts of classy leather and futuristic electronics. The LED instrumentation gives it that 21st century feel that would strike a balanced appeal to a wide audience. Lotus plans to create five variants of the Eagle including a convertible and a performance version.

Source: Lotus

The British International Motor Show’s just about a little over a week away. One of the attractions of the show is the Greener Driving Pavilion which will showcase green initiatives from automakers as a part of the whole save-the-earth through gas-sippers move.

The Lotus Elise has been known to be that agile sports car that could take on more massive cars in winding roads due to its lightweightedness that improves its handling. Its 1.8L engine isn’t really a gas-guzzler compared to other cars and the fact that the car’s light improves fuel efficiency.

Now, they’ve decided that they’d make the car even more fuel-efficient in the Lotus Eco Elise. In true Elise fashion, they just trimmed off some more weight out. They took a Lotus Elise S, put it on a treadmill to shave off 70.5 lbs, and called it Eco. This was done by swapping some of the body panels to sustainable hemp technical fibers. Au natural.

The carpets are even made from sisal, a renewable crop yet abrasives-resistant. The paint on this thing is totally water-based (eliminating solvent emissions into the atmosphere). You just have to wonder whether it will wash off though. A few geek-greening they did here was slapping on a solar panel to help charge the car battery. They also placed a shift light to help drivers achieve bang-on shifting to avoid unnecessary revving.

Source: RevMods

It’s still covered by layers and layers of disguise but how it moves is surely something to see. Slated for a 2009 release, the “Eagle” sports a 2.0L V6 from Toyota dishing out 262 hp and 248 lb-ft of torque. The engine will be sending power to the rear wheels and transmission is controlled via a flappy-paddle gearbox. See it go around the Nurburgring in the video.

I always like seeing some good cars tweaked and tuned for some GT action. Take this Lotus Exige GT3, for example which debuts in the land down under for the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. And my oh my, this car really takes on a racer look with the body kits and decals slapped on.

Sure it still sports the same supercharged 1.8L engine from the Exige S road car but it has been tuned to pack just a little bit more punch with it generating a massive 350 hp (yes, that’s from a 1.8) and 224 lb.ft. of torque. Since this is a grand tourer, the body kits aren’t just for show but they’re placed to increase downforce and make the car slick to slice through the air.

Piloting the car i aspiring driver Angelo Lazaris. It’s interesting how this car would fare when it goes head-to-head with the big names like Ferrari and Lamborghini.

Source: Lotus

You got to love spy photographers and their efforts. It’s quite great too that at least we don’t get to see our celebs (the cars) go berserk when a camera’s shoved up their faces (or we might just have to thank telephoto lenses).

Here’s a spy shot of the test mule for Lotus’ Project Eagle. Yeah sure, it looks like the Lotus Esprit but what do we expect with a test mule. A lot of cover up for the whole shebang. At least Lotus isn’t too shady with everything confirming that the project is in motion.

But they’re still holding a few details back but the car is said to be powered by a 2.0L V6 coming from Toyota that’s capable of 300 horses. It will be a rear-wheel drive 2_2 with a flappy-paddle gearbox. Interesting!

It’s targeted for a 2009 release.

Source: Left Lane News
Image: Brenda Priddy and Company

Lotus fans would be delighted in knowing that the new mid-engined sports car – the Lotus GT (codenamed Project Eagle) is set to launch in 2009. There’s no word yet on the exact name of the car when it goes on sale but Lotus has pegged its price somewhere in the £45,000 and £48,000 range. It’s set to debut next year in the London motor show.

Not much detail has been revealed so far but the car will be using a Toyota V6 engine that can come with an optional flappy paddle gearbox. It’s quite exciting to see that Lotus is still pushing the envelope with their cars. I’ve always liked how they managed to come up with very agile and quick cars as with the Elise and Exige.

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The Lotus Exige (and Elise) were designed to be really quick and agile cars utilizing enormous power-to-weight ratios to achieve top performance. Since lightweightedness has been one of the hottest trends in engineering today, carbon fiber has just been the way to go. Some go by plastic. But what the heck, plastic is good for…I don’t know. It shouldn’t belong to a car, that’s for sure.

Anyway, carbon fiber – probably the mythril of cars (at least until they get to create a diamond-like shell for cars). Imagine one of the most agile cars out there using carbon fiber. The Exige normally sports fiberglass to achieve its weight but this one CSF1 Exige made by Prototype Composites showcased in the SEMA sports carbon fiber. Shedding 82 pounds and featuring an Acura TSX powerhouse (capable of 311 HP at that) gives this Exige a little bit more.

Imagine how much this ride can do. While I won’t call this the Bruce Lee of cars, being tough, quick and powerful is surely an appeal to gearheads like me.

Source: Autoblog