Currently reading: Esprit 'only Lotus in development'
All-new Esprit supercar is the first new Lotus to be undergoing serious engineering work

The all-new Lotus Esprit is the only one of Lotus’s range of sports cars and supercars to have serious engineering work undertaken on it.

Lotus insiders have told Autocar that the firm is focusing “fully” on the new Esprit at this stage, which is set to be the first of the new Lotuses launched in 2013.

See the official pics of the Lotus Esprit

The range of new Lotus models, which new Lotus CEO Dany Bahar insists will employ the purist engineering principles of lightness and simplicity pioneered the earliest Lotuses by the company’s founder, Colin Chapman, will take the company from annual production of around 2700 sub-£40,000 cars, to between 6000 and 7000 cars costing between £80,000 and £120,000.

Powered by a Lotus-supercharged 5.0-litre Lexus V8 (revving to 8000 rpm and producing 550bhp or 620bhp in the R version), the new Esprit will have a seven-speed paddle-shift gearbox, a KERS system, a 0-62 mph time of between 3.2 and 3.5 seconds and a CO2 output of just 250 g/km — very low output for the class and consistent with Lotus’s intention of offering the most efficient cars in their classes.

The car’s kerb weight of 1495 kg doesn’t make it quite the featherweight of past Lotuses, but engineers insist it’s lighter than class contenders.

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feckin maso 2 November 2010

Re: Esprit 'only Lotus in development'

The esprit is the only one that needs to be in development at this stage the Elite and the Eterne are adaptations of it so one the esprit is ready they will be easier, the Elan uses a lot of the Evora dna so no big hurry on that and the Elise isnt as urgent as the other models.

Symanski 29 October 2010

Re: Esprit 'only Lotus in development'

thebaldgit wrote:
I'm waiting for an Elise in JPS colours.

Believe it or believe it, Lotus have already done the JPS edition...

http://www.lotus-elise.nl/Buyers_Guide/Differences/JPS.jpg

disco.stu 29 October 2010

Re: Esprit 'only Lotus in development'

For a more accurate analysis of Lotus' future plans, visit sniffpetrol.com