2005 Lotus Elise Base Convertible 2-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Race Recap: 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix follows the template of this year and last [spoilers]

The sand, the wind, the penalties, the contact and the one crash - all of them collided to make the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix a surprise affair from day to day and lap to lap. Oh, and did we mention the tires? Pirelli made a last-minute swap after the amusement park ride that the Chinese Grand Prix turned into with the soft compound tire, and brought medium and hard compounds to the desert. That didn't stop things from falling apart for some teams - literally - and that didn't stop the one team that seems to love the hard compound Pirelli tire.

The Lotus 3-Eleven 430 is the fastest street-legal Lotus built

You're looking at the fastest street-legal Lotus ever built. Weighing in at 2,028 pounds, the new Lotus 3-Eleven 430 can hit 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds and continue all the way to 180 mph. It's a fitting tribute for 40 years of Lotus cars. As expected, the "430" in its name refers to its power output. There's no four-banger screamer in the 3-Eleven 430: The supercharged, Toyota-sourced 3.5-liter, 24-valve V6 produces 430 hp and 324.5 lb-ft. of torque. There's a lightweight carbon-composite body on an extruded-bonded aluminum chassis, and the carbon side panels are partially exposed for that cool carbon look. You also get variable, six-position traction control, with five levels ranging from 1 percent slip to 12 percent slip to off. Lateral acceleration while cornering is a respectable 1.5 g. At the Hethel test track, the new 3-Eleven 430 has reportedly beaten previous Lotus efforts. With a lap time of 1:24, it's 0.8 seconds quicker than an Exige Cup 430, and it also completely obliterates the previous, 2015 3-Eleven by shaving off 2 whole seconds. Only 20 units will be built, so few people will get to experience the 430 at maximum attack. Lotus has priced the 3-Eleven 430 at GBP102,000 on the road in the UK, which corresponds to $142,525. Related Video: Featured Gallery Lotus 3-Eleven 430 Lotus Convertible Performance lotus 3-eleven

The Stig breaks into Lotus F1 HQ

As Top Gear's mysterious test driver, The Stig has driven just about everything on wheels - and more than a few things without. But an F1 car? That still remains a rarity, even on Top Gear.
That all changes in this latest promo clip, though. The video shows what happened when his Royal Stigness arrived at the headquarters of the Lotus F1 team in Enstone, England, where he somehow managed to scan his way in past security and got his hands on a Lotus-Renault E21, the V8-powered single-seater that Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean drove in the 2013 Formula One World Championship - and which the Stig will apparently be driving on stage during the upcoming Top Gear Festival in Durban. If you're not heading to South Africa this month, though (or even if you are), you can check out the footage in the video below.