2007 Lotus Elise/exige Hardtop Convertible 2-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

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Lotus recalling certain 2011 Evora S models for possible oil leak, fire

Last year about 80 examples of the 2011 Lotus Evora S were recalled over an issue with the oil feed pipe. The same number of 2011 Evora S', but with different manufacture dates, are back in the recall box again for a very similar issue; this time it's the engine oil cooler hose that could rupture and spray oil either onto the rear wheels or a hot engine part. Neither of those cases is good, and the latter could potentially lead to a fire.
Lotus is working on a solution, so a recall date hasn't been announced. The bulletin below from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has more information.

Lotus marks 20 years of the Elise

Lotus was a very different company 20 years ago. For starters, it wasn't owned by the Malaysians: it had just been sold by General Motors to Romano Artioli, the same man behind the revival of Bugatti EB110. It had discontinued the Elan, Excel and Carlton, which left the Esprit – by then already 20 years old itself – as its only product. Then the Elise came along and everything changed. The Elise arrived in 1995, based on a lightweight aluminum chassis that was ahead of its time and cloaked in composite body panels to make it incredibly light in the spirit of Colin Chapman's ethos. Its name was taken from Artioli's granddaughter, but stuck around long after he sold the company. The Esprit was eventually retired, and with the exception of the Evora, the Elise served as the basis for every other new Lotus that has followed in the two decades since: the Exige, Europa, 2-Eleven, 340R, and so on. It even lent its underpinnings to a wide array of sports cars for other automakers, including the groundbreaking Tesla Roadster, the all-conquering Hennessey Venom GT, the Opel Speedster/Vauxhall VX220, and more concepts cars and niche products than we can count. Now 20 years since its introduction, Lotus is celebrating the milestone with the Elise 20th Anniversary Edition. It's based on (and effectively replaces) the Elise S Club Racer, and trims a further 22 pounds off the curb weight. It's got matte black forged wheels and trim, a retrimmed interior and of course all the special badging. UK customers will be able to pick one up for GBP39,900, but as the Elise hasn't been offered Stateside in a few years now, we'll just have to admire – and celebrate – from afar. Lotus Elise celebrates 20 years - Celebratory 20th Anniversary Special Edition Elise - Special edition, based on the Elise S Club Racer, including classic Elise colour schemes - Pioneering and iconic Elise continues to innovate and evolve - Weight reduced by 10 kg The Lotus Elise 20th Anniversary Special Edition celebrates the unveiling of the iconic sports car at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1995. 20 years ago, the Lotus Elise revolutionised the sports car world, setting the benchmark for handling, purity of the driving experience, lightweight and efficiency. Its pioneering and advanced bonded aluminium chassis was a market-leading technological innovation at the time and over the years has improved and evolved and remains core to the Elise's exceptional performance today.

Lotus Advanced Performance offers hints about special projects

Four months ago, Lotus teased the creation of an Advanced Performance division. The legendary sports car maker divulged that the department would build "ultra-exclusive and unique vehicles" outside of the firm's regular-production lineup, developing Lotus race cars, manage Lotus motorsports programs, work on customer commissions and create customer experiences from Hethel production tours and track days to global driving academies and "money can't buy" opportunities. In further comments to Autocar and Auto Express, the head of Lotus Advanced Performance (LAP), Simon Lane, gave clues about what's coming. Lane suggested a number of creations, but the part we're most excited about is "while wider Lotus Group moves towards full-on electrification, LAP is 'reserving the right to still play with combustion engines.'" These ICE powerplants could be slated for coming restomod projects based on plans and technical drawings for Lotus products in the 1960s and 1970s that were never produced. Lane said his 15-person team is "well advanced" on work on what he calls "scratch build" vehicles that will hearken to vintage wares but be "easier to drive and maybe [have] a better power-to-weight ratio and better brakes." We love our electric cars here at Autoblog, but the idea of lightweight revivals recalling Lotus' best years with classic lines, small-displacement engines and maybe even manual transmissions would be glorious. These won't be continuation cars, but all-new products with production runs said to be smaller than anyone would expect.    It's possible we could see something this year, 2022 being the 50th anniversary of Emerson Fittipaldi and Lotus winning the 1972 Formula 1 Driver's and Constructor's Championships in the Lotus-Ford 72D. That might explain the teaser image from February, if not the colors of the car in the teaser. Know what other momentous Lotus moment occurred in 1972? The Esprit concept debuted at the Turin Motor Show. Lane, who comes from service in Aston Martin's Q division, calls LAP "the most all-encompassing special operations department" among automakers. That means there will be work done on the electric side, too, potential services being electric drivetrain conversions of traditional Lotus cars, and creating new bodywork for the new range of battery-electric cars.