Lotus Esprit Turbo Se Black on 2040-cars

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2017 Renault Alpine still looks like a Lotus

Two years ago, an oddly modified Lotus Exige was photographed speeding around the Nurburgring. While that car looked British, at the time Renault's engineers were reportedly developing the suspension for the future Alpine sports coupe underneath with some help from the folks at Ohlins. Now, our spies have spotted this weird Lotus-bodied mule out testing, and it might be a major hint that development for the reborn French brand is getting serious again. Unfortunately, it's hard to pull many details about the future Alpine just from this mule. Up front the air extractors are noticeably covered, and at the rear there's now a panel hiding the engine with just some small vents near the very back. The roof-mounted scoop appears to be the major means of sending cool air to the powertrain. Alpine has been back in the news as of late. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the brand's Celebration Concept was unveiled but without many real details. Then, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the car was filmed actually moving under its own power. Earlier reports suggest that a production version, possibly called the AS1, might come in 2017 with around 250 horsepower on tap from an engine mounted behind the driver. Engineers would keep weight as low as possible to make the most from that power. While no version in the US is likely, prices in Europe might be about the equivalent of $34,000 to $40,000.

Lotus Evora GT410 Sport exhaust is the best new holiday song

No matter what holidays people are celebrating, there's one winter celebration car enthusiasts can come together for: Driftmas. A Lotus Evora GT410 Sport was recently possessed by the ghost of Driftmas present Ken Block and decided to get sideways all over the Lotus campus in Hethel, Norfolk, England. The result is a beautiful winter symphony. The video is done in a slightly cheeky manner, as the yellow Evora shows up to work with a fully geared-up driver in the front seat, and a full Christmas tree stick to the rear engine cover. After blowing past a pristine Espirit S1 in a "slow" zone, the Evora slowly creeps through one of the garages, where a beautiful black and gold Type 72 race car sits quiet as a mouse. It then makes its way through a testing area and to a parking lot, where it rings a few bells around three specialty Lotus models, including what appear to be Exige Cup cars. It finishes the ride in front of the main office, where Lotus has another Christmas tree filled with little toy cars as ornaments. Before the Grinches start complaining about how it's not Gymkhana, that's correct. It's not. But we'd never turn our noses at a video with a soundtrack a sweet as this. Merry Driftmas to all. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Related Video:

Lotus C-01 motorcycle shows its carbon-fiber face

Well, this isn't exactly what we were expecting. The images you see above come from Motorcycle News in the UK and are apparently official renderings of what the upcoming Lotus C-01 motorcycle will look like. As you can see, it's sort of a power cruiser, with a raked-out front end and extremely wide rubber out back.
Power will reportedly come from a liquid-cooled V-twin engine sourced from KTM, similar to the one used in the Austrian's brand's own RC8R, but tuned to produce around 200 horsepower. It appears that the powertrain and all its related necessities will be housed in a carbon fiber monocoque (whether the bodywork serves as a stressed member or not, we can't say) in a traditional-looking black (really, exposed carbon fiber weave) and yellow color scheme.
From the looks of these renderings, the C-01 might be intended as a competitor for the Ducati Diavel and ought to be very quick in a straight line. We're not so sure that's what a motorcycle wearing the Lotus badge should be, even if its builders are only using the marque's name under license, but we're looking forward to seeing the final result in production trim.