RideLust

One advantage that the relatively small automaker Lotus has over other companies is the flexibility to modify both new production models and the actual quantity of these vehicles produced to adapt to either difficult times or increased demand.  So it is in the spirit of optimism that Lotus is betting that by 2011 the collective world economy will have sufficiently recovered to roll out the latest version of both its Elise sport car and a new Lotus Esprit. 

The Esprit is projected to arrive in 2012 and utilize the current Lotus Evora’s underpinnings.  Reports are that the new Esprit will be both longer and wider than the Evora and take in a V8 engine as its powerplant.  Whether they will utilize another Toyota-supplied engine as does the rest of the Lotus line or not has not been revealed.  In any case, the Esprit will be situated at the top of the Lotus pecking order as the most expensive car they build.   

A new updated Elise will be released at the end of next year as a 2011 model.  Rather than try to reinvent what is perhaps the purist of all new sports cars, the new Elise will mostly be just a freshening up of the current racetrack superstar.