2010 Lotus Evora S Coupe 2-door 3.5l Supercharged on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lotus Eletre opens a new front in electric SUVs

Ladies and gentlemen, the new era of Lotus as an EV maker begins with this, the Eletre. It takes elements we've seen on the Evija battery-electric hypercar and Emira ICE sports car, wraps them in a larger package, jacks them up, and throws in a lot of new tech for the brand and the market. Let's start with size, which is the easy bit. The Eletre is 201 inches long on a 118.9-inch wheelbase, about 79 inches wide, and 64 inches high. Every one of those dimensions puts the Lotus within a couple of inches of the Aston Martin DBX: the EV being a little longer, with a slightly shorter wheelbase, a little wider, and a roof a couple of inches lower. For us, the side view most closely represents the form we had in mind based on recent spy shots. The front is intense, the yellow of the hero car making the greatest contrast with the polygonal void below. The lights above the leading edge are DRLs and turn signals, the main beams are recessed into that void, hugging the upper edge. The rear, with its Lotus script and full-width light bar fading into triangular intakes along the sides, clearly comes from the sports cars. It can glow in four colors depending on what it needs to communicate, and forms a connection with the light bar across the instrument panel. The SUV proportions and black roof are still playing tricks with our eyes, though; we can't help feeling the Eletre carries its bulk up high. The wheels are an optional set of 23-inchers that hide optional 10-piston (ten!) calipers gripping ceramic composite rotors. Lotus isn't ready to divulge specific battery capacity and motor outputs between those wheels. All we're told is the pack is more than 100 kWh and output starts at 600 horsepower. Every Eletre is all-wheel-drive, with a motor on each axle. The 800-volt electrical architecture can handle up to 350-kW fast-charging, 20 minutes at a station at that charge rate restoring 248 WLTP miles of the Eletre's estimated 373-mile range in WLTP testing. EPA numbers will come eventually. Lotus says the hauler will get to 62 miles per hour in under 3 seconds and hit a top speed of 161 mph. The electronic side mirror housings each contain three cameras, one camera for the rear views, one to help stitch a 360-degree overhead view, and one to help enable self-driving. The charge port is on the front left fender, but keen eyes might notice more shutlines atop the front wheel arches.

Lotus F1 Team reveals new E23 Hybrid

Lotus is keen to leave a lackluster 2014 Formula One World Championship campaign behind it and race forward towards a new era, and this is the car with which it hopes to do so. The new E23 Hybrid is the twenty-third chassis to come from the Enstone-based team. As with the new Williams that was the first new chassis revealed for this year, the principal difference you can see is the more conventional nose to replace the twin-tusk setup of the E22, but there's more to it than that. For starters, it's the first new Lotus to pack Mercedes power after the team parted ways with Renault – the manufacturer that used to own the team and which has powered every car the team has built since Benetton signed with the French automaker way back in 1995. It also packs a completely new suspension setup after the original FRIC design in the preceding E22 was banned mid-season, forcing Enstone engineers to go back to the drawing board halfway through the championship. Word has it that, after earlier rumors suggested the team might not even make it back onto the grid, new sponsors will be added before the season gets under way in Melbourne on March 15 with the Australian Grand Prix. To pilot the new car, Lotus has retained the same two drivers as last year in Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. The team is hoping to perform better this season than it did the last, when it finished the constructors' championship way down in eighth place – the same result it achieved in 2009 under Renault ownership and the worst it had performed since the Toleman days in 1983.

A Lotus Super Seven shows what simple beauty means

Roadgoing sports cars don't get much more pure than the Lotus Seven. With no roof or luxuries of any kind, this is quite possibly the car that exemplifies better than any other Lotus founder Colin Chapman's ethos of "simplify, then add lightness." Geoff Wise owns a 1963 Lotus Super Seven, and he shows why the car's uncluttered layout works so well, as you'll see in Petrolicious' latest video. Petrolicious often profiles people who take a classic car and upgrade it into a vintage racer one piece at a time. Wise did the exact opposite, though. He bought his Seven as a track car and converted it to work better on the road. For example, the engine now runs on pump gas, but it still has plenty of power. The bored and stroked 1.7-liter four-cylinder has a claimed 120 horsepower, which is more than adequate in the 1,000-pound Lotus. Wise says the Seven gets tons of attention when he goes for a drive, especially from kids. It's easy to understand why. In a world of crossovers and active safety systems, seeing a car that's so basic is transfixing. Enjoy watching the little Lotus on the road in the latest clip from Petrolicious. If you don't have the space for one in the garage, there's at least the option of the upcoming Lego kit for your bookshelf. Related Video: