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Lotus says it's hiring 200 new engineers in effort to expand

Lotus is making moves to rise back up in the automotive world. A report from The Telegraph says the British company will hire 200 new engineers. This batch of hiring comes from the pockets of new Chinese owner Geely. The plans also include the opening of a new engineering center in the U.K. away from its longtime home in Norfolk. Lotus CEO, Phip Popham said this about the new moves. "Lotus has been in survival mode for many years. We're taking on people here and also in the Midlands. We need to tap into the industrial resource outside Norfolk to help our growth," Popham said. These new hires are all part of a multi-billion dollar investment into Lotus from Geely to try and turn the company around. Ultimately, Lotus wants to triple its current production all the way up to 5,000 cars per year. One of the initiatives from this investment is an all-electric hypercar we saw teased not too long ago. Popham also spoke of making cars with a slightly different focus than the Lotus we know of today. "A car not just for the weekend, but one you can live with," Popham says. Ideas of a Lotus SUV or grand tourer have bounced around in the recent past, and those still appear to be in the company's plans. The British brand plans on tapping Geely for many items it doesn't already have, according to the report. These include modern items like digital display screens and parts required for electrification of its vehicles. A new platform meant to house these "livable" Lotus cars is said to be in the works.

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.

Lotus Emira V6 First Edition starts at $93,900 in the U.S.

A Lotus Talk forum thread revealed the letter Lotus sent to U.S. buyers who put in reservations for the coming Emira. The automaker revealed U.S. pricing; the V6 First Edition arriving in early 2022 starts at $93,900, and in late 2022 as a 2023-model-year-offering there will be a base four-cylinder Emira that starts at $74,900. Before the base I4 comes, the four-pot will also get a First Edition that we expect will elevate that $74,900 figure. Those prices don't include destination.   That V6 isn't cheap, of course, but it's less than the $100,000 price tag we guessed at based on the Emira's European pricing. That launch car also comes just about fully loaded, graced with the Driver's Pack, Lower Black Pack (more on that in a moment), Design Pack, and Convenience Pack, plus optional 20-inch wheels with diamond-cut two-tone finish and two-piece brake discs with branded calipers. It won't cost anything to swap the wheels for silver or black versions. The only other big-time options we know about so far are the $1,400 Extended Black Pack, which adds more black accents in places like the roof, mirror caps, and exhaust finishers, and the $2,150 six-speed automatic to replace the six-speed manual. But why would you get an automatic? The engine in the initial Emira is the same Toyota-sourced supercharged 3.5-liter V6 found in the Evora, producing 400 horsepower and 310 or 317 pound-feet of torque depending on transmission — the automatic gets the greater torque. The go-to competition for the V6 version is the Porsche Cayman GT4, the German doling out 14 more horsepower than the Englander for the same claimed 0-60 time, while being about $8,000 more expensive.  Next year's base model will run with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder procured from AMG, producing 360 hp and shifting through a dual-clutch transmission. The four-cylinder starts at about $2,400 more than the 350-hp Cayman S, but both cars will weigh and accelerate just about the same.   The six colors available now for the Lotus are Seneca Blue, Magma Red, Hethel Yellow, Dark Verdant, Shadow Grey and Nimbus Grey, but Lotus says more colors are coming. Word is Lotus plans to update its configurator on October 18, too, which should provide a better idea of what's going to be possible.  The Emira will replace every current model in Lotus' range, the Evora, Exige, and Elise, and be the last new internal combustion sports car from the Hethel maker.