LEAKED : Paris 2010 : Lotus new Esprit, Elan, Elite & Elise

[Iconic Ride]

Prediction: These puppies will be on every cover of every car mag on the planet. They are all stunning!

Ferrari owners eat your hearts out.

[andecorp]

Elan, Elite, Eterne - they hit the mark.

The Esprit... hmmm, I need to see it in real life.

[lotusdogg]

Wow, I picked a heck of a day to drop back in....all those cars look real good. Very iconic. And that Esprit...mmm...sweet. very sweet.

[The Veg]

Hmmm, nice, but I still want an old G-Esprit. Maybe I'll benefit from somebody trading up!

[USAndretti42]

They look nice albeit with a few too many Ferrari styling cues around the nose. Seem to have massive powers. While the economy should have recovered by then who knows where we will be regarding CO2 legislation and market feeling? And, with all that power, will they have that Lotus delicacy that makes them special. The Elise is getting bigger and heavier according to the BBC article which, to me, is a bad thing.

Also surprised that the new Esprit is not the flagship car. It's cheaper than the Elite. I need to have a better look at the styliing and specs when they are released at the end of this week but I, for one, am not excited at Lotus becoming just another manufacturer of over-powered cars with performance you can never use. The only upside for me is that , if they are successful, they may keep making spares for our old cars whereas, if they do not make money, they will be closed and our spares source will dry up (and a bunch of very talented people will lose their jobs).

I never have been a Ferrari fan so I don't want Lotus to become a Ferrari impostor.

[richardvg]

These are awesome looking cars !!!!!!!

Definitely carrying on the tradition.

WOULD LOVE TO DRIVE THEM !

[Iconic Ride]

Not wanting to spoil the party (and I've already voiced my approval of the entire lineup), but has anyone seen any data on release dates for the various models? Five years is a long stretch of time, and revealing a specific body style this far in advance for a build date far in the future could be a bit dicey. Is there to be a known release date sequence, and what is to be the order? They cannot possibly manufacture all five at once with the current facilities, can they?

I would especially like to know the timeline for the Esprit. Are the Paris examples (of all five cars) even drivable, or are they prototype/concept/demo static displays? The sun is coming up in Paris as I type, so I suppose the answer will soon be forthcoming.

[obione]

When I was a teenager, back in the seventies, I really aspired to all things Lotus, especially the Esprit of course.

I would imagine that most of the current teenagers will now do the same again - this is what its all about, stunning beautiful cars.

Lets hope they really do build them - well done Lotus.

I will be keeping my Esprit though!

[simonb]

Would really like to see them in the flesh, but there does now seem to be a strong strategy about brand identity (stronger than S2 elise/m250, or tesla/evora) the constant drip of a model a year will also be interesting. All toyota powered? the 2 litre Elise seems out of place with that, unless they are actually getting to "short in the tooth" engines.

A move upmarket to.

Really do like the idea of a range of cars with the same brand identity - you know it is a Lotus before you identify the model (as Aston Martin) but with no "radiator pedigree"

[esprit s2]

Me like!

[mdw]

Whilst they dont have that jaw dropping OMG look about them they can certainly hold their heads up amongst the competition. I had feared the esprit would be a let down but I think its quite classy. Nice to see a range/ family.

[superdavelotus]

They look quite nice but reality is that I'll never own one. With a price tag of over £100K it's going to be 6-8 years before I could even consider one. Looking at Gallardo's, a 6 year old one is still £60K. This is another car I want but in likelyhood, never own too. Also the problem with launching the car now but not building for upto another 5 years is that it will probably be 5-10 year out of date.

Still nice to see new cars come out of Hethel and the Lotus name continueing.

David Walters

[Rick Edwards]

I love em. If I was to reallocate the money for my wedding into a new Esprit fund do you think I would live to see the launch date?

[jimmybondi]

Nice! Can't wait for Saturday

But as said before, they screwed the Elise ultra lightweight concept...

[ads_green]

They are nice but the engine specs give the game away - these are pure aspirational concepts.

There is somewhere saying the engine specs based on what is anticipated in 5 years time.

For example, the elise is marked with a 2 litre V4 returning 320bhp but 150g/co2.

To compare, a Mini cooper S has a turbo 1.6 I4 and chucks out 140g/co2.

[jkr]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11440488

Quote: "In the UK, its network of 23 dealerships will be sharply reduced, perhaps to as few as three, while in Japan the number of Lotus dealerships will be cut from 27 to just six, he said."

Imagine you have the money to buy one of these new cars, but no dealer who sells it to you within 3 hours driving..... oil service/full service will take a 3 days holiday, when you use it as your daily driver....

[Kimbers]

These are concept cars. Not production, preproduction or even a faint climmer in the corner of the eye cars!!

Engine technology is currently nowhere near the specs and each car is circa 3-5 years away if that technology was available.

I refer you to my previous quote when asked what I think they will be "Ferrari clones and 1 Aston Martin clone"....I might have missed the Gallardo Clone in there but I feel vindicated!

They look great btw, just nothing original or with any Lotus DNA.

For those who love them there is a nearby Ferrari or Lambo dealer who can supply them now.

[Exploded]

T might have missed the Gallardo Clone in there but I feel vindicated!

Look At the Esprit rear, it's all LP640 in my opinion, the front is a 458 clone.

[plumdeplakmuis]

Fully agree with you Kimbers.

Although on the Esprit I would not mind if it would be directly positioned against a 911.

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!!!!!!

As long as it has a real gearbox, I'm SO there!!!!

F*K the 458 - it looks great but only has twatty paddles and the new McLaren is too bland for words!

[matk]

The new regime are proving themselves to be masters of spin as you'd expect with so much branding and marketing experience there now. That's not a bad thing. If all the other players are doing it then Lotus would be mad not to keep up. It does mean that a lot of what they say has to be annalysed and thought about before you can pick any real meaning out of it.

If you wanted to keep your dealers keen, and separate those who really want and support the Franchise, from those who just see it as another badge on their premises, wouldn't you release a statement saying "only 3 for the UK" too?

I have no doubt they'll have more than 3 dealers in the UK.

[Jonathan]

You know what, I would LOVE to have seen the previous Esprit designs - I mean I saw the so called official ones but apparently they were not real.

Evora turning into the Elan shape is a huge step in the wrong direction imo.

As kimbers says, lots of clay + DNA has been removed completely and with statements like "the Elise has grown up" I dont hold much for their thinking processes - no, the Elise has got fat and ugly and will no longer be THE drivers car becuase it has 1001 driver aids keeping it stuck to the road and will likely cost £50,000 (+£10,000 ego factor). 5 years down the line people are gonna be bored of this.

Be interesting to see some more decent shots of them.

[Backmarker]

If ( and at the moment I think that is a pretty BIG if ) any of these concept cars were to go into production, Lotus would not be looking at us lot as buyers but at those wealthy disgruntled Lambo/Ferrari/Porsche/Aston Martin owners who know how to spend a huge amount of money on a car of their dreams ( only to sell it again once the first bulb goes pop )

The market to which New Lotus is appealing is a very different market to Old Lotus. Naturally, the new CEO knows his market place and wants to put the brand there, but with respect to this forum membership, I can't see many new owners on here .............. I hope I'm wrong.

Like Kimbers, I see an end to those things Lotus that we on this forum have come to recognise with the brand. That said, business must move forward.

Colin added "lightness", Danny adds weight.

Lotus designed cars that could compete with the Italian exotica, instead of becoming part of the Italian family as now.

The cars in the line-up are stunning, but at those prices I know I won't become an owner.( Perhaps I ought to start doing the Lottery )

I'm not as convinced as some, that a successful New Lotus will continue to support the older models. I expect we'll be relying on the independent suppliers more and more.

So, great line up, great PR, great plan but an end to Lotus as we know it.

Perhaps us mere mortals will be allowed to play with the Exige ( unless Danny has plans for that too )

[mr.oogieboogie]

It's about time they made cars that look like they should

[chandrew]

I'll be really interested in knowing when they expect the different cars to be launched. I'd guess either the Esprit or Elise to be coming first (Elise because I doubt they will want just the existing Elise S as the sole car for too long, Esprit as it is a niche not currently served).

The Eterne looks very interesting and I hope it will be priced so that I can persuade the Mrs that we don't need to go down the Panamera route anytime soon.

I guess the Elan is based heavily on the Evora (ie a new engine and restyle). Please let it (or all of them) drive like the Evora.

A second Elise (or maybe an Elan) in 2012 would be very nice and would solve the 'how to take the family away for the weekend' problem quite nicely. This time please let's have an airbag switch for front-travelling children.