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Jay Leno checks out Ronin RS 211, a Lotus Elise transformed

You know a vehicle is going to be something special when you need a pair of goggles to drive it, and this highly customized Lotus lives up to that promise. The owner refers to his one-off as the Ronin RS 211, but underneath that barely there body are a few parts left from a 2005 Lotus Elise. Owner Frank Profera totaled his Elise when a Porsche rear-ended it, but he wasn't willing to give the sports car up. With a canvas to build from, Profera took inspiration from the Lotus 2-Eleven and Can-Am cars, and the Ronin resulted. Not content with just a svelte body, the powertrain received just as thorough an upgrade as the looks. The engine still displaces 1.8 liters but features improved internals. The piece de resistance, though, is the custom turbocharger setup that runs on a mix of pump gas and alcohol to put out a claimed 680 horsepower, which sounds great screaming through the California canyons. "Ronin" is a Japanese word for a master-less samurai, and with its featherlight weight, just a vestigial windshield and gobs of power, the RS 211 is a fantastic automotive symbol for the type of sword such a warrior might carry. Watch as Jay takes an extra long drive on the latest episode of Jay Leno's Garage.

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 slated to stop selling Evora in US

It's been three years now since Lotus stopped selling the Elise and Exige in North America, leaving the Evora as its only model available Stateside. But according to the latest from Car and Driver, even that model is on its way out.
The problem reportedly comes down to air bags. Lotus was granted a temporary exemption from fitting the latest-generation smart airbags to the Evora, but that exemption is set to expire at the end of the year. And once it does, Lotus apparently has no intention of developing and fitting the proper equipment to allow it to continue selling the Evora in the United States.
Once the Evora is gone from our market, Lotus will be reduced to selling only track-bound versions of the Elise and Exige in the US, so the prospect of actually buying a new Lotus and driving off the dealer lot will vanish into thin air.