Every year an automaker is chosen to be celebrated at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with an artistic installation directly in front of the historic Goodwood house in West Sussex, England, and a host of classic and shiny new cars on display. For 2012 it will be the iconic English brand Lotus.

This acknowledgement comes at important time in Lotus’ history, both when looking into the future and consulting the past. In 2012 Lotus will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Elan sportscar, the 40th anniversary of the Espirit supercar concept unveiling, the 35th anniversary of the 78 ground effect Lotus F1 car competing for the first time and the 20th anniversary of cyclist Chris Boardman winning a gold medal at the Barcelona summer Olympics while riding the type 108 bicycle developed by Lotus. Next year will mark a big year in the company’s history as well, when the new 2013 Espirit supercar is finally unleashed.

The Goodwood festival’s chosen Marque is always an honor that is bestowed upon a company the organizers feel have had a major influence on car culture and automotive history. Some of the companies that have been celebrated include Jaguar, Audi, Alfa Romeo, and Land Rover just to name a few.

The 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed begins on June 28 and should be a great celebration of Lotus’ past accomplishments and future endeavors.

Lotus has plans to release their new next-generation Esprit at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show and more details were recently released on their next sports car. The base model Esprit will be a hybrid, sporting a 100-hp electric motor and a naturally aspirated V8 engine.

Other variants of the Lotus will be more race inspired, ditching the electric motor and hybrid tag for more weight savings and additional horsepower. More details on the other models weren’t released, but we can expect a more pure driver’s car and everything “unnecessary” will be removed from them, as well as an abundant use of carbon fiber. Unfortunately no specs were released on the naturally aspirated V8 powerplant either.

The new Lotus Esprit will go on sale in Europe starting in Summer of 2013 and will mark the beginning of Lotus’ five-year, five-model plan.

[Source: Topspeed]

After decades of borrowing powertrains from Ford, Renault, Toyota and other OEMs, Lotus has revealed some of the first pictures of a working engine, designed and built in-house.

From the photo released on Facebook, the engine appears to be a DOHC V8 with a racy looking intake plenum and airbox setup, similar to an Italian supercar engine. No word on whether individual throttles, direct injection or any sophisticated technologies will be employed.

Expect to see the engine in products like the upcoming flagship Esprit, assuming those vehicles actually make it to market.

[Source: Facebook]

Lotus recently announced its intention to build an in-house V8 engine for its upcoming line of exotic sports cars. Making as much as 570-hp from a displacement of just 4.8-liters the sophisticated powerplant may be joined by an equally high-tech automatic transmission.

Back in January of last year it was revealed that Lotus was working on a 7-speed dual clutch transmission and now, according to Lotus Cars USA PR Boss Kevin Smith, there’s a very good chance the Esprit will be the first model to use the unit. “We’d like to do a manual and a dual-clutch transmission for the Esprit,” he remarked during the recent launch of the Evora S in the US, “and now that we’re dong our own engines there’s a better chance.”

Adding to the possibility is the fact that Lotus has delayed the Esprit by one year as it develops its own engine for the car. Look for the production model to arrive, likely at the Geneva Auto Show in 2013, with an on-sale date later that year or early in 2014.

GALLERY: Lotus Esprit Concept

The new Esprit will make it to market, but not as early as Lotus had hoped. Speaking at the launch of the new Evora S model in San Jose, Lotus Cars USA PR boss Kevin Smith confirmed that due to a decision by Lotus to produce its own engine for the car, it won’t make it to market until late 2013 or even early 2014.

“The cars shown at the Paris Auto Show with the Lexus IS-F V8 will get our own V8 engine,” said Smith. Those models include the Esprit, as well as the even more exotic Elite. Smith also confirmed that development of the in-house V8 engine was already underway, and indicated that other engines are a possibility.

Making additional remarks, Smith let slip details of just how much Lotus expects to charge for these new models, and it’s a huge increase from the $76,000 Evora S. Speaking generally, he said that, “cars in the $170,000 to $200,000 range should have their own engine in them.” No clarification was given about the projected price and while $170K is certainly a huge bump over the Porsche 911 Turbo, it would be significantly less than some of the Italian exotics the Esprit would be targeted at as well.

Details about the new V8 have not been released, but there’s a strong chance it will be available with a dual-clutch transmission. “We’d like to do a manual and a dual-clutch transmission for the Esprit and now that we’re dong our own engines there’s a better chance,” said Smith. Lotus has filed a patent for a 7-speed dual-clutch unit already, so look for that to arrive in the Esprit in just over two year’s time.

GALLERY: Lotus Esprit

Lotus may build their next generation Esprit sports car outside of the United Kingdom after its request for a $50 million loan to build a new factory was rejected by an investment arm of the British government.

The loan was intended for a new factory in the Norfolk area of Britain, which would employ 1200 people and build models like the new Elan and Esprit. Other automakers have been given loans by the government, and Lotus released a statement saying “following this decision Group Lotus is currently exploring all available options including the possibility of submitting an updated bid for round two of the RGF, which is set to close on July 1.”

If a British facility cannot be procured, Lotus may build the new cars as Valmet’s factory in Finland or Magna-Steyr’s plant in Austria, where the Porsche Boxster and Aston Martin Rapide are respectively built.

[Source: Auto Express]

Last year, some American car companies looked to their government for financial help to keep them afloat and use the money to develop new products. Some of them have actually used the money properly and produced some decent new models.

Over in the U.K., Lotus is looking at the British government to help out in the same capacity. Lotus is saying, that unless the government backs them up, they will have to resort to looking at producing vehicles outside of the United Kingdom.

This will not only affect jobs in its homeland, but would also mean that future products, like the highly anticipated new Esprit (above) will be built in either Austria (Magna) or Finland (Valmet).

Lotus is asking for a chunk (although no official amount is known) from the Regional Growth Fund, a program designed to help local industry and businesses. The decision will be announced by the early part of April. We’ll keep you posted on this developing story.

[Source: Pistonheads]

The Lotus story continues to intrigue with plans to deliver five all new cars over the next five years. After debuting all five concepts at the Paris Auto Show, Lotus then brought its traveling road show to the LA Auto Show. Now the storied British brand is keeping the hype alive by releasing a selection of stunning photographs of its concepts.

There aren’t any new pics of the Eterne 4-door concept (easily the most unrealistic of the group), but Lotus did snap some nice glam shots of the Esprit, the Elan, the second-generation Elise concept, the the flagship Elite.

First to market will be the Esprit, with an on-sale date set for the Spring of 2013. With a body made entirely of carbon fiber it will be a true exotic, using a supercharged version of the Lexus 5.0-liter V8 making 542-hp in standard trim and a whopping 612-hp in R-spec trim.

Following the Esprit will be the Elan, launching in the Fall of 2013 as a coupe, with a convertible model set to follow. As a competitor to the Porsche 911 it will use a 4.0-liter version of the Toyota-sourced V6 found in the Evora, the Elan will be 200-lbs lighter. An R-Spec model will also be offered, boasting 450-hp. Both it, and the Elise, will use a combination of aluminum and composite materials to keep weight to a minimum. In addition, Lotus will offer both the Esprit and the Elan as a hybrid.

The flagship for the new Lotus will follow six months later in the Spring of 2014, with a standard trim making 612-hp. A hybrid option will be offered and this grand touring exotic comes exclusively with a retractable hardtop.

Spring of 2015 will see the launch of the second-generation Lotus Elise. Gaining size and weight over the current car the new Elise will come in at under 2,400 lbs. Power will come from a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder with forced induction (either a turbocharger or supercharger), making a total of 316-hp. That should be enough to deliver a 0-60 mph time of 4.4 seconds. Plus, those in search of a fuel efficient sports car will be able to get it with the new Elise as Lotus also plans to offer a hybrid option. Unlike the rest of the hybrids in the Lotus lineup, the Elise will be a mild hybrid (like the Honda system) and feature start-stop technology.

GALLERY: Lotus New Era

See after the jump for a video of the new Lotus concepts from the LA Auto Show:

Continue Reading…

While the upcoming Lotus Esprit has been announced using a supercharged version of the Lexus IS-F’s 5.0-liter V8, that may all change when the new high-powered exotic comes to market in 2012.

Lotus CEO Dany Bahar, in an interview with AutoCar, commented that the storied British sports car maker is now examining the possibility of building its own V8. “The engine is the heart of a sports car; we should do our own product,” said Bahar.

One of the main factors in pushing Lotus towards this decision was customer feedback. “In the mind of sports-car enthusiasts, Toyota power might not be good enough,” he admitted.

Still, Lotus has yet to move ahead with a costly engine development program and won’t make any decision on if it will do so until January with Bahar commenting that the decision would be purely financial.

Recently Lotus announced it would run cars powered by its own engines in the 2012 Indy Car season, despite the fact that it currently does not build any of its own engines.

GALLERY: Lotus Esprit

[Source: AutoCar]

Lotus engineering chief Wolf Zimmerman also revealed that the planned three-strong family of mid-engined Lotuses that will start with the Esprit will share a common platform, brakes, suspension and electrical systems.

While Lotus created a lot of buzz at the Paris Auto Show by unveiling an entirely new lineup of sports cars, only one is actually in the development stage. According to AutoCar, just one of the five vehicles (the Esprit) has any serious engineering behind it. That may cast some doubt on the sincerity of Lotus’s plans, but it shouldn’t.

As we previously reported, the Esprit is the first Lotus set to debut, with an on-sale date in the Spring of 2013. So it only makes sense that it would be the first vehicle to be fully developed. Besides, with all five concept vehicles (from the Elan to the Elite) being based on the same versatile vehicle architecture, it’s generally true that all of the car’s are partially in the works.

Powered by a Lexus 5.0-liter V8 and mated to a supercharged, the Esprit will make 542-hp and 61-hp in R-spec trim. The body will be made entirely of carbon fiber.

We can’t wait for 2013!

GALLERY: 2014 Lotus Esprit

[Source: AutoCar]