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Lotus Emira V6 First Edition finally being delivered to customers

In July 2021, Lotus revealed the Emira, its final ICE-powered sports car before flipping to an all-electric lineup. By the time we got to drive it in December 2023, our Zac Palmer wrote, "you can’t spend $105,900 on a single car that would be more fun than the V6 First Edition I drove. There just isnÂ’t another option out there that drives like the Emira, putting it in a class of its own for the enthusiast who wants the most unfiltered experience possible." The problem for Emira buyers reading that — the ones sitting on reservations more than two years old — was that none of them had their cars. Last March, Gator Motorsports' franchise Indy Lotus in Indianapolis sent a letter to reservation holders explaining the holdup as U.S. certification, specifically certification by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). At the same time, CarBuzz reported that Emira V6 First Edition units destined for the U.S. would land here last summer but wouldn't be released to customers until between mid-October and mid-December. Except Lotus dealers then had to explain to buyers in January of this year that cars here were getting a software update, likely for certification purposes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had given the Emira its blessing, but Lotus didn't want to deliver units that couldn't be registered in the 14 states that adhere to CARB mandates, so it held all of them (and perhaps prevented some car-flipping). At the end of last month, the Californians approved of what Lotus had done with its engine programming, freeing the Emira to head to good homes. At one point, Lotus planned to have cars here in time to get into the 2022 model year, now it's a 2024. On the Emira Forum, in a thread about USA and Canadian delivery that's grown to more than 500 pages, someone posted the CARB approval on March 2, page 461 of the thread. The first response from a forum member in Stage 4 of the Five Stages of Grief — mentioned just four posts earlier — was, "Is this legit? This isn't something you did as a joke on the forum?" It's no joke, other forum posters are reporting that they are receiving their cars. Nay, twas not a joke. What's also serious is a higher price for the eventual entry-level trim, the Emira First Edition powered by an AMG-sourced turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine.

Lotus Eletre electric SUV reveal: Tune in today at 2:30 p.m Eastern

The upcoming electric Lotus SUV formerly known as the Type 132 officially has a name. It will be called the Lotus Eletre, and the vehicle’s full reveal is today, Tuesday, March 29. For those curious, Lotus says that Eletre means “coming to life” in some Eastern European languages. If you want to pronounce it properly, Lotus provides the phonetic spelling: “El-etra.” Basically, the "e" at the end is to be pronounced as an "a." Beyond the name announcement, Lotus doesnÂ’t have anything extra to share with us today. The name itself was revealed in a dramatic fashion, as a specially-made yellow cube containing the car was piloted up and down the River Thames in central London. Boats and cars being in the same news story as of late havenÂ’t always been for good reasons, but thankfully, this one seems to have gone just fine. If you want to watch the reveal live, make sure to tune in here at 2:30 p.m. ET Tuesday. WeÂ’ll have the live stream in this post waiting to start, so you can check back in right here at reveal time.

All 25 James Bond movies ranked only by their cars

There is no shortage of lists ranking the best James Bond movies. Ditto lists about the best or worst James Bond cars. I know, I've written some of them. As such, why not combine the two ideas into one new list that ranks all 25 official James Bond movies based exclusively on their cars, or more accurately their car content. I would then pull from my 25 years of James Bond nerddom plus the excellent "Bond Cars: The Definitive History" and our interview with long-time Bond special effects supervisor Chris Corbould to provide tidbits and factoids about the cars and their roles in the movies. And yes(!), this list now includes "No Time to Die," which impresses by adding plenty of car content to the series. It's now available on Blu-ray and download. To determine the list, I considered the inherent coolness of the cars as well as their importance to Bond, film and car history. I considered their importance to the story as well as the quality/excitement of the chases and scenes they participated in. Finally, I tried my best to divorce the car content from my opinions about the movies in general. That my personal list of best James movies looks nothing like this shows I was at least partially successful.     25. 'Moonraker' There are virtually no cars in "Moonraker." None. Oh, there's a gondola on wheels that makes a pigeon do a double-take, but that's not the same thing as a car. Neither is a golf cart. Or an ambulance. Or a space shuttle.   24. 'From Russia With Love' The literary James Bond mostly drove an ancient Bentley, and "From Russia with Love" is the only film in which it appears. It stays parked and the coolest thing that happens (by 1962 standards) is 007 answers its car phone. Thereafter, we get some old cars (even by 1962 standards) driving around Istanbul and a yellow truck. So yeah. Classic Bond film, a must-watch, just not for its car content.   23. 'Dr. No' History records that the first "Bond car" is the Sunbeam Alpine in "Dr. No." The car itself was literally borrowed from a Miss Jennifer Jackson of 53 Lady Musgrave Road in Jamaica for 10 pounds per day for two days during filming. Also, the stunt where it drove under an excavator blocking the road was entirely conceived because the filmmakers showed up to the road they intended to film on and discovered an excavator blocking the thing. Sadly, those are really the only two things interesting about the Alpine, which is a pretty small and dainty thing by Bond car standards.