Yet another rumor that I wish and hop will turn out to be true. Current scuttlebutt is that the next generation Lotus Esprit will get its power from a Lexus sourced V10. Given Lotus’ penchant for lightness, that kind of power-plant could be a serious way to motivate you down the road … wait, Lexus it going to be making a V10?
Sometime last year, a few Photoshop gurus got together and made some very funny “mini” versions of their favorite cars. The trend caught on, and soon lots of people were taking their favorite cars, and through the process of image manipulation, made them mini versions of themselves.
Below, you will find a photo gallery full of these micro machines, in all of their hilarious glory. If you have any you’d like to share, please leave a comment.
Just click on the image for a larger version: Continue Reading…
Carbon Fiber Lotus Elise
Some crazy rich guy (named Jimmy, apparently) wasn’t happy with the scale-busting weight of his Lotus Elise, so he gave it to some tuners in Hong Kong to fabricate a new one - completely out of carbon fiber! Ok, it’s not all made from carbon, but it’s damn close.
As expected, the whole body is constructed from the lightweight and super-strong material, as is a good portion of the interior, the seats, the roof, and the side mirrors. The interior is a mix of raw black and silver carbon so there could be some design element in there, I assume.
So how much weight did Jimmy save from this long and expensive modification? It weighs about 66-88 lbs less than the stock Elise. Doesn’t seem quite worth it, but after all, he now has the only Lotus Elise made almost completely out of carbon fiber.
More pictures below… Continue Reading…
This is just too good to pass up and not mention, Lotus makers of all things light and tossable, have already announced a variant for their upcoming, but not-out-to-the-public Evora 2+2.
Boasting an output of at least 350 horsepower, the Evora variant will use the same 3.5L Toyota-sourced V6 as the base model, only with a blower firmly attached. Torque will also be bumped up to nearly 300 lb-ft mark in production form. Given the cars already light weight, those figures should be enough to scoot the Evora SC to 60 in 5 seconds flat and boost the car’s terminal speed to 175 mph, according England’s to Autocar Magazine. Although it is expected to arrive on the market in May 2009, the super charged version is slated to arrive sometime in 2011.
Lotus is keeping busy with even more versions of the Evora after the jump.
I just about lost it when I came across this poking around on Craig’s List last night.
Here’s the entirety of the guys entry:
“Mid 1960’s, world’s first race car simulator. ‘based around an actual Lotus 31 Formula 3 car…made from standard manufacturing parts’
Featured in the Dead Man’s Treasure episode of The Avengers in 1967, this one is not as shocking as Steed’s drive. Have copy of episode, very cool.
‘Lotus had designed the unit to run very much along the lines of the leading flight-sims of the day’…AutoSimSport
This one comes with modern electrical components for use with recent racing sims such as Grand Prix Legends - a simulation of racing from the same era as this original car.
None other like it outside of England, own a unique piece of history. Race green to your heart’s content ‘virtually’ around the world without using a drop of gasoline.
Or enjoy it as art - whether you stand it on end - as some ex F1 drivers did with their cars, mount it on the ceiling or wall, or just leave it on its tires, it’s a grand piece of art - the simple lines of the 60’s race cars are nothing short of elegant. ”
Now, I’m a pretty big sim guy, and the Big Boss Man here at AutoMoBlog, Chris, well knows. I’ve spent thousands on controllers and cockpits and what not, and normally seeing something like this would have piqued my interest, but it was this part that almost had me jumping out of my seat: “Featured in the Dead Man’s Treasure episode of The Avengers in 1967, this one is not as shocking as Steed’s drive. Have copy of episode, very cool.”
I remember seeing that episode on TV when it was first broadcast, I remember my dad & brothers trying to figure out what kind of car it was. We could all tell that the track was Brands Hatch though.
I remember thinking at the time just how cool it was and boy wouldn’t it be neat to have something like THAT one day.
Well that day came and went many years ago. The processing power we have and the software that’s out there is uunbelievable from the perspective of The Avengers in the 1960s.
But still, how cool would it be to own this rig?
There’s pictures of how it currently looks after the jump.
Ah, another car for the Euros, and, sadly, not for us here in the U. S. of A. … and for a lot of Euros too.
The car you see here is the Jim Clark edition of the Lotus Elise. Loaded with tons of old style goodies - as well as a 218 HP supercharged engine. It’s got British racing green paint and a broad yellow stripe and number dots on the doors. They’re only making 25 more examples of it (seems this is the second run of the limited edition (does that even count then?)), and it doesn’t come cheap at €44,100 in England and €54k in Germany, France and Italy.
It’s easy these days, and has been so for a quite a while to make a “Limited Edition” of this car or that, and usually the only thing limited about it is the crookedly affixed decal saying “Limited”.
This car, although really just a limited edition trim job, does honor one of the greatest racers of all time from the company he drove for exclusively. It would be as if Ferrari were to roll out a Michael Schumacher Edition in 2048. There are people who would question the comparisons between Schumacher and Clark, by I’m not one of them. They were both the benchmarks of their eras.
Everyone else was compared to them.
Press release follows.
Source: Autoblog
