Lotus Elise

The all-new metal would be the brand's first since 2009.

Colin Chapman's first car was built in 1948.

Colin Chapman would be proud.

Sprint-exclusive parts along with standard Elise updates save a total of 90 pounds.

Put away your pitchforks. No decision has been made yet and there's plenty of good Lotus news.

Lotus is also on course to be profitable, if you believe that.

Lotus shows its latest lightweight models in Geneva by displaying the Evora Sport 410, Exige Sport 350, and Elise Cup 250. This trio could put a smile on any driver's face.

The Lotus Elise Cup 250 is the fastest production version of the sports car every around the company's test track, and the specs indicate it might hassle a Porsche Cayman GT4 around a circuit.

Hethel is getting into the personalization business with the launch of its new Lotus Exclusive program, available on new and existing models this year.

Though we may not get it here anymore, Lotus is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Elise with the introduction of the new Sport and Sport 220 models.

Lotus intends to bring the Elise back to America, but only once the next-generation version is ready in 2020. The prospect of modifying the current model for sale again in the US is off the table.

It's been 20 years since Lotus first introduced the Elise, so to celebrate the occasion, the British automaker is offering a special 20th Anniversary edition of the sports car that changed it all.

You know a vehicle is going to be something special when you need a pair of goggles to drive it, and this highly customized Lotus lives up to that promise. The owner refers to his one-off as the Ronin RS 211, but underneath that barely there body are a few parts left from a 2005 Lotus Elise.

There's been a proud history of basing electric sports cars off of the Lotus Elise. Its lightweight architecture has formed the basis for the original Tesla Roadster, the PG Elektrus, the Rinspeed sQuba concept, the Zytek Elise prototype and the Dodge Circuit EV show car. But those projects have all come and gone. That run might not be over, though, as the next to raise the flag is Detroit Electric.

"We are delighted to open our doors to customers so that they can collect their new car from us direct." – Jean-Marc Gales

Head on over to the Lotus website, and though the Elise isn't offered in the United States anymore, buyers in other markets can choose between numerous models: there's the base Elise, the Elise Club Racer, the Elise S and the Elise S Club Racer, and that's before even getting into the even more extreme Exige that's also based on the Elise. Track-day enthusiasts can also go for the full-on Elise S Cup R, but now the British sportscar manufacturer has confirmed a new variant.

If we had a nickel for every version of the Elise that Lotus has rolled out over the years, we might actually have enough spare change to buy one ourselves. And we're not even talking about the entire separate models (like the Exige and Europa) that Lotus has based on the Elise's platform or the other automakers' cars (like the Tesla Roadster and Hennessey Venom GT) that have used the same. And now Lotus appears to be testing another one.

Lotus is recalling 860 vehicles after discovering that the oil cooler hose could detach from its fitting. Should the hose separate, it could spray oil on one of the lightweight car's tires, giving new meaning to the phrase "sudden loss of grip." The other case is, believe or not, more dire, as the spraying oil could hit the engine and ignite. Of course, neither situation is desirable, hence the recall.

The Lotus Elise has given birth to some seriously fast and varied machinery. Aside from Lotus' own models like the Exige, 2-Eleven, 340R and Europa, electric vehicles like the Tesla Roadster, not to mention the never-released Dodge Circuit and Detroit Electric SP:01, are all based on the Elise's platform. As were/are the Melkus RS 2000, the Opel Speedster/Vauxhall VX220 and the Hennessey Venom GT. But this could be the most extreme use of the lightweight chassis yet.

The world will be a different place after Elon Musk builds a time traveling device (don't ask us how we know that will happen). For one thing, the Tesla Roadster of the rewritten future will not have been built using the chassis of the Lotus Elise. Also, verb tenses will be becoming even more confusing and, possibly, awkward.