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NHTSA investigating Lotus Elise for oil leaks

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 17 complaints about an errant oil line in the Lotus Elise, and thus, has opened an investigation. The issue concerns the line on the front right cooler, which, having got loose, sprays oil either on the wheel or inside the engine bay.
This investigation pertains to around 4,400 of the little track-day wonders sold in the 2005 and 2006 model years. There have been no injuries, but one car did leave the road and catch on fire. A NHTSA investigation doesn't mean a full recall has been issued, just that your friends in the fed are looking into the matter.

A Lotus worthy of the legend | 2017 Lotus Evora 400 First Drive

Lotus is back, both literally and figuratively. After the British brand's two-year absence, the Evora 400 marks its return to the American market. It also shows what's in store as Lotus moves forward after a rough few years. We'll cut straight to the point: The Evora 400 is the best car Lotus has ever made. The heritage of the brand founded by Colin Chapman is centered around the holistic benefits of light weight and simplicity. But historically, light was a synonym for fragile. Heap on the old British build-quality stereotypes like leaking windows and intermittent electrics, and you have the Lotus reputation for brilliant but fickle cars. Owning a Lotus is a badge of honor, the car-culture equivalent of riding a fixed-gear bicycle. And while quality has improved, even modern Lotus models like the Elise, Exige, and previous Evora have a decidedly minimalist approach to comfort. That lack of modern amenities kept sales to a minimum before crash-test standards forced Lotus's hiatus from our shores. And by modern amenities we mean basics like functional air conditioning, a cabin you can climb into without pulling a muscle, and trim pieces that don't fall off from normal use. So when we say the Evora 400 is the best Lotus ever, we mean that in more than one way. It's of a material and build quality befitting the $93,785 starting price, and it retains the almost telepathic connection to the driver while increasing performance on all fronts. The 400 in the name stands for 400 horsepower. Power still comes from a Toyota-sourced 3.5-liter V6, but a new supercharger is now intercooled and delivers about 9 pounds per square inch of boost, up from 5.5 psi. It's a 55-hp jump, with a modest torque increase of 7 pound-feet, to 302. The numerical suffix, though, might suggest this is just a variant, like the Evora S was to the original Evora. Not so. Lotus says over two thirds of the parts are new, including front and rear body panels. The new Evora has a cleaner look, less like an inflated Elise and more like the mid-engine exotic that it is. View 29 Photos But the biggest change to the Evora is the interior. The door sill, perhaps the biggest hindrance to practicality, is now 2.2 inches lower and 1.7 inches narrower. The footwell is also 3.3 inches wider. Getting in and sitting now just feels like it does in most other cars, which, for Lotus, is a revelation. Hey, there's room for a dead pedal to the left of the clutch!

Lotus getting into the motorcycle business

Lotus founder Colin Chapman is famously quoted as saying something to the effect of "Simplify, then add lightness." We're a bit amazed that it took this long, but someone appears to be taking that message to heart at the British marque, losing a couple of wheels, a clutter of bodywork and a whole mess of weight. No, Lotus isn't planning another spindly Seven-style trackday racer, it's getting into motorcycles.
Well, sort of. As an automaker, Lotus apparently isn't directly behind this two-wheeled effort, but it does appear to have officially lent its brand and logo to a new company, Lotus Motorcycles, which counts former Volkswagen Group designer Daniel Simon, Germany's Holzer Group and auto racing team Kodewa among its partners. The latter builds and races Lotus' T128 Le Mans Prototype in the World Endurance Championship series.
The new company is touting an as-yet unseen motorcycle, a racing-inspired "hyper bike" called C-01, releasing only the image above - a carbon fiber fuel tank trimmed in Lotus' trademark black and gold livery. Details are tough to come by, but the project is said to include a powertrain good for around 200 horsepower and construction involving titanium, carbon fiber and aerospace-grade steel.