Road Strikers

I'm stumped. It looks exactly the same as the Elise R, so why's it here? When Rover died the entry level, K-Series-powered Elise went with it along with a loyal customer base that couldn't stretch to a whopping £29,945 (in basic trim) for the Toyota-powered 'R'. Meet the 'S', the new entry level Elise. It's £6000 cheaper than the 'R' and is powered by a distant relative of the trick VVTLi engine, built by Yamaha for the Toyota Celica. The 134bhp, 1.8-litre engine sitting under the rear clamshell is lifted from the current Corolla. Unlike the 'R' it’s not been fettled by Yamaha, meaning different internals, no electronic valve lift and one less cog in the gearbox. Is this a pared to the bone, hardcore track-special then? Not really. The Elise has never been exactly luxurious but the 'S' still comes with a stereo, Probax bucket seats, alloy wheels and new LED rear lights. The windows are wind down (hardly a chore in an Elise), th...

What's this – a slightly bigger Elise? Kind of. Lotus claims the Europa delivers the majority of the Elise and Exige's driving thrills while offering a load more practicality and comfort – 'business class by Lotus', says the blurb. It's a bit longer than the Elise, a smidge wider and a good deal heavier (995kg versus 860kg), but sticks with the Norfolk firm's trademark mid-engined, rear-wheel drive layout. The bonded aluminium chassis will be familiar to Lotus fans too. You'll pay £32,995. Europa? Don't I recognise that name? Quite possibly. Colin Chapman first released the frog-eyed, pick-up-like Europa in 1966 – his first mid-engined road car. Understandably, Lotus' design department opted for a clean sheet this time. Even so, it still doesn't gel quite as well as the Elise or Exige, looking more like the offspring of a Noble M15 and Vauxhall VX220. Credit where it's due, mind, the Europa turned heads constantly while we blasted through ...

It looks like a slightly more colourful Exige - what's the story? This is the Exige 265E - the fastest ever Exige and the first bio-ethanol Lotus. The digits 265 denote the 265PS power output, or 261bhp in old money – up 46bhp over the standard car. The 'E' informs people that this car runs on ethanol, alcohol made from the fermentation of crops, mixed with petrol. Using this greener fuel results in a claimed 70 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The Exige 265E is a development prototype created by Lotus Engineering, the Norfolk firm's fiendishly clever consultancy arm. In only five weeks between July and August 2006, its engineers completely re-engineered the Toyota engine powering the standard Exige S to run on the wheat-derived fuel. The result is the fastest road-legal bio-ethanol car (and the fastest Exige) ever built. Performance is sensational - 0-60mph flashes up in only 3.88 seconds before running out of puff at a mind bending 158mph. Who says bein...

We’ve been subjected to some rather tenuous special edition Elises in the past, but this is a bit different. The fastest, most powerful production version of Lotus’s baby sports car yet, it’s essentially an Elise R (formerly the 111R, now renamed) fitted with a supercharger to provide an extra 28bhp. So it’s got the engine from the Exige S? If only things were that simple. Yes, it uses the same basic 1.8-litre Toyota engine, but the Exige is fitted with an intercooler that sits on top of the engine under the fastback. The Elise though has a flat engine cover meaning the intercooler won’t fit. So Lotus reengineered the car to work without an intercooler. Incredibly, the non-intercooled engine produces the same 217bhp as the intercooled car as well as 156lb ft of torque. Those figures don’t represent a massive on-paper improvement over the 189bhp and 133lb ft but the torque curve is fuller and and the peak shifts from a silly 6800rpm to a more usable ...

At 270bhp, this is the most powerful Exige Lotus has ever built yet it is also one of the most environmentally friendly. The Exige 270E Tri-Fuel, to give it its full title, has been produced by research engineers at Lotus Engineering to demonstrate how straightforward it can be to develop high performance carbon neutral vehicles using sustainable liquid fuel. The 270E can run on either petrol, ethanol or methanol or a blend of all three if necessary. It forms part of a research program looking into the technicalities associated with burning mixtures of petrol and alcohol fuels and since the Exige is already supercharged, also dovetails neatly with the trend towards downsizing by using smaller capacity boosted engines to improve efficiency. A green Lotus Exige? How can that be any fun? Oh, it’s fun. On Lotus’s southern test track the Exige quickly demonstrated just how potent it is. Cruising at low throttle openings the engine sounds quite innocuous, although because it...

The 2-Eleven is the most track-focused road car Lotus has ever built. And we’ve emphasised the ‘road car’ bit because despite the wings and splitters and launch control and racing stripes the Lotus 2-Eleven can be driven to the shops. There is a track-only version that does without lights, a horn, etc. but having driven the 2-Eleven comprehensively on the road we can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t go for the full SVA-approved version. Hold your horses. Road? Track? What exactly is the Lotus 2-Eleven? It’s a lightweight track car. It has no doors, no roof and no concessions to comfort. You can’t drive it on the road without a crash helmet – well you could, if you like the taste of bugs – and you don’t really want to be venturing too far from home if there’s rain in the air. However, when sun is shining and you’re faced with a long ribbon of empty tarmac (road or track) the Lotus 2-Eleven sings. So what mak...

CAR's test of the Lotus Eco Elise has an inauspicious start. I slip into the driver's seat – with that swing-legs-in-haul-your-weight-around gymnastic routine familiar to generations of Elise owners – and thumb the start button. The first few hundreds yards confirm the Elise's rich DNA. Who doesn't love Hethel's back-to-basics purity? The tiny rim squirming in your palms, the wings' contours making it a cinch to thread out of the car park, the surprisingly supple ride soaking up pitted road acne. But something's amiss. In the nighttime gloom I can feel what can only be described as old man's trousers lining the steering wheel's boss... The tweed Elise? Just what is the Lotus Eco Elise? As it's pitch black when I leave the office, I am none the wiser until the following morning. My commute home passes in familiar Elise fashion; the Eco Elise is a remarkably easy car to drive, with good visibility and simple, light controls, but it comes alive t...

With the Lotus Evora on the horizon and getting ever closer, Hethel has chosen to update its current range-topping sports car, the Europa. Now available in SE guise, it offers more power and torque, tweaked sports suspension, bigger wheels, bigger brakes and a more luxurious cabin. But with the sublime Elise just below it and the Evora soon to be above it – not to mention competition from the likes of Nisan, Porsche and BMW – can the revised Europa still justify its place in the Lotus line-up? I’d forgotten all about the Lotus Europa. Where does it fit in again? It’s the tin-top Elise that was designed, perhaps optimistically, to take Lotus into Audi TT/Porsche Cayman territory. The new SE model has some engineering mods to improve those crucial performance stats: the 0-60mph sprint time drops from 5.8 to 4.9 seconds and the charge to 100mph takes over two seconds less at 12.4sec. Unfortunately (for those of you that care about fuel figures in your Lotus), the...

The Government hates the car, and whether that’s true (or whether they just like taxing the motorist), there’s no getting away from the fact that life on the road can be pretty hard. So we need to escape, yet supercars are big and unpractical and out of the reach of almost all of us. Thus the track car came into existence – something light, reasonably powerful, but also reasonable to maintain, something for a day on a circuit or a Sunday morning blast. Now you can have everything from a Caterham to a KTM. Lotus even got in on the act in 2007, introducing the 2-Eleven and reminding the world that they invented the Seven, not Caterham. But the first 2-Elevens were supercharged cars and cost £40k. Only now has Lotus got round to offering a cheaper version, a naturally aspirated car that can be yours for a little over £27k. So I can buy a Lotus 2-Eleven for £27k and hit the road? Er, not quite. You see, your £27,399 does indeed buy you an entry leve...

So Lotus is rinsing out another Elise variant, eh? No, the Evora really is new, the first all-new Lotus for nearly 15 years in fact. It’s built to take on the likes of the Porsche Cayman and 911 and slots into the Lotus range above the Elise and below the forthcoming Esprit. You might have read our innovative, real-time test drive blog live from the launch of the Evora. That might have conveyed our excitement from the event – and now’s our chance for a more considered full first drive. How can the new Lotus Evora take on both the Cayman and 911? A couple of reasons. First, a £47,500 price puts it squarely between the two Porsches on price, and secondly, buyers have the option of adding a couple of tiny rear seats for a £2375 premium. The Evora is the world’s only mid-engined 2+2 and certainly much prettier than the last volume effort, Ferrari’s ungainly Mondial (although we’ve got a soft spot for its wedgy Bertone predecessor, the 308 GT...

You’ll struggle to spot the difference, but this is the third-generation 2010-spec Lotus Elise. The basic chassis, brakes and dimensions remain unchanged, but the styling is subtly tweaked (the headlights are the stand-out change, but many of the panels are gently finessed) and the base model now has a 1.6-litre Toyota-sourced engine located amidships and a six-speed gearbox to replace the last generation1.8-litre that hooked up to a five-speeder. Performance of the 2010 Elise is similar, but the price goes up by £900 and the S drops off the base model’s name – it’s just a Lotus Elise these days. Does what it says on the tin. More money for a basic, smaller-engined Elise? Boo! Don’t worry, the R model that sits above the base Elise still features a 1.8-litre lump (an all-new, more sprightly one too with 189bhp), and the 1.6-litre engine gets very similar performance to the old, lower-power 1.8 that used to reside in the S – it has 9lb ft more ...

This is the new Lotus Evora S, and with the help of a supercharger, its 3.5-litre V6 has been boosted from the standard Evora’s 276bhp and 252lb ft, to 345bhp and 295lb ft. Enough, Lotus hopes, to shake off criticism that the Evora just isn’t quick enough; it’s that car’s only real fault, so has the extra power turned the new Evora S into the perfect performance car? Read on for CAR’s first drive of the new 2010 Lotus Evora S. I thought the Lotus Evora was brilliant, so what’s been improved on the new Lotus Evora S? That Toyota-sourced, 3.5-litre V6 has been fitted with a supercharger, which changes the character of the car. Power arrives higher up the rev range, while torque swells lower on the tacho. A glance at the torque curve reveals loads more mid-range grunt, the top speed climbs 10 notches to 172mph, but there are downsides too: the kerbweight goes up by 67kg; the fuel consumption figure drops from 33.2 to 28.3mpg; and the CO2 output is bum...

The new Lotus Evora IPS has a very simple mission in life. New Lotus management are busy patching up their product range to expand Hethel’s footprint around the world – and much of the world prefers their cars to be automatics. Buyers in America and Asia, in particular, are likely to pick the two-pedal option, and Lotus predicts the new Evora IPS will account for 60% of all base Evora sales globally. Sound business, then. Lotus Evora IPS: what does IPS stand for? Get ready to wince: Intelligent Precision Shift. That’s Lotus speak for the Aisin-supplied U660E six-speed torque converter automatic, borrowed from the Toyota Camry. Lotus has totally rewritten the control systems, however, to give it a more sporting edge. Although currently only available on the basic 276bhp Evora, it could be offered on the supercharged Evora S in future; the slusher can handle up to 400NM, coincidentally exactly the 295lb ft peak torque available in the S. What’s the penalty for...

It might be a rare sight on our roads, but we’ve always loved the Lotus Evora for its fluid handling, excellent steering and plentiful performance. So we didn’t need asking twice when we were invited to drive the Evora GT4 on Hethel’s racetrack. And no, the GT4 isn’t just an Evora with some sticky tyres, stiffer shocks and a rollcage – 50% of its parts are new. It’s yours for £124,800 and 30 have been sold so far. Where can I race it? Well, as the name suggests, the Evora GT4 complies with GT4 race regulations, so you can compete in the European or British GT4 series, plus the Blancpain Endurance and Dutch Supercar championships. You can also take part in Lotus’s own Lotus Cup (although the UK series is over-subscribed), while customers have raced at the Dubai 24 hours, Silverstone 1000km, Sepang 12 hours, Bathurst 12 hours and in the British GT championship. Which engine does the Evora GT4 use? The Evora GT4's engine starts out in li...

Lotus Motorsport boss Rupert Manwaring has experienced pretty much everything during his lengthy career, including a stint managing Senna and Piquet at Lotus F1 in the late 1980s. But there’d been nothing quite like the motorsport programme he inherited on his return to Lotus in December 2011. ‘It wasn’t sustainable, and we had to prove to the new owners [DRB-Hicom] that motorsport wasn’t a basketcase… which it was,’ reveals Manwaring. Part of the problem, he says, was that ex-CEO Dany Bahar focused on ‘marketing motorsport’, getting Lotus into multiple top-level championships when F1 publicity would have sufficed. What Lotus needed was affordable, customer-friendly racing projects that could generate cash. The Exige Cup R has been key to that plan; it’s yours from £62,495 plus VAT. The V6 Cup R starts with the guts of the excellent Exige S road car, including its punchy 3.5-litre supercharged V6. To that Lotus adds a 70-litr...

The Lotus Exige S is an automotive hand grenade. Brutally fast and noisy, it prioritises the grin on your face above pretty much everything else, but apparently some people climb out of it saying: ‘You know, this is good, but what I really want is more road noise, stiffer suspension and extra performance’. For these presumably fetishistic people Lotus has created the Exige Cup, which bridges the gap between roadgoing Exige S and race-sanctioned Cup R. To the Exige S it adds two-piece brake discs (for better heat dissipation and reduced fade), 20% stiffer springs and Nitron two-way adjustable dampers, carbon bucket seats, and Pirelli Trofeos that normally come only with a Race Pack-equipped Exige S. But what’s been subtracted is of equal importance, and that includes carpets, airbags – Lotus gets special dispensation because it builds fewer than 1000 units – headlining, noise insulation and leather trim. The Cup is like an Exige S on crystal meth: the un...

The Lotus Exige Scura is a limited edition version of the Exige. Production will be restricted to just 35 examples worldwide. The name 'Scura', meaning 'Dark' in Italian, was chosen to underscore the menacing color and material choices of the vehicle. A contrasting high gloss 'Phantom Black' triple stripe runs the length of the car and a carbon fibre front splitter, oil cooler inlet vanes, side airscoops and rear spoiler provide aditional contrast to the velvety matt-black paintwork. Continuing the Darth Vader-like design cues into the interior, Lotus has fitted the Exige Scura with lightweight carbon fibre sports seats and centre console. The handbrake and gear knob have undergone a special anodizing treatment which leaves the metal with an matt finish. All carbon fibre components have been finished in a high-gloss clear lacquer allowing the weave to remain exposed which gives the cabin a raw and racy ambiance. But all the special features of the Exige Scura...

Lotus has always favored the lightweight, stripped down approach to automotive design. And for the first generation Lotus Elise, the S1 (Series 1), this was more true than ever. In a world where model bloat has ruined countless promising sports cars via a slow, blubbery death, the Elise S1 is a refreshingly pure driver's car. To add to the sweetness it's also a great looking car, and even though it's been around since 1996 it still looks contemporary and has the ability to turn heads. The Lotus Elise S1's designer, Julian Thomson, wanted to give the car the soul of a motorbike. The styling and equipment found in the minimalist interior - including the aluminium and rubber trim elements and no-nonsense, two-dial instrument panel from Stack - were designed to further enforce this influence. The car's engineering was led by Richard Rackham, a man who shared the belief that the Elise should be a simple and pure sports car which carried on the Lotus tradition of 'a...

The Lotus Elite is coming back!.. In 2014. Lotus has announced that by 2014 the all-new Lotus Elite will be born. At the 2010 Paris Motor Show they intend to display a pre-production prototype which will closely match the production car due to follow. The new Elite is a step up for Lotus as the car is significantly more advanced than their current cars in terms of power, performance, and unfortunatley price. Powering the Lotus Elite is a front-mid mounted 5.0 litre V8 which produces 620 horsepower. Lotus are predicting that this engine will give the car a 0-62 mph (100km/h) time of around 3.6 seconds. Top speed is a projected 195 mph. Lotus also plan to offer a hybrid drivetrain as an option. Although they haven't been entirely clear on exactly what performance it will provide, a electric motor housed in the transmission is how they plan on doing it. The Lotus Elite hybrid will also employ a KERS system to recirculate the kinetic energy usually lost during braking. Thanks to th...

Lotus is threatening to make their cars fatter, more complicated and more mainstream within the next few years. But it looks like there is going to be at least one more generation of the lightweight Exige. That’s not to say it hasn’t got a bit more gadgety and gained a few pounds over its predeccessor, but it’s still lighter than the competition, and it’s had a boost in power to compensate for the extra flab. The 2012 Lotus Exige S weighs in at 1080 kgs (2,380 lbs). That’s 145 kgs (310 lbs) heavier than last year’s car, but its got an extra 130 horsepower thanks to its supercharged 3.5 litre V6. This transverse-mounted unit – which is borrowed from the Evora – develops 345 horsepower and provides the car with a significantly better power to weight ratio than its predecessor. The styling of the 2012 Lotus Exige S has been significantly revised, but its still got a strong connection to the original car. The front end is sportier and there ...