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The Caterham Seven Sprint is a perfect retro-style British roadster

A Caterham Seven oozes retro style. Modern engineering may mean the car no longer shares any parts with its original Lotus counterpart, but one look at the little roadster and it's easy to see the car's heritage. Caterham loves pumping out variants of the Seven, and the 2016 Goodwood Revival seemed like the perfect place to announce the latest version, the throwback Caterham Seven Sprint. Caterham calls the Seven Sprint a design "that was seemingly planned in the mid-1960s but never launched." It's apt then that the company is using it to kick off its "60 Years of the Seven" celebrations. The Seven Sprint is based off the European-only 160 model, meaning it's powered by an 80-hp turbocharged three-cylinder Suzuki engine. While the bonkers Seven 620 R may be the biggest and baddest Caterham available, the bare bones Seven 160 just feels more appropriate here. There are a number of retro styling touches throughout the car. The limited edition Seven Sprint comes wrapped in one of six colors originally offered by Lotus in 1966 and 1967. The Chassis is powder-coated grey, just like the Series 2 Lotus Seven. The cream-colored wheels feature polished hubcaps, while the interior features a wood-trimmed wheel and the interior is trimmed in a wonderful shade of red. The body has been slightly reworked to look more like the original Lotus designed car. Mechanically, not much has changed. Power from the Suzuki three is fed through a five-speed manual. Some of the suspension bits are similar to Colin Chapman's original design, but that's true of the standard 160. The car should be just as much of a riot as any other Caterham, just packed to the gills with style. The Seven Sprint is available only as a fully-complete factory car. It's unknown if any of the 60 produced will make it to the US. Prices in the UK start at GBP27,995, or about $37,000. Related Video: Featured Gallery Caterham Sprint Image Credit: Caterham Cars Design/Style Lotus Automakers Convertible caterham seven

Lotus could be sold to Chinese automaker Geely

Two things are constant throughout the history of Lotus Cars: amazing vehicles, and financial struggles. Frequent changes in both ownership and leadership have left the company's future up in the air. And while the new management has improved quality and set a new product plan in place, its seems that Lotus could have a new parent company soon. Despite comments to the contrary, Chinese automaker Geely is rumored to be interested in acquiring Lotus Cars. The British automaker has been owned by Proton since 1996, but after Proton was sold to DRB-Hicom in 2012 investors suggested selling off Lotus. The Star Online reports that PSA in France is rumored to be looking at purchasing Proton cars from DRB-Hicom. In turn, Geely, the parent company of Volvo, is interested in purchasing Lotus from Proton. The report states that Geely has no interest in mass-market vehicles from Proton, while crossover-focus PSA, owner of Peugeot and Citroen, has no interest in a sports car manufacturer like Lotus. China has been encouraging its native automakers to purchase and acquire technology it lacks. Buying Lotus looks like it would benefit both companies. Lotus needs an influx of cash while Geely, looking to compete further on the global stage, would gain a great deal of technical and engineering knowledge from Lotus. Geely's stewardship of Volvo has been mostly hands-off, while giving the Swedish company enough money to invest in new platforms and technologies. If the same were to happen to Lotus, Colin Chapman's company could have its best years ahead of it. Related Video: News Source: The Star Online via Car BuzzImage Credit: Getty Rumormill Lotus Volvo Citroen Peugeot Lightweight Vehicles Performance Supercars Geely

Lotus relocating US headquarters to Michigan

Lotus is planning a renewed push into the North American market. It's got the new Evora 400 coming to America in December, and it's expanding its dealer network as well. And it'll orchestrate it all from its new US headquarters in Ann Arbor, MI. The move will see the main office of Lotus Cars USA leave its current base in Lawrenceville, GA, to move in together with Lotus Engineering in Ann Arbor, putting both operations under one larger roof. The transition is earmarked to be completed by the end of next month. But that's not all. Lotus has also announced that it is expanding its dealer network across North America. The first push will see four new dealerships opening across the United States and Canada, with a pair of new showrooms in California (West Covina and Thermal), another in the car-collector mecca of Scottsdale, AZ, and a new Canadian location in Calgary, Alberta. That'll bring the showroom count up to 47 locations in North America, with more franchises planned for the near future as well. The new and improved Lotus Evora 400 is slated to arrive at US and Canadian dealers starting in December. It packs a number of upgrades over the Evora S, including more power, less weight, new bodywork, and carbon-ceramic brakes. The result is a 0-60 time of 4.1 seconds, a top speed quoted at 186 miles per hour, and Hethel test track lap time clocked at six seconds faster than its predecessor. Pricing starts at $89,900. Related Video: EXPANSION AND CO-LOCATION FOR LOTUS IN THE USA - Co-location of Lotus Cars USA. Inc, to Lotus Engineering. Inc, in Ann Arbor, MI to support growth - First deliveries of New Lotus Evora 400 in USA and Canada in December 2015 - Expansion of the Lotus dealer network The introduction of the Lotus Evora 400, as a 2017 North American Model Year, marks the start of a fresh period in Lotus' presence in this vital market. The previous model Evora already received positive acclaim from media, customers and dealers alike and reaffirmed Lotus as the maker of some of the finest, purest, most lightweight and most efficient sports cars sold today. Jean-Marc Gales, Chief Executive Officer, Group Lotus plc, explains: "The Lotus Evora 400 combines high performance with the legendary Lotus benchmark handling. It is lighter, more efficient and dynamically better than ever.