It might not have the ultra-high production quality of Audi’s “Truth in 24” documentary, but Lotus has just released a short video detailing the British sports car maker’s journey to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

There’s no punch line needed for this story: if you’ve always wanted a lavishly expensive backgammon set and pieces made from the wunderkind material, carbon fiber, than look no further than Lotus.

Lotus has officially confirmed the use of its own V8 engine which will first be featured in the 2013 Esprit. Lotus is following its ‘New Era’ plan to launch five new models with less reliance on Toyota engines.

Lotus recently announced its intention to build an in-house V8 engine for its upcoming line of exotic sports cars. Making as much as 570-hp from a displacement of just 4.8-liters the sophisticated powerplant may be joined by an equally high-tech automatic transmission.

Dany Bahar, the man responsible for running Lotus at the moment, has his fair share of critics. However, he is moving the brand forward through expansion, and his latest move is to give this famed British marque a brand new test track.

The British and the Germans swept the 2011 Concept Car of the Year awards in Dearborn, with top marks going towards Lotus, Jaguar, and Volkswagen.

Amidst all the sexy and exciting sports cars Lotus unveiled at the Paris Auto Show last year, tucked away in a back corner was the Emas Concept. A small city car, it was perhaps the most likely of the concepts, combining the automaker’s talents for light weight vehicles with nimble handling, wrapped up in an affordable package that could produce real volume sales and bring Lotus to profitability.

Lotus has officially announced that Lotus is opening dealerships in China. Lotus China Symphony will be appointed as the official distributor for the British sports cars in China. The dealership will be based out of Beijing and will offer a full range of Lotus sports cars including the Evora, the Elise and the Exige.

According to the CEO Lotus, Dany Bahar, the new Lotus Esprit will offer a more “authentic” driving experience than its rivals, the Ferrari 458 Italia and McLaren MP4-12C. Bahar has also claimed that the Esprit will “have the character and emotion” that McLaren lacks.

With the Elise and Exige about ready to be retired, soon the only model in the Lotus lineup will be the new Evora. A new Elise won’t arrive for several years. The same goes for the flagship Esprit. So to keep the company afloat and improve sales Lotus is looking to grow the Evora range.

The single most important fact about the new Lotus Evora S isn’t its supercharged V6 engine or its improved suspension. No, it’s the price.

The new Esprit will make it to market, but not as early as Lotus had hoped. Speaking at the launch of the new Evora S model in San Jose, Lotus Cars USA PR boss Kevin Smith confirmed that due to a decision by Lotus to produce its own engine for the car, it won’t make it to market until late 2013 or even early 2014.

Tesla Motors has planned to begin building prototypes of its Model S electric sedan in the third quarter at the NUMMI plant located in Fremont, Calif, which was acquired from Toyota last year.

The RSRNurburg school runs a fleet of brand new Lotus cars at the Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps for those feeling the need for speed. Based out of Nurburg, Germany, the company allows drivers to sample a new Lotus Exige S’s and track the car on both the Nuburgring in Germany and the Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

According to a report from Autoblog North American-spec production of the Lotus Elise and Exige will end in August, leaving the brand with only the Evora to sell as its sole product.

Dany Bahar, CEO of Lotus agrees and wishes to develop engines bespoke for its automobiles. Since Lotus is delaying the Elan, the funds earmarked for that car can now be used towards developing new engines.

And as such, he is planning to appeal the ruling and eliminate the confusion: “it is inevitable that the similarity of the names Lotus and Team Lotus will cause confusion not only amongst F1 supporters and the wider public,” he said, “but also amongst F1 commentators who use the word ‘Lotus’ interchangeably for both teams.”

Lotus impresario and well-coiffed CEO Dany Bahar has denied reports that he’s planning to divorce Lotus from its Malaysian parent company Proton—right after he mentioned that, well, he might.

Lotus has plans to improve both the Elise and Evora with a list of 150 items. Improvements are centered around the Evora, and are designed to boost dwindling sales and bridge the styling gap between the current car and the next wave of Lotus’ due 2013.

Lotus CEO Dany Bahar has made numerous changes to the storied British brand since he joined the company in 2009 and he’s not done yet. In a recent interview he made known his desire to see Lotus split off from its current Malaysian owner Proton, in search of a major global automaker – like Toyota.

But a year earlier, the Malaysian government—which controls a stake in Lotus’s parent company Proton—threw its own hat in the Formula 1 ring in an effort to promote Proton on the world stage. They picked an experienced team name that would garner respect among the racing community: Lotus.

The Lotus Elan has been put on hold indefinitely, reportedly due to the rather obvious fact that the concept was too close to the brand’s current Evora model. Previously, rumors had indicated Lotus was taking a close look at both the Esprit and Elite models, which share many of the same components and have similar style, in order to further separate two two vehicles.

Looking to establish itself as being more Lotus than Lotus, Team Lotus Enterprise has announced the acquisition of Caterham Cars – the self proscribed custodians of Colin Chapman’s ultra-light Seven sports car.

Now news comes that Team Lotus wants to tie itself more closely with the Lotus brand by acquiring Caterham cars. As all car enthusiasts know, Caterham bought the manufacturing rights to continue producing the old Lotus 7 back in 1973 and ever since has been developing newer and faster versions of this basic sportscar.

When you rely on another manufacturer to supply engines for your offerings, sometimes things can get a bit tricky. In the case of Lotus, that time has now come for the Elise and Exige.

Lotus may build their next generation Esprit sports car outside of the United Kingdom after its request for a $50 million loan to build a new factory was rejected by an investment arm of the British government.

In a move to attract sponsors and an audience, IndyCar Racing League (IRL) announced that at the series finale this year, five professional racing drivers who are currently not in IRL, would be granted a wild card entry. If any of these drivers go on to win the event, they would receive a prize of $5-million.

Renault’s Vitaly Petrov recently made history by becoming the first Russian driver to clinch a Formula One podium finish. Now he’s making history through the Internet with this awesome footage of him catching air at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Going slightly wide on turn 7 of the course, Petrov launched his Renault race car while in eighth place. Unfortunately the landing snapped the steering column, ending his day of racing short. His teammate Nick Heidfeld did clinch a podium finish however.

Check out the video after the break.

While Lotus is best-known for its light weight sports cars, the automaker’s engineering division is earning a reputation for green technology. One of the most recent projects to come out of Lotus Engineer is a range extender engine that works similar to the one found in the Chevy Volt.

Much of the excitement surrounding the Lotus brand as of late has been about ultra-expensive future models, but Lotus also has a fair share of excellent performance machines on offer right now. Included in that list are two new additions, the Evora S and Evora IPS, which will make their North American debut at the 2011 NY Auto Show, introduced by none other than Bob Lutz.

Over in the U.K., Lotus is looking at the British government to help out in the same capacity. Lotus is saying, that unless the government backs them up, they will have to resort to looking at producing vehicles outside of the United Kingdom.

The hybrid engine that first appeared in the Lotus Evora 414E concept is supposedly attracting interest from 3 major manufacturers, according, according to a Lotus official.

The first round of the Lotus Cup USA kicked off this past weekend at Willow Springs Raceway, with Jack Fried taking the overall win in the awesome, track-only 2-Eleven sports car. Fried won after race leader Andy Kern bowed out with mechanical problems, but Kern managed to take the overall win in the Time Attack class.

The next round will be held at Firebird International Raceway in Arizona during the weekend of April 9th, and we are soliciting donations so that one of the AutoGuide staff can rent a seat in a 2-Eleven. Any takers?

[Source: Lotus]

There might not be a larger void between two automakers than the British brands Lotus and Rolls-Royce. One focuses on bare-bones sports cars, while the other epitomizes excessive luxury. But when Rolls-Royce decided to push ahead with plans to create an electric car concept, it went straight to the engineering minds at Lotus.

With the Lotus Elise now offered exclusively in Europe with a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder rather than the old 1.8-liter mill, it only makes sense that the limited edition Club Racer mode would follow suit.

Lotus continues to push ahead with its motorsports programs, unveiling at the Geneva Auto Show the Evora Enduro Concept that will form the basis of the British sports car maker’s GT2 race cars.

Due to increasingly strict fuel economy standards, Lotus was forced to scrap its 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine for the Elise and Exige in Europe. The good news is that the smaller 1.6-liter engine now in use helps cut a little more weight from the car, dropping it down to just 1,931 lbs.

[Source: Autocar]

With the new Lotus models looming on the horizon, current Lotus owners may be looking for new ways to spice up their ride before the new model range kicks off in 2015. Tecnocraft, an American manufacturer of carbon fiber products, seems to be listening to the demand, developing a program for the current model Lotus Elise and Exige.

Lotus has just announced it will debut a Mansory-tuned version of its Evora sports car at the upcoming Geneva Auto Show. In a brief statement, the British sports car company makes it very clear that this is in now way a new version of the car, not is it a facelift, but simply a look at what level of personalization Lotus owners can achieve with the Evora as a canvas.

The 26 year-old Polish star has suffered massive injury to his right hand, as it got partially severed in the crash. He has also suffered injury to his shoulder and elbow.

Lotus CEO Danny Bahar has made it clear that he intends to rely on the British automaker’s glorious history in order to rebuild for the future. And while at the forefront of that plan is the launch of an all-new lineup of cars, it’s little surprise that the former head of Ferrari’s marketing department will also look to retail merchandise sales.

Having a little fun in their own backyard, Lotus has lent out a brand new Evora to the UK Police Force, more specifically the Central Motorway Police Group. Lotus’ hot new sports car features the traditional British Police flair on the exterior, including neon yellow accents contrasted by a dark, rich blue.

Although the onslaught of all-new Lotus products is still years away, the company is apparently plotting to inject some new blood into the company portfolio in advance of their rebooting as a brand.

With their supply of Renault engines set to dry up after 2011, and new engine regulations coming into place in 2013, current champions Red Bull are said to be looking at producing their own engines, with one rumored partner said to be Volkswagen.

While it will continue building sports cars, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar has announced that in October, 2013 the company will produce its City Car, which was shown as a concept at the recent Paris Auto Show.

While the upcoming Lotus Esprit has been announced using a supercharged version of the Lexus IS-F’s 5.0-liter V8, that may all change when the new high-powered exotic comes to market in 2012.

You’d expect that with Bob Lutz signing on with Lotus as a consultant that he’d be endlessly spouting-off about the brand’s endless possibilities and bright future. Not so.

So apart from Team Lotus (formerly known as Lotus F1) which is a privately owned team, Group Lotus has bought a stake into the Renault F1 team to create Lotus Renault GP. So while there will be two Lotus F1 teams on the grid, only one will get factory support.

The black and gold Lotus paint scheme may be Formula 1’s most iconic livery, more dear to the hearts of fans than even the red Marlboro design used on McLaren and Ferrari cars.

While the colors originally came from the John Player Special cigarette design, they’ve managed to burn themselves into the hearts and minds of racing fans, long after Lotus had left the sport, and tobacco advertising was banished once and for all.

The revived Lotus Renault outfit comes from a partnership between Lotus cars and Genii Capital, an investment group that purchased the remnants of Renault’s Formula 1 outfit, that’s also won two championships. Using Renault engines, the name choice was obvious – except that a rival team, which had purchase the Lotus naming rights for the 2010 season, is also campaigning in the 2011 season with Renault power. Their name too, will be Lotus Renault GP. We expect this to be settled in court soon, but in the mean time, hit the jump to see the press release for one of two Lotus Renault Formula 1 outfits.

[Source: Renault]

First up is the Lekir, which is essentially a Lotus Europa dressed up in re-altered clothes. Lotus (which is owned by Proton) had recently discontinued production of the unloved Europa in favor of the new Evora, so it can easily start building its old model for its parent company. This will allow Lotus to sell more vehicles and will in return bring in some much needed enthusiasts to Proton dealers. Also, since Proton has a much larger international distribution network, the Europa could finally see the success it never had.

When the Lekir hits the showroom, it will feature either a 1.6-liter pr 2.0-liter turbo charged four-cylinder engine, the latter producing about 220-hp.

Looking to perhaps grow the Lotus name in the land of exotics, Lotus has just announced a deal with Hertz Italiana S.p.A. to offer the new coupe for rent in Italy.

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Lotus has announced that it will join the big boys in 2012, racing against both Honda and Chevy in the Indy Car series.

For those, like yours truly, who grew up watching F1 racing in the late 1970s and the 1980s, the Lotus racers, draped in the classic black and gold colors of sponsor John Player Special rank as the most memorable. Driven by the likes of such greats as Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti and Ayrton Senna, they were frequent visitors to the winner’s circle as well as propelling the team to a number of driver and constructor’s championships.

Of all the automakers that offer winter driving schools, Lotus seems like the worst fit. With their famous British reliability and bare metal cabin surfaces, the prospect of driving a Lotus in freezing temperatures strikes us as a task fit for British masochists like Max Mosley.

While Lotus created a lot of buzz at the Paris Auto Show by unveiling an entirely new lineup of sports cars, only one is actually in the development stage. According to AutoCar, just one of the five vehicles (the Esprit) has any serious engineering behind it. That may cast some doubt on the sincerity of Lotus’s plans, but it shouldn’t.

Lotus will get back into the game of building true exotics when it launches the all new Esprit in 2012. Unveiled at the Paris Auto Show, the Esprit features a body made entirely of carbon fiber and boasts a supercharged 5.0-liter V8 than makes an impressive 542-hp. In R-Spec trim that number will be pumped up to 612-hp. A hybrid version will also be offered in a bid to produce high levels of performance but with reduced emissions.

Yesterday Lotus Cars began what the storied British automaker is calling a “New Era” launching an entire lineup of vehicles at one auto show. A total of five new models graced the Lotus stand, including the new Esprit, a second-generation Elise, the flagship Elite and even a 4-door model called Eterne. Details were scarce, but Kevin Smith, head of publications for Lotus Cars USA has shed some light on each of the five models.