Lotus have a new direction...

Flibster

Flibster

Flibster

Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
43,235
Sadly, it seems to be away from the small and cheap*ish* sports cars...

A new Lotus Elise

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A new Lotus Elan

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A new Lotus Elite *same as the one revealed a few days ago*

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The Lotus Eterne

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and finally... A new Lotus Esprit. :D Chap there only seems to have a shot of the rear 3/4 though.

---------------

Lotus Elise: 4 cylinder 2.0, 350 BHP. Base and R versions available as coupe or cabriolet. Aimed at Porsche Boxster / Cayman, Audi TT

Lotus Elan: Available with 2 seats or as a 2+2, V6 3.5 ltr, 450-470 BHP, Base Price around £70000, Base and R versions available as coupe or cabriole - Aimed at Porsche 911 turbo

Lotus Elite: 2+2, 5.0 ltr V8, 600 BHP+. Available as coupé / cabriolet in Base and R versions. Base Price around £135,000. Aimed at DB9

Lotus Eterne: 4 door / 4 seat based on the new Lotus Elite. Aimed at Porsche Panamera / Aston Martin Rapide

Lotus Esprit: 2 seats, 5.0 ltr V8, 600 BHP+, Base Price around £100,000. Base and R versions available as coupe or cabriolet. Aimed at Ferrari 458 / Gallardo

More info hopefully from here and The BBC soon

This chap is there and is uploading images - http://s1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff370/johnnystorm1976/

First impressions: Designs are a touch too Aston Martin and Jaguar and have lost the traditional Lotus face. Also, is it just me or have they just designed one car, and then scaled it up or down in in the photocopier?

Elise - 350bhp? Really? 250bhp seems more likely.
Elan - Traditionally it should be the Elise, or a 2+2 variant. Sounds remarkably like a renamed and restyled Evora tbh.
Elite - Hmmm....
Eterne - Terrible name
Esprit - Good to see the name back. Bit of a NSX front end?

Overall for Lotus so far C+, must try harder.

Does Lotus have the money to do these, almost certainly not.
Does it have the capability to do these, certainly - but not all at once.

Oh and only 3 UK dealers? Come on! This is Lotus - Not Ferrari. Unfortunately it seems that *ex-Ferrari brand manager - aka PR nerf* Dany Bahar has his head in cloud cuckooland.

I'm rapidly heaing towards the fact that Group Lotus may well be sold off by Proton soon *and I know who I'd like it to go to... but Group Lotus have a bit of a downer on him at the moment. ;)*
 
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i have to say i love the looks of elan.. sounds good spec wise too! :]

others look awesome too.. not sure on elise tho ;) good too see one of the "sportier" names giving the whole look a change.. (porshe ;)
 
These are clearly all just concept cars. None of them seem to have any Lotus DNA at all.

I don't mind too much though as it just means my car will start appreciating in a few years time :D

Edit:

Just heard the "new" Elise weighs 1.1tons :D Oh dear oh dear oh dear!!!
 
Very interesting. I really like the Elan. It'd be nice to see Lotus make some quality cars rather than the go-karts they have been churning out for a while.
 
Oooo I like, well the Externa at least, I'm not so sure about the smaller ones, I don't see the Esprit but I always did like those anyway, proper V8 super car :D . I agree with PMKeates basically, it'd be nice to see some real quality cars from Lotus.
 
merlin said:
Will they ever run out of car names begining with "E"?
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All those names except Eterne aren't new :p So yes IMO, considering how rubbish "Eterne" sounds it would appear that they have run out of decent names beginning with E.

</devil's advocate>
 
I like the Elan but I can't help but think at that price point it people aren't going to go for it over its rivals.
 
Dogbreath said:
The wheel on the Elise look to be straight out of Halfords :(
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Concepts always have ridiculous wheels though.

It doesn't have any exit air vents for the front radiator. At the moment it has one huge intake at the front and nowhere for any of that air to go. Nor does it have any side scoops to provide an intake and cool the engine in the middle.

Let's wait and see what the car looks like once Lotus Engineering has actually had a chance to implement what Dany Bahar and his bunch of cronies has drawn ;)
 
They are definitely going in the right direction.

You can't make Go-Karts forever.

They are trying to turn Lotus from a novelty car into a serious and grown up sports car business.

Good on them.
 
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