#LotusEvoraGte

We might have some fancy cars over here in the USA, but there are quite a few vehicles overseas that we can’t help but think are desperately missing from our shores. More than a few are niche market models perfect for auto-enthusiasts, while others are more stylish or practical than what’s currently available in the US. And some are both.

It’s the most hard core Lotus ever, which makes news that it likely won’t ever go on sale in America that much more depressing.

Ahead of its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show tomorrow, we have the very first photos of special, special edition Lotus.

Lotus Motorsport and Alex Job Racing (AJR) will partner to compete for the GT championship in the American Le Mans Series, starting with the race at Long Beach on the weekend of April 14.

Knowing that the 444-hp Lotus Evora GTE will be making its way to America makes us giddy. So naturally, when we saw more photos of the most powerful Lotus ever made, we had to share them with the rest of the world.

It’s billed as the most powerful Lotus ever made. Based on the brand’s Le Mans racing car it’s also the most hard core. And now you’ll be able to buy one, in America!

After having showcased numerous new concept cars at the past several auto shows, one might expect that Lotus had dried up its reserve of new car news. Not so. At the Frankfurt Auto Show the British manufacturer had on display six new or newish models. Many won’t make their way to North America, but some will – including one particularly exciting sports car.

After being revealed in concept form at Pebble Beach, just a few weeks later Lotus has rolled out the production version of the Evora GTE Road Car at the Frankfurt Auto Show today. In many ways a road-going version of the Evora GTE race car, the road car holds the title of the most powerful Lotus street car ever, with a supercharged 3.5-liter V6 pumped up to 444-hp.

Amid all the historic autos on display at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Concept Lawn is a look at modern works of vehicular art – not all of them concepts either.

Vehicles on display at this year’s event included the the Infiniti Etheria concept, the SSC Tuatara concept and the Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept. The SSC car represents the next generation of the Ultimate Aero and will look to take back the title of the world’s fastest production car from Bugatti. As for the Lotus, it’s essentially a look at a possible street-legal track machine, merging the Evora road car and the GTE Le Mans race car together. Yet another concept was the Lexus LF-Gh – a design study that lead to the Pebble Beach reveal of the new 2013 Lexus GS350.

Other highlights included a rolling chassis of the new Lamborghini Aventador, as well as the Jaguar C-X75 concept. See all these, and even more in the video after the jump:

Any Lotus enthusiast will tell you that the brand would be wise to stop pumping resources into Formula 1 and IndyCar, an instead get more heavily involved in road racing. After all, in many respects it represents a better bang-for-the-buck for the marketing folks, with a direct correlation between the cars that race and the cars sold through dealers.

Taking the idea of a track-focused street car to the next level, Lotus has unveiled the GTE Road Car Concept at Pebble Beach. Named after the GTE class cars that Lotus is currently racing in Europe, this concept is essentially a blend of that competition racer with a street-legal Evora. In many ways it’s not as far from reality as one might guess, with the race car based heavily on the Evora road car and even sharing the same aluminum tub.

It might not have the ultra-high production quality of Audi’s “Truth in 24” documentary, but Lotus has just released a short video detailing the British sports car maker’s journey to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.