il3ana: Lotus

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Caterham Logos to Appear on Team Lotus’ F1 Cars

It’s funny how things turn out sometimes. In 1973, Caterham, which was founded in the 1960s as a Lotus dealer, acquired the rights to build the Seven from Lotus. Now, Team Lotus has purchased Caterham Cars through a holding company, part owned by Malaysian Tony Fernandes. Read more »

Rumors: Lotus Exige to Spawn Rally Car?

Here’s something we weren’t expecting; according to a report from CAR Magazine, Lotus will launch a new rally car at the Frankfurt motor show in September. The rally car -not the one pictured here- will be based on the Exige, which is renowned for its road and track capabilities, but we’ve never imagined it near a rally stage. Read more »

F1: Sebastian Vettel takes his 6th Win in Valencia

Sebastian Vettel is on a roll and no one seems able to stop him and his Red Bull from adding a second Formula 1 championship to their trophy list. This was confirmed once again today in the European Grand Prix in Valencia, in the eighth race of the 2011, where Vettel took his sixth win of the season. The German world champion started from the pole position and was never challenged during the race as he cruised to another win.

The only driver to even come close was Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who started from fourth place and, like his team-mate Felipe Massa, made a terrific start. Alonso had a fight with the Red Bull of Mark Webber who, despite starting from the front row, eventually lost out to the Spaniard who finished the race second, more than 10 seconds behind Vettel.

Lotus has lofty aspirations for its all-new supercar, the Esprit, which was presented as a concept at last year’s Paris motor show along with four other concepts. According to the company’s CEO, Dany Bahar, the new supercar will be launched in 2013 and will offer a “more authentic driving experience than both the Ferrari 458 Italia and the McLaren MP4-12C”.

Bahar revealed that development of the the new Esprit is already under way, with prototypes up and running.

British fans are getting ready for their National Motorsport Week, and two UK-based Formula 1 teams are each giving two members of the public the unique opportunity to join their pit crews for a day.

Mercedes Petronas GP will randomly select two winners from those who will enter an online competition. The window of opportunity opens today, Monday 20 June, and will close at midnight on Thursday 23 June.

The fifteen finalists in the Silverstone Classic’s, “Best British Sports Car of All Time” vote-in have been announced, and boy is there some choice picks. Before we get to that though, can I just point out a misnomer in using the, “of All Time” qualifier?

This assumes (prophetically?) that Britain will not be making any more sports cars in the future, whereas, “Best British Sports Car So Far” would be a far more accurate description. But enough with semantics: who are our lucky finalists? Read on….

If you’re a fan of the lightweight sports cars from Lotus, namely the Elise and its closed-top sibling, the Exige, and live in North America, then you’d better hurry up before the well dries up. That’s because production of the North American spec model will end in August according to a report from Autoblog.

The reasons behind this decision lie in the lack of “smart” airbags, which are now mandatory in the US, along with Toyota’s decision to stop production of its 2ZZ 1.8-liter, 4-cylinder engine that powers US-spec models. The Elise and the Exige will continue to be sold in Europe, as they’re equipped with a new 1.6-liter four-cylinder unit.

It has been some time since we last watched such an exciting Formula 1 race as the one held on Sunday at the Istanbul Park circuit. Even though the weather did not play any role and the winner's position was not threatened at any time, it was an eventful race. Behind Sebastian Vettel, who has won three out of four GP’s this year, anything was possible.

Mark Webber crossed the finish line in second place, with the Australian managing to overtake Ferrari's Alonso with seven laps to go, after the Spaniard held the second position for a large part of the race. Still, for Alonso and Ferrari, this is the best result so far this season.

The owners of Formula One Team Lotus announced today the acquisition of lightweight sportscar manufacturer Caterham, for an undisclosed sum from the shareholder consortium led by Corven Ventures.

Based in England, Caterham has made a name for itself for building the Seven, a lightweight two-seater sports car that was designed by Lotus founder Colin Chapman and who sold the rights of the car to Caterham in 1973.

Team Lotus chiefs Tony Fernandes, Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin said in a statement that the company plans to expand Caterham’s profile and product family while also continuing the development of the Seven.

Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica has left the Santa Corona hospital in Italy where he had spent the last 11 weeks after a scary rally accident. According to a hospital statement, the Polish driver is in good condition and will soon begin rehab. “He will carry on being monitored by the Santa Corona doctors who had him in their care through scheduled appointments," the hospital said in a press statement. Read more »

VIDEO: Lotus Renault F1 Driver Vitaly Petrov’s Yee-Haw! Moment at the Malaysian Grand Prix

It was only a matter of time before someone edited a video of Vitaly Petrov’s spectacular exit from last week’s Malaysian Grand Prix. The Russian pilot of the Lotus Renault F1 team ran too wide at a turn near the end of the race and as he tried to get inside the track again, he hit a bump on the grass that launched the race car high into the air.

The maker of the video thought the scene with the F1 car going airborne looked a lot like something you’d see in The Dukes of Hazzard, hence the audio background. For Petrov, the incident wasn’t as funny as the impact resulted in a broken steering column mount that forced him to retire from the race. Enjoy the clip after the break.

The nephew of the late three-times Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna, Bruno, has signed up with the new Lotus-Renault GP team, the British automaker announced on Monday. The 27-year old, who comes from a bad season in Formula One with the struggling Hispania team, will be a reserve driver for the 2011 season.

"It’s a really exciting opportunity from both Group Lotus and Lotus Renault GP," said Brunno Senna after the announcement. "To be able to develop my Formula One career within a World Championship winning organisation and to do so in conjunction with some hugely interesting work for such an iconic sports car company as Lotus is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Lotus has placed a great deal of faith in me and I am looking forward to beginning work on the technical side of our relationship," he added.

The British carmaker said that Bruno’s test driving role with Lotus will see him provide valuable input into all Lotus cars, both track and road.

Lotus Director of Motorsport Claudio Berro said: “We’re delighted to have Bruno on board. In his young motorsport career he’s built up a great armoury of skills and experience. He’s a fast learner and this talent combined with his ability to shift between different types of race car will make him a great asset to Lotus. Normally people like to talk about the ‘technology transfer’ between F1 and road cars but in Bruno’s case we’re opening this up to an intellectual transfer – we’re certainly going to keep him busy!"

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VIDEO: Lotus Elan Concept’s Digital Instrument Panel in Action

The Lotus Elan was one of five concept sports cars presented by Lotus at last year's Paris Auto Show while it also made a quick stop at the LA motorshow that followed in November. Now that the concept studies have made it back to the England, the folks over at Paultan visited the British firm's headquarters in Hethel and shot this video showing the Elan's digital instruments in action. The panel consists of a large LCD screen flanked on either side by two smaller components. You can watch the video clip after the jump.

By Csaba Daradics

Via: Paultan

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Lotus Evora Tries Out Police Uniform in the UK

Lotus has loaned a brand new Evora to the boys in blue at the Central Motorway Police Group (CPMG). The police-liveried version of the British sports car was officially revealed at this week's Autosport International Show at Birmingham’s NEC. Once its show duties are over, the sports car maker will hand the keys of the Evora to West Midland's police officers who will then trial the car for a two week test period.

Gino Rosato, Director of Corporate Operations at Lotus comments: ‘Lotus is proud to take part in this and similar initiatives to help create a safer road culture for our customers and other road users. We believe that you do not have to compromise fun for speed and to that effect we build sportscars that are fun to drive within legal limits! We will be working with Officers from CMPG to teach them how to get the best from the Lotus Evora at our test track to ensure that any high-speed activity is as safe and effective as possible.”

PC Steven Rounds from, CMPG said: “The Lotus is a visually stunning machine which offers us the opportunity to engage with the public, reinforce and promote the life-saving messages of road safety.”

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2011 Sporty Lotus Evora

Evora S with Sports Pack as standard button on the "sport", which allows the driver to control the gas and the exhaust valve to activate the pass. Sport button also raises the rev limit immediately and change the settings, Dynamic Stability Control will lead to the modification of the whole experience. It is bad-drilled brakes better cooling. And here's a heads up for those who buy into the old adage "you can not tell the sons of men the size of the toys of emotions external Evora S has been improved by a new function of the exhaust gas, which means that the push button on the car sounds so dramatic as it seems.

In addition to the Evora S, Lotus also has the IPS (Intelligent Precision Shift) option. The creation of the seven-time award winning (Who’s Counting? We are!) Evora sees a 6-speed automatic gearbox with Lotus developed transmission control with a 3.5-liter V6 providing 280 hp providing a superior driving automatic experience.

Lotus Evora IPS version allows the driver to switch between the paddle manual and automatic modes of the disc. The driver can also select the “sport” that promotes the sport Lotus driving experience allows the driver to feel really at each shift and be in complete control of the transmission.

New Photo Gallery of Lotus' Future Sports Car Lineup

You may have to ask a second time for their name and you probably need to take more than a couple of looks to tell them apart, but that doesn't mean we're not impressed by the next generation of Lotus sports cars.

Unveiled for the first time as concept studies at the Paris Motor Show in October, with the North American debut taking place at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, the new Elise, Esprit, Elite, Elan are a wild bunch. And while we don't have anything new to add about the four sports coupes, Lotus has unleashed a beautiful photo gallery shot in Hollywood, which you can enjoy in high-resolution quality right after the jump.

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