Car Throttle

It is beyond question that Lotus' entry-level Elise has been a runaway success. But Lotus has never been a brand to rest upon their laurels, and for 2011 the Elise is getting a mild nip-and-tuck as well as some mechanical revisions to make it more efficient, faster, and cleaner.  Hard to argue with that. On the outside, the Elise gets a new front end that I can't say I'm particularly fond of.  I know they're trying to channel the new Evora upper-end grand tourer, but the look is somewhat awkward (my friend Dom says "it looks like a frog!") and out of proportion for the diminutive Elise.  Still, it's hard to make an Elise look horrible - it's still an Elise, after all.  The headlights get

Since it's almost been a whole month since the last one, it's high time that Lotus introduced another slightly different variant of the Elise/Exige.  Mustangitis aside, I (generally speaking) love the Elise/Exige, and when "special edition" means "flat black paint," I extra love the Exige.  That's a whole lot of love. This one'll either be called Scura or Stealth, depending on the language spoken in your market.  Scura, by the way, is Italian for "Darkness," and suits the Scura to a T.  This thing is blacker than a coal mine at midnight during an ink flood.  "All murdered out" is how I'd describe the Scura's darkness, but it's not cheap rattle-can flat black! Just gaze in amazement at how deep and soft that paint looks.  Lotus

You might be tired of hearing about special edition Elises, but I'm not. In fact, what's wrong with you?  They're Lotuses, you like them if you're reading this site, so here we go. The latest infinitessimally different Elise is based on the entry-level Elise S, and it's called the Club Racer.  It's a modern Elise with some classic Lotus styling cues and colors, wrapped up in a fun (and efficient!) package with an attractive price. The Club Racer inherits the standard Elise's 134bhp 1ZZ-FE engine, shared with the Corolla and MR2.  While that sounds as fun as partying with a bunch of nuns, when coupled to the Elise's 860kg kerb weight (1896lbs) it equals surprising performance - 0-60mph in 5.7 seconds - along with surprising efficiency.  The

A special edition of a Lotus seems like a redundant concept. I mean, a Lotus is special.  So a special Lotus is...?  Regardless of the existential question therein, there's a new special Lotus out, and you can bet your overweight German sports sedan that I would absolutely kidnap someone's mother for one. Called the Exige Cup 260, it's to the Exige S what the RS is to the Porsche GT3.  Which means that it's a slightly more mental track-weapon version of the range's already mental top-of-the-line track weapon.  Which brings me back to the concept of redundancy. I don't so much care if there's a point to the Exige Cup 260, though.  What they've done is taken a car that was basically as light as feasibly possible,

Oooo baby. What's that old saw about absolute power corrupting yadda-yadda? Well, it looks like the Lotus Elise and Exige just got even more sinful, thanks to a factory sanctioned supercharger kit for older, naturally aspirated versions of the Elise and Exige. If I was being halfway "logical" in my sportscar lust, I'd be all over the Lotus Elise like white on rice. But I've got too bad of a jones for a Lotus 7, so I have to get one of those first, and then I can worry about an Elsie (right after I win the lottery). The Elise is a much better car than a Seven, even if it is bulkier – and that's the only time you're going to hear an Elise referred to

As with nearly everything from Lotus, the upcoming Evora sports car promises to be an amazing vehicle. The brand has released some information on the car that includes package and content details. Let's take a look! The list is exhaustive; way too much to cover here in one post. But I will focus on some of the details that we missed in a press release last week from the company that provided a lot of new stuff on the Evora. The very first production Lotus Evoras are already rolling off the assembly line at Lotus' high-tech assembly facilities in Worcester and at the Lotus Headquarters in Hethel. According to the company, build volume is ramping up over a period with a target of 34 Evoras per week