2011 Lotus Evora 2+0, Navigation, 14 Miles on 2040-cars

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Lotus Evora, Exige, and Elise add lightness to Geneva

The folks at Lotus have been quite busy over the past few months adding lightness to their vehicles. Since December, the company has introduced lighter, quicker versions of the Evora, Exige, and Elise, and all three members of the trio are present at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. Each one is special in its own way, but if you crave a nimble sports car, you probably wouldn't be disappointed with any of these new models. The Evora Sport 410 is the most luxurious member of the bunch, at least by Lotus standards. At 2,921 pounds, it's also the heaviest, but a 410-horsepower 3.5-liter supercharged V6 makes this one the most powerful, too. The coupe can rocket to 60 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds and to a 186-mph top speed. Lotus will make just 150 of these special Evoras per year, and they'll have carbon fiber parts for the roof, tailgate, sports seats, and more. Best of all, this will be the only one of these three that will get a North American version. The Exige Sport 350 Roadster is the coolest member of this group, featuring tartan seats that we absolutely love. It's also the quickest of the three, reaching 60 mph in just 3.7 seconds, and it tops out at 170 mph. The rapid sprint is possible because the 345-hp 3.5-liter supercharged V6 only needs to push 2,480 pounds. The Elise Cup 250 rounds out the group with the lightest weight at 2,053 pounds (2,030 pounds with the optional Carbon Aero Package) but the least power at 243 hp. However, it certainly isn't slow with a 60-mph run in 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 154 mph. Lotus plans to make just 200 of them year each year. If you could pick any one of the three, which would you choose? The Evora might be the most livable every day but chucking around the Elise could be a barrel of fun. There're also those fantastic seats in the Exige. Let us know in Comments which one you want the most.

2015 Monaco F1 Grand Prix race recap [spoilers]

Lewis Hamilton came to Monaco with a new three-year deal with Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a vow to not let anything, including any "mistakes" by teammate Nico Rosberg, stand in the way of his best qualifying effort. Mercedes reportedly made it rain with a 100-million-pound deal, and Hamilton made it rain right back with his first pole position at Monaco. Rosberg did make a mistake but this time it was behind Hamilton, which meant he stuffed-up the qualifying attempts of rival drivers like Sebastian Vettel. So Rosberg starts second, 0.342 behind Hamilton but 0.449 ahead of Vettel in the Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo thinks he should have been third, but a communication error with his engineers left him in the wrong engine setting for his final hot lap, so by the very first corner he'd lost the time he would have needed to get higher than fourth on the grid. The second Infiniti Red Bull Racing of Daniil Kvyat slots in behind him, ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi "Not A Very Happy Day" Raikkonen, who just can't get it going lately. Sergio Perez did for the Sahara Force India what the car can't do on its own, which is grab a top-ten qualifying spot. Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz had qualified eighth but missed a call to the weigh bridge, so he's been slapped into the pit lane. Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus inherits his eighth place, ahead of rookie Max Verstappen in the second Toro Rosso, and Jenson Button in the McLaren. Button only got up there because of two penalties: for Sainz, and Romain Grosjean who had qualified 11th but took a penalty for a gearbox change. Want to know how hard it is to do better on race day than in qualifying at Monaco? Even the never-say-die Fernando Alonso said, "Monte Carlo is a train of cars on Sunday, the race finishes on Saturday afternoon." Well obviously, he didn't take Max Verstappen's seek-and-destroy tactics into account. The young Dutchman had made passing look like a real option in Monaco, getting past Maldonado at St. Devote on Lap 7 after a bit of argy-bargy on Lap 6, then taking advantage of blue flags to slink past teammate Carlos Sainz and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas while hiding in Sebastian Vettel's slipstream. He tried the same move on Romain Grosjean on Lap 65, but Grosjean locked him out. Verstappen lined up the Lotus driver over the following laps, then looked like he slipped to the inside at St.

Lotus to receive $16M government grant

Troubled British automaker Lotus is getting a second infusion of cash following a 100-million-pound ($161.5-million) investment by its parent company DRB-Hicom that was made in August. The substantially smaller investment, a mere 10 million pounds ($16.2 million), comes from the British government's Regional Growth Fund.
The fund, which is part of a 3-billion-pound ($4.8-billion) fund to spur economic growth in the UK, will allow Lotus to invest even further in research and development as it seeks to reinvent its lineup of lightweight sports cars. The fund will also allow the UK-based outfit to provide further training for its new crop of employees.
"This grant is part of a wider strategy for Lotus created to ensure we thrive and grow. We are responding to increased global demand for our cars and engineering consultancy services and this grant will help to position Lotus as the forefront of global automotive innovation," said Aslam Farikullah (shown above with UK Business Secretary Vince Cable MP), the chief operating officer at Lotus.