Geneva Motor Show - Lotus

Created Date: 25/03/2011

Two new offerings were introduced by Lotus: the Elise Club Racer and an Evora that had been handed to tuning firm Mansory. The Club Racer is their most recent adaption of the classic Elise, which keeps true to its older design rather than falling into CEO Dany Bahar's bold reinvention of the company. As is typical with every Elise, more weight shedding has taken place to make it even nippier in the corners and luxury is out in favour of performance. The Elise was already a featherweight car as it was, but they’ve managed to strip a further 24kg off the Club Racer which will probably end up in it floating away unless you chain it to your drive. Their list of weight saving cuts consists of the airbags, central locking, sound deadening, audio system, passenger footrest, soft-top and the mud flaps. They’ve even replaced the Lotus badges on the rear with stickers to save those precious few grams. Power remains the same at 134bhp however, so performance increases will only be as result of its weight loss. On the plus side, it is £600 cheaper than the current Elise S though. So if you’re after this pure, undiluted circuit car; then you won’t have to spend any extra.

The Lotus Mansory (also known as the Bespoke Concept) divided opinion, with many questioning the company’s new direction. Details on the car were scarce as it is still only a concept, though a model was available on show for people to see. Said to symbolise the future of Lotus, the firm handed a regular Evora over to tuning Firm Mansory and let them go to town on it. The result was an attractive if slightly disappointing upgrade bearing close resemblance to the original Evora. Lotus has officially denied that the Evora Mansory concept is an official Evora facelift, stating that “it’s a taste of the future of Lotus product customisation.” Rumoured to be a factory approved customisation program, it would explain why the level of customisation that Mansory put in looked strictly professional as opposed to their typical absolute tuning madness. Unfortunately with no in depth technical information it’s difficult to get excited about this one, but expect a full unveiling soon.

Lotus also showcased a less consumer based offering, the Evora Enduro GT model, which was based on the Evora GT4 endurance car but beefed up for GT2 competition. Lotus Motorsport plans to compete in the Nürburgring ADAC 24 Hours (23-26 June), Spa 24 Hours (28-31 July) and the Silverstone 24 Hours in October. Judging by its unveil timing this will most likely be the model that ends up racing in them.

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