2013 - Lotus Evora on 2040-cars

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Last Lotus Elise delivered to the person it was named after

Lotus just made an announcement on its social media channels that the last customer-bound Elise has been built — we'll note that Lotus built the very last Elise for itself — and delivered to its final customer, Elisa Artioli. If you havenÂ’t heard of her before, itÂ’s time for a little Lotus history lesson. Back when the Elise came to fruition and was released in 1996, Romano Artioli was the companyÂ’s chairman. When it came time to finalize a name for the two-seat sports car, Romano looked to his granddaughter, Elisa, for inspiration.  For those who find full-circle stories satisfying, itÂ’s hard to get any better than this one. The Elise youÂ’re looking at here is the final customer-bound Elise in the world, and itÂ’s going to none other than the woman who the car is named after. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. As for the spec of the car itself, this is an Elise Sport 240, and itÂ’s painted in “Championship Gold.” The Sport 240 features a 1.8-liter supercharged four-cylinder thatÂ’s good for 240 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque. Weighing only 2,033 pounds, itÂ’s capable of a 4.1-second 0-60 mph sprint and has a top speed of 147 mph. What a lovely story! WeÂ’ve asked Lotus for more photos and additional information, and weÂ’ll update when we hear back.

Lotus sells loads more cars, earns way more money

Sports-car company Lotus has reason to be excited. It released some facts on its sales and financial performance for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal year, and it has seen some impressive improvements. According to the company, it sold nearly 60 percent more cars in mainland Europe compared with the 2015/2016 fiscal year, and it sold six times as many cars in the U.S. compared with that year. This helped it go from a loss of GBP16.3 million for the previous year in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to a GBP2 million profit EBITDA. The fact that those numbers are given before all those extra expenses is noteworthy, though, as it means the company isn't truly profitable yet, despite major gains. The company did report numbers that only excluded tax, and those show the company still lost money. But the good news is that it lost much, much less money than the year before. Before taxes for the 2015/2016 fiscal year, the company lost GBP41.2 million, and this year, it only lost GBP11.2 million. The company expects it will be profitable before tax in the coming year. So Lotus isn't perfectly healthy yet, but this, combined with Geely's recent acquisition, shows it's well on its way to becoming fit as a fiddle. We like the cars Lotus makes, so we hope that things keep getting better, and that we'll maybe get more Lotus models in the future, beyond just the Evora road car and 3-Eleven track car. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2017 Lotus Evora 400: First Drive View 29 Photos Image Credit: Lotus Earnings/Financials Lotus Coupe Lightweight Vehicles Performance

Lotus Elise Sprint adds lightness to lightness

Lotus announced the introduction of a new Elise trim level that exemplifies founder Colin Chapman's famous phrase of "simplify and add lightness." The new Elise Sprint combines the weight savings of the current standard Elise, along with a number of Sprint-exclusive parts for what Lotus claims is the model's most significant weight loss yet of about 90 pounds over the old model, bringing the car's dry weight (not curb weight) to 1,759 pounds. The exclusive Sprint parts account for about 57 pounds of that loss. They include a lithium-ion battery, forged wheels, polycarbonate rear window, and carbon fiber for the seats, roll bar cover, engine cover, and access panel. Interestingly, the biggest savings come from the lithium-ion battery, which is roughly 20 pounds lighter than the normal battery. Lotus also includes the optional two-piece brake rotors and carbon fiber door sills to reach the 90 pound total. This all translates to slightly quicker 0-60 mph times for Elise Sprint models over their Sport counterparts. Both the 1.6-liter 134-horsepower Sprint and 1.8-liter 217-horsepower Sprint 220 models complete the run to 60 mph a tenth of a second quicker than the equivalent Sport versions, with times of 5.9 and 4.1 seconds respectively. The weight loss also results in a price gain. For either Sprint model, you'll end up paying an extra GBP5,000, which is a bit over $6,100 at current exchange rates. Of course, the Elise isn't available in the US anyway, so it's a moot point. Related Video: