Lotus Motorsport and Alex Job Racing (AJR) will partner to compete for the GT championship in the American Le Mans Series, starting with the race at Long Beach on the weekend of April 14.

Lotus is preparing for the Geneva debut of its latest Lotus Evora GTE with Formula 1 Champion Kimi Raikkonen in tow.

More energized than ever, this morning Lotus PR announced a high-profile event at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.

Dany Bahar, the current CEO of Lotus is reportedly looking for a buyer to purchase the company from current Malaysian parent Proton.

The German-based Kodewa team will be campaigning a pair of Lola LMP2 Coupes in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Lola LMP2 race cars are designed and built in Huntingdon UK and will be powered by an engine provided by the Lotus Group.

Try this little experiment: put a pair of headphones on if you can, or just turn the volume up. Skip to the bottom of the page and watch the video, but do it with your eyes closed. Come back and read the article after that.

It’s the kind of outside-the-box thinking one might hope for with a brand launching into Formula One racing for the first time. Although the Lotus name has been around in F1 since 1958, there’s an important distinction: Team Lotus and Lotus weren’t exactly the same group.

The name disappeared from the sport between 1994 and 2010 when it came back under license to Tony Fernandes, an entrepreneur best known for turning once-failing Air Asia into a successful publicly listed company. For the upcoming year, Lotus will run under their own name, while Fernandes’ team will re-emerge as the Caterham F1 Team.

The Caterham CT01 car made the news last week after its photos leaked a day early onto the internet. We don’t have much information on the Lotus car yet, but we do know that 2007 Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen will be at the wheel.

Watch the teaser below.

In a deal eclipsing $410 million, DRB-Hicom purchased a 43 percent stake in Proton, a Malaysian automaker better known for its ownership of the famous British sports car brand, Lotus.

Rumors of the sale of Lotus by its Malaysian parent company Proton have increased steadily since the appointment of CEO Dany Bahar, who has done little to dissuade the rumors. Rather than a sign of instability, Proton has committed to funding the “new Lotus”, and Bahar’s actions have helped keep the small sports car maker in the headlines.

The New Year may be just around the corner, but it’s never too early to spread some rumors. Proton Holdings is believed to be seriously considering the sale of their Lotus sports car division, a brand that has never made a profit for the Malaysian-based company.

Knowing that the 444-hp Lotus Evora GTE will be making its way to America makes us giddy. So naturally, when we saw more photos of the most powerful Lotus ever made, we had to share them with the rest of the world.

Lotus Motorsport achieved a couple of major milestones recently, firing up their first ever IndyCar engine while also giving their Exige R-GT Rally car its first shakedown runs – both of which occurred within 24 hours.

To the race fans and cinema buffs that missed Senna‘s limited release this summer, Christmas came early.

Officially available as a digital download, the award-winning documentary of the most celebrated modern Formula 1 Driver can now be watched on Netflix Instant Streaming and on iTunes.

Unfortunately, Ayrton Senna fans that would like to have a copy on their shelf will have to wait. While the European region 2 release of the Senna DVD and BluRay have been available on amazon.com for months, the North America Region-1 NTSC DVD won’t be available until March 6, 2012 while no official release date has been announced for BluRay yet.

Check out the Senna trailer after the jump:

Every year an automaker is chosen to be celebrated at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with an artistic installation directly in front of the historic Goodwood house in West Sussex, England, and a host of classic and shiny new cars on display. For 2012 it will be the iconic English brand Lotus.

Lotus has plans to release their new next-generation Esprit at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show and more details were recently released on their next sports car. The base model Esprit will be a hybrid, sporting a 100-hp electric motor and a naturally aspirated V8 engine.

Lotus and its parent company, Proton, will be releasing their City Car to rival the new Aston Martin Cygnet and will be a production version of the Ethos concept originally seen at the Paris Auto Show. The vehicle will first be offered as a Proton, with the Lotus version coming at a later date with a higher price tag.

Lotus will offer the Exige in 2012 as a track-only car in America, despite killing off the street-legal Elise and Exige due to air bag laws and the discontinuation of the car’s 1.8L Toyota 4-cylinder motor.

General Motors is reviving negotiations that were scrapped back in 2007 with Lotus parent company Proton Holdings, Malaysia’s biggest auto manufacturer. Both brands are looking to form a manufacturing venture in the Southeast Asian country.

Saab’s sob story saga might be coming to an end, though the information surrounding their pending acquisition is murky at best.

The Evora GTE is the most powerful Lotus to date, making 444 horsepower with a 3.5-liter v6, but track-bred performance isn’t quite enough to make it pop.

Lotus Cars USA made the public announcement that former Ferrari CEO Maurizio Parlato is the new CEO of their U.S. operation.

The 2007 Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen is making a comeback to the sport after a two-year break.

Little development has been revealed by Lotus since they first announced their line-up revamp at the 2010 Paris Auto Show. However, sources report Lotus has got all hands on deck to make sure its dedicated in-house V-8 will be complete by late-2013.

There used to be a time when any car company hoping to succeed in business would open up shop in North America. While North America remains one of the key markets for car companies, the new focus is on emerging markets, with China as the number one choice.

Fans of Formula 1 racing and Lotus must have spent this year feeling a bit confused regarding who they should support, since there were two teams going by the name Lotus.

Lotus Elise and Exige sports cars manufactured between June 1, 2004 and November 30, 2006 are subject to replacement of a faulty oil cooler line, which may be prone to leak oil or suffer from the line detaching completely. If attention isn’t given at a timely matter, the defect can cause slippery oil to coat the tires, smoke, or even fires.

Keep an eye on Lotus over the next six years, they just won a bid for this round of the Regional Growth Fund (RGF).

Honoring the Lotus Renault Formula One Grand Prix team, the British sports car company is giving three passionate UK enthusiasts the opportunity to own a very custom car. The GP Edition Evora S is fully loaded with the Premium Pack with SuedeTex, Lotus’ Tech Pack and a set of 19-inch forged diamond cut wheels. The special edition Evora S is clearly race-inspired, with a gold-and-black paint scheme that resembles the Lotus Renault Formula One Grand Prix race graphics.

As part of a plan to spot future motor racing talent, Group Lotus has been the first car manufacturer to truly feature a presence in that most grassroots form of racing, karts.

Following in the footsteps of the Aston Martin Cygnet, Lotus will introduce their own City Car, apparently dubbed the Ethos, in late 2013.

It’s billed as the most powerful Lotus ever made. Based on the brand’s Le Mans racing car it’s also the most hard core. And now you’ll be able to buy one, in America!

After decades of borrowing powertrains from Ford, Renault, Toyota and other OEMs, Lotus has revealed some of the first pictures of a working engine, designed and built in-house.

After having showcased numerous new concept cars at the past several auto shows, one might expect that Lotus had dried up its reserve of new car news. Not so. At the Frankfurt Auto Show the British manufacturer had on display six new or newish models. Many won’t make their way to North America, but some will – including one particularly exciting sports car.

After being revealed in concept form at Pebble Beach, just a few weeks later Lotus has rolled out the production version of the Evora GTE Road Car at the Frankfurt Auto Show today. In many ways a road-going version of the Evora GTE race car, the road car holds the title of the most powerful Lotus street car ever, with a supercharged 3.5-liter V6 pumped up to 444-hp.

Having been cut from the Lotus lineup only recently Lotus hasn’t wasted any time in bringing back it’s hard-core track superstar, the Exige. Looking remarkably similar to its predecessor, the new Exige S is a solid 10-inches longer and 2-inches wider than that car.

Alongside a new Exige S street car, Lotus has unveiled its proposed entry into rally racing, the Exige R-GT, today at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Weighing in at around 2,600 lbs this race car trades the old Exige’s 4-cylinder for something close to what can be found out back in the Evora S – a supercharged 3.5L V6. Power makes it to the rear wheels using a sequential 6-speed transmission with paddle shifters.

Ahead of its Frankfurt Auto Show premiere of six new models, Lotus has released a perplexing video teaser of one of these new sports cars. But wait, the above screen shot, taken from the boxer-on-a-race-track Lotus Films production, hints that perhaps Lotus will reveal an all-new Exige in Frankfurt.

Don’t expect a production model, but rather a concept, likely powered by either the same non-existent 2.0-liter 4-cylinder as found in the Elise concept, or perhaps the 3.5-liter V6 shared with the Evora.

Previous reports have also suggested the Exige will be a race car intended for use in rally racing.

In addition, Lotus has promised a new Elise S supercharged model, an Evora S IPS (automatic transmission) model, as well as an Elise SPS – using some type of automated manual gearbox. The remaining two cars are expected to be the production version of the Evora GTE Road Car concept, as well as the special Evora S Freddie Mercury Edition.

Look for more details tomorrow at AutoGuide’s official Frankfurt Auto Show page here.

Watch the video after the jump:

Lotus‘ Elise is a pretty wicked sports car straight from the factory, but with some creativity one can have a serious street/race car on their hands. This roofless Elise has been floating around the Internet for some time now, supposedly packing 305-hp in a 1500-lb body making it one ultra-lightweight, supercharged, and sequentially-shifted machine. Now its owner is willing to part ways with it for just $28,977.

September 5th marks the birthday of Freddie Mercury, the legendary front man to the rock and roll band Queen. Having succumbed to AIDS almost twenty years ago, fans, friends and family will gather at the Savoy Hotel on September 5th, 2011 to celebrate what would have been Freddie’s 65th birthday.

The Lotus Cup USA Series will begin its season on September 2nd at New Jersey Motorsports Park, followed by a second round at Lime Rock Park In Connecticut on October 20th.

For a company that only has one car left in its lineup (at least in North America), Lotus sure has a lot going on. The automaker has announced the debut of what will amount to six new models at the Frankfurt Auto Show. To be more specific, however, there will be three new cars, two new options for existing cars and one special very special limited edition.

Gordon Murray, the man responsible for not only designing, but conceiving the idea for the McLaren F1, is now a part of Lotus.

Amid all the historic autos on display at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Concept Lawn is a look at modern works of vehicular art – not all of them concepts either.

Vehicles on display at this year’s event included the the Infiniti Etheria concept, the SSC Tuatara concept and the Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept. The SSC car represents the next generation of the Ultimate Aero and will look to take back the title of the world’s fastest production car from Bugatti. As for the Lotus, it’s essentially a look at a possible street-legal track machine, merging the Evora road car and the GTE Le Mans race car together. Yet another concept was the Lexus LF-Gh – a design study that lead to the Pebble Beach reveal of the new 2013 Lexus GS350.

Other highlights included a rolling chassis of the new Lamborghini Aventador, as well as the Jaguar C-X75 concept. See all these, and even more in the video after the jump:

Any Lotus enthusiast will tell you that the brand would be wise to stop pumping resources into Formula 1 and IndyCar, an instead get more heavily involved in road racing. After all, in many respects it represents a better bang-for-the-buck for the marketing folks, with a direct correlation between the cars that race and the cars sold through dealers.

Taking the idea of a track-focused street car to the next level, Lotus has unveiled the GTE Road Car Concept at Pebble Beach. Named after the GTE class cars that Lotus is currently racing in Europe, this concept is essentially a blend of that competition racer with a street-legal Evora. In many ways it’s not as far from reality as one might guess, with the race car based heavily on the Evora road car and even sharing the same aluminum tub.

The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is in full swing, and Lotus has just unveiled the Exige Matte Black Final Edition, a special model reserved exclusively for the North American Market. The Exige Matte Black Final Edition will premier within the Lotus exhibit on Peter Hay Hill on August 18-21. Lotus will only produce twenty-five Exige Matte Black Final Edition cars, as a farewell model to the lightweight sports car that sold for the last ten years. The Exige will feature a more powerful 257-hp engine, a stealthy black paint job and black Alacantara sport seats.

The rapper and hip-hop producer wasn’t just chosen to become Lotus’s spokesman—no, he is officially the vice president of Creative Design and Global Marketing, a position which comes with free coffee in the Lotus corporate break room. Turns out, Mr. Beatz is an avid car collector, with a Spyker C8 and a Ferrari Enzo in his stable, but presumably not a 1978 Eclat 22. He joins Victoria Beckham in the position of unlikely celebrity executive, where she is the creative design executive for Land Rover.

In the video after the jump, Lotus explains what he’ll be expected to bring to the table. But what makes Swizz Beatz the perfect man for the Norfolk company? “Three little facts,” Lotus says:
1. Like Group Lotus , he means business: He’s a risk taker with considerable credentials including music producer, rapper, designer AND painter.
2. Like our cars, he’s multi award winning: This year he shared a Grammy Award with Jay-Z.
3. Like Group Lotus he keeps good company: This man regularly works with the likes of Bono, Kanye West, Beyoncé and Alicia Keys.

Swizz Beatz is a stepping stone to other famous artists—which Lotus hopes, not unlike a comely teenage girl who waits outside the jock quarterback’s locker after classes, will net them even more friends and that vaunted 18-34 demographic that marketing people keep talking about. What better way for Lotus to convince hip-hop moguls to replace their Maseratis and Bentleys and Maybachs…hold on, scratch that last one. Biggie might not have fit in an Exige, but Yeezy could. Whether he actually wants to is up to Dany Bahar’s salesmanship and size-11 Loakes.

But we wish Lotus well, of course. After all, they are merely adhering to Colin Chapman’s previously-truncated quip: “simplify, and make it rain, dogg.”

The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is two days away, and Lotus is gearing up to unleash the Evora GTE Road Car Concept and the Exige Matte Black Final Edition.

Lotus will be packing heat this year at the upcoming Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance with the Evora GTE Road Car Concept and the Exige Matte Black Final Edition.

“Chillen in my beemer, listenin to Ether.” Well, Swizz Beats won’t be singing those lyrics anymore. Lotus has appointed American rapper and producer Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Daoud Dean) as Vice President of Creative Design and Global Marketing, this afternoon.

So what is Lotus to do with the Exige now? Simple answer, make a V6 version with the engine out of the Evora. But it is no easy swap. The Toyota-sourced V6 engine is bigger, so Lotus has been running a test mule with a wider track and a longer wheelbase.

Lotus has to clear out its hoary old inventory for the future of its “New Era,” and as such, it’s sending the Elise and Exige out of American production with some guaranteed-to-be-rare limited editions.

There’s a scene in the movie Just Married—scratch that, every comedy about Europe ever—where the main characters squeeze themselves into a hopelessly small rental car that may or may not be a Smart, and then zany hijinks ensue. But those traveling to Europe might get the chance to rent something a little more exciting than that.

In response to complaints from a number of Lotus Elise owners, who say that their tires have become coated in oil, causing handling problems, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun an investigation into the root cause of the problem.

The Carabinieri in Rome and Milan will now be enjoying their daily patrols in sporty new Lotus Evora S police cars. Specially modified for the po-po in Italy, the Evora S fleet will feature new-age voice recognition technology, and a special portable refrigeration compartment for the transport of vital organs and blood for medical emergencies. Powered by Toyota‘s supercharged 3.5L V6, the Evora S will pack 350-hp and more than 300 lb-ft of torque to handle almost any high speed chase.

There’s something inherently attractive about dressing a car up in police livery and gear. If doesn’t matter if its a VW Beetle or a Lamborghini Gallardo, a vehicle’s “cool factor” goes up several notches as soon as we think the men and women in blue might actually be using it to fight crime.

Today, Group Lotus Motorsport announced the formation of Lotus Sport USA led by Team Principals Ian Dawson and John Pritzlaff. The factory endorsed team will focus on the GT2 and LMP2 classes sanctioned by the International Motor Sport Association. The new team will race with the Lotus Evora GTE for the North American and International schedule in 2012.

Having just introduced the high-performance Evora S model, Lotus will look to further expand the Evora range, adding a flagship track-inspired version to its lineup.

Lotus is planning to build a Exige-based rally car that it will debut later this year at the Frankfurt Auto Show. The decision to enter the pro-rallying ranks is the latest move by the British sports car maker to further expand its motorsports activities that currently stretch from GT car racing at Le Mans to Formula 1 and Indy Car.

The famous 1991 24-Hours of Le Mans winner, the Mazda 787B will be featured at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Ex-Formula 1 driver and Le Mans veteran Mike Wilds and current Mazda works driver Mark Ticehurst will be racing the 787B up the hallowed Goodwood hill for the festival this weekend. The race car returns to mark the 20th anniversary of its famous victory in the demanding 24-Hours of Le Mans.