Until this year's Paris auto show, if you wanted a high performance, super sports car, you had a tough choice in front of you. Which one would you choose? Last night however, the British company made your choice a lot easier... Now, you just have to decide which Lotus you like best.
Before the company's press conference, we were expecting them to unveil the Lotus Elite, which was announced a few days earlier, and probably one more new model. A few minutes before the grand unveiling, we received word of the new Lotus Eterne, and our adrenaline started pumping. The lights are turned on, and the press conference begins. As Dany Bahar, the company's CEO, starts unveiling all five concepts, one by one, we felt like we’re starting to hyper ventilate.
In 15 minutes, they have rewritten the company's whole future. They transformed Lotus, from a more or less, two-model line-up, small car maker, into a full fledged, top market position, supercar manufacturer.
This year's Paris Auto Show, with a few minor exceptions (Lamborghini Sesto Elemento and the Audi Quattro Concept), has been a never-ending story of electric and hybrid cars. At one point, we got so bored with the word "electric", that we decided to put aside the show reports, go for a coffee, and wait for the Lotus press conference.
It was our last hope of excitement for this year's event. Fortunately, Lotus delivered. And delivered in such a way, that we were left breathless.
Let's start with the Lotus Elite. The company says the Elite has an "incredible capacity for seduction". We say it definitely worked on us. It's a 2+2 coupe convertible that will offer you the chance of taking three of you best friends, for a 620 hp ride, at 315 km/h! What else could you ask for? The Maserati GranCabrio doesn't get anywhere near that. It has "only" 433 hp.
If you now have a family, with a couple of kids, and a dog, but you still want to feel a roaring V8 under your seat... you've got the Lotus Eterne. It's closest competitors are the Porsche Panamera, the Aston Martin Rapide and the Maserati Quattroporte. In terms of design... let's put it this way. If all four of them where models in a fashion show, the Lotus Eterne would be the bride at the end. In terms of power, the one that gets the closest is the Panamera Turbo with 500 hp. Even that is 120 hp short of the Lotus Eterne. The Eterne boosts an incredible 620 hp and 720 Nm of torque.
Going further, the new 2013 Esprit is the supercar everybody was waiting from Lotus. It's James Bond's ride brought into the 21st century. The 2013 Lotus Esprit has all the ingredients of a pure supercar - an engine in the middle, rear-wheel-drive, and enough horsepower to create a black hole. Porsche's only model that can match the performance of the 2013 Lotus Esprit, is the 911 GT2 RS, which develops the same 620 hp. You have to remember that the GT2 RS is the most extreme model Porsche has ever made! At the same time, it doesn't get anywhere near the level of comfort the Esprit will offer.
When it comes to the new 2013 Elan, we believe the words of Donato Coco, the Director of Design at Lotus, describe it the best, "under the skin there is only three bone, and the rest is all muscle"!
Lotus Eterne video:
2013 Lotus Esprit video:
2013 Lotus Elan video:
2015 Lotus Elise video:
If you want to drive a supercar to work, maybe show your tail lights to one angry Ferrari driver on the way, the 2013 Lotus Elan will be your best weapon. To make a short comparison on paper, the 2013 Lotus Elan has 450 hp and a 3.5 second sprint to 100 km/h. The Ferrari California has 10 more hp, but it needs 4,0 seconds to reach the same speed. Even the 458 Italia needs 3.4 seconds, but let's be honest, unless your Michael Schumacher, you won't be able to pull that time.
The Elise is widely considered to be the best handling car ever made. It's the car that every well handling car goes, for inspiration. Unfortunately, they never really gave it a major update since it was first introduced, back in 1996. Last night, Lotus changed all that. They unveiled the future, completely re-designed, 2015 Elise. Apart from having a mind blowing, mouth watering, "where do I get a poster to hang on the wall" exterior design, the future 2015 Lotus Elise will also have a completely new interior. The Spartan design of the old has been left for the history books. Now you get all the controls on the steering wheel and a video game style track display, so you'll always know which turn comes next on the Nurburgring. Colin Chapman's principle, on which he based the brand's entire philosophy, is still there. The 2015 Lotus Elise weighs only 1,095 kg.
As you can see, the future of Lotus will bring high performance, high power machines, that will probably annoy every single green activist on the planet. However, the company thought of that, and put a little hybrid option on every one of its future models. You'll even be able to drive them in California! They went even further and revealed a sixth concept, which will surely make every environmentalist happy. The new Lotus City Car concept will have a plug-in hybrid drive train, with a small, 1.2-liter range extender engine, and an electric motor.
The models revealed by Lotus last night, raised some serious problems for us. Now we'll have to work ten times harder. We need to save enough money to be able to buy on in a few years time.
The future of the automotive world doesn't look so shiny. It actually looks very green. Too green we might add. In the years to come, thundering V8s, noisy exhausts, smoking tires and all the other stuff that made us fall in love with cars, will slowly become extinct. They will be replaced by silent, Earth loving machines, that unfortunately, will never be able to make the hairs on our hands stick out every time we hear one pass by. In this green, silent and cold world of the future, Lotus will probably be one of the last manufacturers to offer emotion and passion.
Thank you Lotus!
