Car Throttle

Even though the recent recession fatally wounded parts of the industry and fossil fuels running dry will threaten its future, the world of cars is still very much alive and kicking. There is such a variety of new products coming out this year ranging from affordable city cars you'll actually want to own, to ridiculously expensive supercars you'll lust after, old school coupes to revolutionary family cars, petrol engines to plug-in electric motors. The list is almost endless. So to help fellow car lovers and "new kids on the block" out, here's a round-up of 33 cars we can't wait to see in 2012 in order of release date. January 2012 Kia Optima It's been available around the world for a while but the Kia Optima

Lotus stole the Paris Auto Show in 2010 with a whole host of new concepts. While the company has been saying they are all headed to production, launching them all would be a huge feat for a small company such as Lotus. The funding and manpower needed are just beyond the level they are at right now. What is definitely coming though is a successor to the Esprit super car. It is scheduled to arrive in late 2013. For years Lotus has had an engine sharing relationship with Toyota. The Elise, Exige and Evora are Toyota powered, and many expected that partnership to continue with Lotus in the future. The Esprit was rumored to have Lexus V-8 power, possibly the 5.0-liter V-8 from the

Another stand that impressed me - so much I buzzed around it for a good half an hour after the official press conference - was Lotus. Whilst one of the main attractions of the stand was Jake Humphrey from BBC F1 fame doing an interview with various Lotus executives, the cars themselves blew me away and made me realise just how far Lotus has come in the past decade. Appearing in prime position on the stand was Lotus' most powerful road car ever built, the Lotus Evora GTE. With 438 horsepower under its belt, the car was intended primarily for the Asian market but was also made to commemorate Lotus' entrance into the global GTE motorsport category. The car is equipped with a racing automated manual

Sometimes staying up late on a Saturday night is a good thing. The thing about living in Malaysia is that there are many food stalls and car washes open till the wee hours of the morning. This means that one can actually enjoy having coffee or tea Al fresco whilst having their car washed. So we did just that last weekend and so did a lot of others. And amazingly at about two o’clock in the morning while we were winding down our session to head home, we saw a Lotus Evora drive by into the car wash beside us. It isn’t often you get to see one in the flesh over here. Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and those Japanese performance cars are everywhere in Malaysia’s capital Kuala

I just never knew. I was unaware we had a large population of classic British vehicles in the Raleigh area; I suppose there are people nostalgic for the 60's and 70's everywhere, and Raleigh is a pretty affluent area, but wow!  Triumphs, MG's, Jaguars, and Mini's of all sorts congregated today upon the North Hills shopping center, an upscale outdoor mall in the North Raleigh area.  With cars ranging from MG TF's all the way to a brand-new Mini Crossman, there were a wide range of British vehicles to gaze upon.  Here are some of the more interesting ones. At any British car show, chances are the most common vehicle you'll see there will be the ubiquitous MGB.  It was the car that really

The world's filled with boring, mundane, unremarkable automobiles. For every SVO Mustang, there are 10,000 Camry LE's.  For every Alfa Romeo Guilia Super sedan, there are an untold bazillion Honda Fits.  That's just how it is: mainstream sells.  As it turns out, very few people actually want the diesel, all wheel drive, manual-transmission station wagon that internet car enthusiasts say would sell like hotcakes. Sometimes, though, some of the most interesting cars out there are born out of some of the most dishwater-dull transportation appliances.  Here's my top ten - as always, feel free to leave a comment telling me what I left out at the bottom!  On we go. 10) Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 Mitsubishi's Galant sedan is... hold on, let me go to Wikipedia, I can't

I pulled up to the 4-way intersection as I headed towards the highway, and I noticed something. A strange sense of something interesting.  I looked over to my left, and realized the silver compact hatchback in the turning lane was actually a Chevy Volt, not a Saturn Astra or a VW Golf like you might think at first glance. It's the first time I've seen a Volt in person, and I was pleasantly surprised.  In real life, it's a hunkered-down low slung looking thing, without the normal reek of hybrid dullness about it.  Great looking car.  And considering the relative importance of the Volt in the scheme of things, that would be a good enough spotting for me for one day.  But let's zoom the frame

Tuning companies typically specialize in the outrageous, but Mansory has been known particularly for its over-the-top distastefulness. It has been toning it down a little bit lately though, with models like the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. Lotus has chosen to work in partnership with Mansory to bring a customized Evora to the Geneva Auto Show. The Evora is already one good-looking mid-engined sportscar, but the Mansory collaboration actually manages to make it more desirable. Imagine that! Reports have been circulating that Lotus planned a facelift for the Evora to make it more aggressive. Those in fact were likely referencing the Mansory Evora, which looks more aggressive. Lotus is aiming to use the Evora to show the possibilities of customization. From the factory, the Evora is pretty sedate

You know sometimes movies start off strong with a great start, a fabulous middle part but they disappointingly fizzle out at the end? I sometimes feel shortchanged especially after a good premise, the movie only delivers a tiny little pop as a finale. It seems Lotus, after previewing five concept cars at the recent Paris Motor Show, are only seriously about working on one of them. The people at Hethel had spoken to Autocar recently about the fact that Lotus is only focusing their attention on the new Lotus Esprit for a 2013 launch at the moment and the other concept models are just concepts showing a complete line-up that will hopefully be produced by the manufacturer soon. The question would now be how soon is soon

When Lotus hinted that it had bigger ambitions, most took that to mean Lotus reentering the exotic supercar market with a new Esprit. We don't think anyone quite expected what followed at the Paris Auto Show - a raft of new models that spans from a luxury four-door coupe the Eterne, to the range topping Esprit revival. One of our favorites out of the introductions would have to be the Elite, an elegant Gran Turismo. It and the Eterne would have to be the models that show the biggest departure for Lotus. To promote the car, the company has released this video below showing it taking a virtual spin. The video is excellently produced and it shows an area of the car we've been wondering about - operation of