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Lotus News
Lotus is a brand of sports cars founded in 1952 and based in Hethel, Norfolk, England. Currently owned by Proton, the state-run Malaysian automaker, Lotus is well known for its engineering expertise, particularly in the area of suspensions, and ability to create high-performance cars by keeping its cars as light in weight as possible.
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0Video: Join XCAR as it explores the history behind the Lotus Seven 1393549140
All modern Caterhams are based on the Lotus Seven – a small, lightweight roadster developed by Colin Chapman back in 1957. That car has evolved into an entire range of models, spanning from the new, affordable 160, shown below in the latest video from XCAR, to the maniacal 620R. Over the years, the Seven has come to be a known quantity among auto ...
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Miami real estate investor selling world's largest collection of Bond cars 1393284540
In 2011 Miami real estate investor Michael Dezer bought dozens of cars used in the James Bond films from the Bond Museum in Keswick, England. Since then, he's added to the trove which now stands at 59 cars, as well as motorcycles, boats, jetskis, tanks and thousands of photos, posters and memorabilia. It is the largest collection of 007 cars in the world, ...
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Official: Lotus Motorcycles C-01 now 'ready for the road' 1392941760
When we first laid eyes on leaked images of the Lotus Motorcycles C-01, we wondered if its laid-back, sport cruiser shape was really appropriate for a motorcycle bearing any connection with Colin Chapman and the company's famous "add lightness" mantra. We've now seen official pictures of the bike in multiple color schemes, including classic black and ...
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Motorsports: Lotus stepping up to LMP1 in World Endurance Championship 1392728460
Only a couple of years ago, it looked like the top tier of prototype endurance racing was in trouble. Peugeot shut down its program, leaving the LMP1 category all to Audi to dominate. Only six cars entered the Petit Le Mans in 2012, and the season was cut short. But the top class in the FIA World Endurance Championship has since blossomed. And it only ...
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Exclusive: 1955 Lotus Mark X restored, reunited with former owner 1392397080
Fowke was able to drive the baby-blue Lotus straight home from the Baltimore dock in April of 1959. In 1958, Robert Kahmer his friend Ben Fowke split the $2,700 cost of a 1955 Lotus Mark X and had it shipped over from England. Customs were a little more lax in the late 50s, and Fowke was able to drive the baby-blue Lotus straight home from the ...
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Report: Lotus F1 apologizes for tweeting support for LGBT Olympians 1392078600
The Lotus Formula One Team is apologizing after its official Twitter account posted this image of two men kissing in connection to the opening of the Winter Olympics on Friday, February 7. It claims that the original tweet was "unauthorized." The tweet, which Lotus deleted later that day, can be viewed to the right and was promptly replaced an apology that ...
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Featured: Why all of this year's F1 noses are so ugly [w/video] 1391214660
If you're a serious fan of Formula One, you already know all about The Great Nosecone Conundrum of 2014. Those given to parsing each year's F1 regulations predicted the strong possibility of the so-called "anteater" noses as far back as early December 2013. Highly suggestive visual evidence first came after Caterham's crash test in early January, with ...
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Rumormill: Genii capitalizing on Lotus F1 tech with new sports car? 1390571100
Detractors will tell you that there's little to be applied from Formula One racing to the cars we drive, but what about the cars most of us could only dream of driving? We're talking about supercars from the likes of Ferrari and McLaren – two hugely successful F1 racing teams that have successfully made the transition into building exotic sports ...
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Video: Watch the Lotus Esprit evolve from 1976 to 2004 1390341600
Seeing a model as long-lived as the Lotus Esprit evolve over time generally requires some clever photography or graphical work, kind of like this. This video doesn't require any of that trickery, though, because it features every single model year of Espirt in one glorious row of awesome British cars. Taken at the 2013 Lotus Festival at Brands Hatch in ...
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Motorsports: Lotus F1 team $186 million in debt 1389963600
The Lotus F1 team has fallen on some hard times. Majority-owned by investment firm Genii Capital and having little to do with the British automaker with which it shares its name, the Enstone-based outfit has been widely reported to be in serious financial trouble. The extent of those difficulties were until now unknown, but a new report from Germany's ...
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Two Wheels: Lotus C-01 motorcycle shows its carbon-fiber face 1389905040
Well, this isn't exactly what we were expecting. The images you see above come from Motorcycle News in the UK and are apparently official renderings of what the upcoming Lotus C-01 motorcycle will look like. As you can see, it's sort of a power cruiser, with a raked-out front end and extremely wide rubber out back. Power will reportedly come from a ...
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Video: Lotus Exige S tears the roof off 1389742140
Some things just don't make sense. But then we're not sure they really have to. Imagine Porsche took the Cayman, which is essentially the coupe version of the Boxster, and turned it into a convertible. Wouldn't make much sense, would it? Well that's essentially what Lotus did with the creation of the Exige S Roadster. The Exige, you see, was already the ...
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Report: Lotus C-01 motorcycle rumored to get 200-hp V-twin engine 1389560460
Back in June, Lotus announced it was getting into the motorcycle business. Or, we should say, Kodewa and the Holzer Group are getting into the motorcycle business, and have acquired the rights to use the Lotus name. One way or another, we're now receiving word on some of the specs we can expect from the prototype dubbed C-01. The Lotus motorcycle is ...
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Official: Caterham inks US distribution deal with Superformance 1388759340
Sort of like an automotive big box store, Superformance is rapidly becoming the destination for anyone interested in modern kit cars. Besides the normal spattering of Shelby Cobra replicars, Superformance also offers replicas of the GT40 and Corvette Grand Sport. Now, we can add an altogether different type of DIY car to the company's portfolio - ...
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Motorsports: Lotus signs Pastor Maldonado to replace Raikkonen 1385997360
The team currently known as Lotus has had a long string of accomplished drivers behind the wheel, including world champions like Nelson Piquet, Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. But Kimi is returning to Ferrari next season, leaving a big question mark over who would fill his seat. And now we have our answer. Lotus has ...
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Official: Lotus to receive $16M government grant 1385414940
Troubled British automaker Lotus is getting a second infusion of cash following a 100-million-pound ($161.5-million) investment by its parent company DRB-Hicom that was made in August. The substantially smaller investment, a mere 10 million pounds ($16.2 million), comes from the British government's Regional Growth Fund. The fund, which is part of a ...
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Official: Lotus hits the track with new Elise S Cup R 1384185660
If you want to take a Lotus to the track but the Exige V6 Cup is a bit too much to handle, the boys from Hethel have a new offering that may be of interest. The new Elise S Cup R features all the track-tuned bells and whistles of its six-cylinder brethren, including a competition-spec aero kit, adjustable suspension, Yokohama racing slicks on 17-inch ...
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Motorsports: Kimi Raikkonen to miss rest of season for back surgery 1384106880
Formula One drivers keep themselves in peak physical condition, such are the demands placed on them in order to do what they do. But otherworldly as their capabilities may be, they're still human, and that means they get injured or sick just like the rest of us. Case in point: Kimi Raikkonen and the announcement made today by Lotus that he'll have to sit ...
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Motorsports: Race Recap: 2013 Indian Grand Prix mostly calm with chances of Championships 1382968860
The smog around the Buddh International Circuit got so bad over the weekend that the FIA had to change the practice sessions. Then the soft tires that Pirelli brought to be the options were found to degrade so quickly that teams had to change their qualifying and race strategies. The only man it didn't seem to affect was – guess who? – ...
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Auctions: Elon Musk buys James Bond's Lotus submarine, wants to install Tesla powerplant 1382117460
Remember when we reported the long-lost-but-found-again Lotus Esprit submarine used in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me had sold at auction in London for $966,560 (well, $863,000 plus a 12-percent buyer's premium)? At the time, the buyer's identity remained a mystery, but Jalopnik has reported and confirmed that the man with money to burn is none ...
