This model may be less than 80cm long, but it could give the best clue yet as to the look of next year’s Lotus Eagle.The Lotus Hot Wheels Concept was unveiled at the recent SEMA show in Las Vegas to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the toy car brand. The final version – just 75mm long – will go on sale next year.Close examination of the concept’s remarkably production-ready nose design shows a new look that builds on today’s styling cues, but moves the company’s design language forward in a much cleaner and more edgy direction. Indeed, Group Lotus boss Mike Kimberley seems to be dropping heavy hints about the concept’s relationship to reality on the official press release.‘The same design team who created this stunning concept is also designing our new range of cars, the first of which, codenamed Project Eagle, will go into production at the end of next year’ Kimberley said.The Hot Wheels concept was styled by Lotus Design Manager Steven Crijns who says that a considerable amount of thought went in to the creation of this ‘toy’ car.‘The car needed to be recognisable as a Lotus without having to turn it over to look at the badge, so I took elements from the Elise and Exige such as the headlight design, the Lotus 'mouth', the pronounced wheel arches and trademark bonnet graphics.’‘I was keen for the design to express the Lotus philosophy of performance through lightweight structure. Inside the car, the exposed centre spine is part of the structure and incorporates the switches and gear linkage and supports the rear wing’ Crijns added.
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