Lotus Elise Exotic Like Lamborghini, Ferrari on 2040-cars

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This 450-hp electric Lotus Evora is powered by Tesla and Chevrolet

When someone mentions an electric Lotus, the first thing that comes to mind is the Tesla Roadster, the California-based automaker's first vehicle. That car started life as an Elise before being heavily massaged and adapted by Tesla's engineers. In a similar spirit, the people at Onpoint Dyno are close to finishing Blue Lightning, a track-ready all-electric Lotus Evora. Blue Lightning uses a Tesla drive unit and a Chevrolet Volt battery pack, both mounted in the middle in place of the Evora's 3.5-liter Toyota V6. It's putting down about 450 horsepower at the wheels. The car was built for time attack sessions, so power is fed through custom forged wheels and super sticky Pirelli PZero Trofeo R tires, the same ones found on the last Chevrolet Camaro Z/28. There is a custom digital instrument cluster in place of the Lotus gauges. There's also a regen paddle on the left side of the steering wheel. With a full charge, Blue Lighting should go about 120 miles. While the car runs under its own power, it's only about 90 percent complete. It has no power steering, no firewall in between the seats and the motor and battery pack, no A/C, and a large hole where the shift lever used to be. Other final touches include fine-tuning the brakes and suspension. There is also a custom rear bumper coming that should make it look more like the new Lotus Evora 400. Onpoint Dyno expects the car to hit the track in the next month or so. Related Video:

Race recap: 2015 British Grand Prix is a testament to timing

In front of his home crowd, Lewis Hamilton actually had to work for pole position at the British Formula One Grand Prix. The World Champion couldn't get on top of the setup for his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on Friday, lapping behind teammate Nico Rosberg and the two Ferraris. Come Saturday, after a few alterations and a whole lot of wing to clamp down on understeer, Hamilton returned to his regular program at the front, taking pole position by just over a tenth of a second from his teammate. Williams, thought to be headed for another stretch in the weeds a few races ago, showed its best strength all year. The Grove team got both cars on the second row and in front of the Ferraris, Felipe Massa qualifying ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, but they were eight and nine tenths behind the Mercedes'. Kimi Raikkonen out-qualified Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel for the second time this year, and only the first time in a straight-up battle with two healthy cars. But more than a second behind the two cars at the front, and with two nearly-impossible-to-pass Williams' in front, neither the Finn nor the German is happy with where they are. Daniil Kvyat claimed seventh, his side of the garage at Infiniti Red Bull Racing having got through the weekend to that point without a single complaint about their Renault power unit. Carlos Sainz, Jr. put a single Toro Rosso inside the top ten in eighth position, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg who did the same for Sahara Force India by slotting in ninth. The second Infiniti Red Bull driven by Daniel Ricciardo did have an unspecified engine complaint – his car kept "bleeding power" on the straights – but even so he managed to qualify tenth with his second-fastest lap. The stewards deleted his best lap because he ran three centimeters outside the track limits at Copse, an infraction that stung a few other drivers as well. Up in front, what would sting the Mercedes-AMG Petronas drivers the most was the start. That's when a dearth of grip struck both Hamilton and Rosberg, allowing Massa and Bottas to slide right up the middle between them and take the first two places. The leapfrogging was so surprising that it looked like the Mercedes drivers were giving the Williams drivers a head start. They diced through the first corners, Hamilton sliding past Bottas into second place halfway through the lap. And then the safety car reported for duty.

Lotus Eletre specs, pricing and more detailed for European launch

Lotus revealed the Eletre in full last year, and while details were plentiful back then, the British sports car company has a lot more for us today in the realm of specs and pricing. Unfortunately, we don’t have a full layout of U.S. specs and pricing yet, but we can get a good idea of what to expect by looking at the European-market model. Three different versions will hit the market at launch: Eletre, Eletre S and Eletre R. Performance is the same between the Eletre and Eletre S (the S simply adds more luxury equipment), but the R is a unique, high-performance variant. For starters, the base model and S will have an electric motor on the front and rear axles good for a combined 603 horsepower and 524 pound-feet of torque. Lotus says that will be enough for a 4.5-second 0-62 mph time and a 160-mph top speed. Driving range on the WLTP cycle is estimated to be 373 miles for these versions, but expect that number to be down when EPA estimates come out.  The Eletre R notches performance up by a wide margin. Its pair of electric motors produce a combined 905 horsepower and 726 pound-feet of torque, but thereÂ’s a little more than just more powerful motors going on here. Unlike the single-speed transmission the base models use, the Eletre R uses a two-speed transmission for the rear electric motor and a single-speed transmission on the front axle. Lotus says this allows them to optimize the car for ideal launch performance and to improve range at higher speeds. The shifts themselves are automatic. Lotus says the R is capable of doing the 0-62 mph sprint in just 2.95 seconds, and it has a slightly higher top speed of 165 mph. Despite the two-speed transmission, range still takes a sizable hit down to just 304 miles on the optimistic WLTP cycle. We also learn today that the Eletre will house a 112 kWh lithium-ion battery pack in all versions of the SUV. Lotus says it features a maximum charge speed of 350 kW on a capable DC fast charger, which is quick enough to bring you from 10-80% in just 20 minutes. AC charging maxes out at 22 kW, which would allow you to go from 0-100% on your home charger in just six hours. The last big spec Lotus shared today is curb weight. If you opt for the base model with no options, the Eletre can weigh as little as 5,489 pounds. And yeah, thatÂ’s obviously a wild amount of weight for anything with a Lotus badge on it, but the Eletre R is even heavier at 5,820 pounds.