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Lotus responds to rumors of demise, promises 2016 MY Evora

It's not been a great week for Lotus. Seven days ago, the UK-based automaker laid off a quarter of its workforce, terminating "up to 325 jobs." And then, just a few days ago, it was reported that the company would be ending US sales of its well-received Evora due to the expiration of an airbag exemption. The Evora is the only vehicle Lotus sells in the US, meaning its end effectively removes the brand from the market.
That was apparently a bridge too far, though, as the company has issued defiant statement, claiming it'll be back, in both the US and Canada, for model year 2016, with an air-bag compliant Evora.
"I know that this will be welcome news to our thousands of owners and fans in North America, but the reality is that there was never any intention to leave. The North American market is vitally important for us and we intend to expand our dealer network and grow our sales volumes in the future," Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus said in a statement. "I would like to thank our fantastic Lotus following for their support over the years and remind them that we are working on many exciting products for the future. We will continue to explore our core values on how to make a sports car better by making it faster, lighter and maintain the pure driving experience."

Lotus reveals extreme new 3-Eleven at Goodwood

Lotus has taken the occasion of the Goodwood Festival of Speed to reveal the new 3-Eleven. Billed as the quickest, most expensive road-going series production Lotus ever, the new 3-Eleven picks up where the previous 2-Eleven left off. And that gave the British automaker quite a starting point. An extreme evolution of the Elise and Exige, the new 3-Eleven boils things down to the bare essentials and packs a mighty punch. It's built around an aluminum chassis with composite bodywork and a completely open cockpit. That gives it a curb weight of less than 2,000 pounds to embody Colin Chapman's ethos of "adding lightness" like no other modern Lotus we've seen yet. At its heart lies an upgraded version of the company's 3.5-liter supercharged V6, producing 450 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque. That makes it even more powerful than the new Evora 400, and channels through a six-speed manual transmission, limited slip differential, and traction control. Other features include double wishbone suspension front and rear, Eibach springs, adjustable Ohlins dampers, AP Racing brakes, a Lotus-tuned Bosch ABS, 18-inch alloys up front, 19 inches the rear, shod with Michelin rubber. All of those goodies translate to a 0-60 time of under 3.0 seconds and a top speed of up to 180 miles per hour. It's even quoted to lap the company's test track at Hethel in 1:22. That makes it an impressive ten seconds seconds faster than the aforementioned Evora 400 – which is already six seconds faster around the circuit than the preceding Evora S. Production will be limited to just 311 examples, and is slated to commence in February 2016, with the first deliveries to begin in April. Any potential for North American availability has yet to be announced, but in the UK pricing will start at GBP82,000 (equivalent to $129k at current exchange rates). A more extreme Race version will be offered alongside the Road model, priced at GBP96,000 ($150k) before taxes or GBP115,000 ($180k) with, upgrading with track-focused features like a more aggressive aero kit, six-point racing harness, and a six-speed sequential gearbox.

Top Gear caught filming Best of British near Buckingham Palace

YouTuber and car-fan extraordinaire Shmee probably had very little trouble tracking down the Top Gear film crew recently, as the group was putting together an episode that could accurately be described as "excessive." With its flag-waving (literally) Best of British theme, the TG guys gathered a jaw-dropping array of British cars, and parked them all right in front of Buckingham Palace to make extra sure that the point was driven home.
Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were outfitted with a trio of Jaguar F-Types festooned with gigantic Union Jacks, with which to survey the landscape of British motoring glory. In the video below, you'll see that this includes any number of Mini, Aston Martin, Lotus, McLaren, Land Rover, Bentley and Rolls-Royce models (just to name a few), as well as a healthy dose of weird stuff that most people would never guess at being built in the UK. The lawnmowers and military vehicles are especially cool.