Extreme is a pretty good word to describe Lotus products of late. Even the road going cars like the Elise and Exige look extreme and have been taken to some pretty absurd levels of tune by their enthusiastic owners. Fortunately, the folks at Lotus aren’t just sitting around admiring their past achievements. No sir, they keep themselves busy building new variations.
It isn’t like the 2 Eleven isn’t one of the motoring world’s coolest track day weapons already, but the Lotus folks just had to make it even cooler. Add in a full cage, more ponies, sequential gearbox and other safety and suspension goodies and you have a race ready tool for the European SRO
GT4 Supersports class. I’m pretty sure a few might find their way to a NASA event somewhere on American soil this year too!
Read the press release for full details after the break Continue reading →
I don’t think there are many gearheads who don’t truly get the mystique of the Lotus name. The heritage behind the marque comes from years of racing success and innovation. The modern cars are nothing short of spectacular, combining lightweight construction that would do Colin Chapman proud with modern Toyota drivetrains which are infinitely tuneable and absolutely bulletproof. Oh yeah, they look killer too!
Now, I’ll let our video guru, Scott Simmons take up the story:
As the creator of the Garage Blog videos I had to indulge myself by creating a little piece of car porn. The Lotus Elise and Exige are two of my favorite cars. Brian Shepherd of Lotus Cars USA brought a yellow Exige S to the 2008 IMPA test days. At the end of the event I was able to hop in the car and take the last lap of the day around the track with Brian at the wheel. We didn’t have time to mic up for on track commentary but the lap around was one of the best of the day. The Exige S is one helluva car. Thanks Brian!
Once again, there are just so many incredible images in The Garage Blog Flickr pool, that I can’t make up my mind. Rather than a photo of the week, I think I’m just going to share them randomly.
This incredible shot of a Lotus in the fog was taken by Roberto Blank. I just love the contrast of the yellow machine with the grandstand lurking in the fog behind it.
If you’ve got your own great shots to share, be sure to join us on Flickr
While having a look through some of the Ranta collection for a few fun historical posts for the next couple of days, this great little find fell out of a Canadian Grand Prix program. A pristine entry ticket for the 1967 Grand Prix of the United States at Watkins Glen, October 1, 1967. The price? Just $8.
According to the Wikipedia entry on this event, Sarj Ranta was one of 80,000 people who watched Jim Clark nurse his ailing Lotus to a win over team mate Graham Hill on that bright, sunny day.
For weeks now, Ittai Geiger has been promoting the living daylights out of his upcoming video. The guy has posted a rambling video of himself and then a InnamorAuto trailer to just about every automotive Facebook group in existence. The finished product had better be pretty good or he will have ticked off a bunch of people!
Great news for Ittai and his co-horts Jared Silver and Scott Gross. Their finished product is outstanding! It is funny, informative and visual eye candy, with all sorts of artistic effects in use to bring the little Lotus to life on the small screen. Nice job guys!
Nelson, welcome to The Garage and I just wanted to say I am looking forward to your future articles with great interest. I have been involved with racing in one form or another since I was a little boy but my path took a very different road (no pun intended) than most. On the other hand is there such a thing as a “normal” means of a passion for the love of racing? I think not and I am sure each persons chain of events that led to their passion or involvement of racing is as much of an interesting story as any other.
In my case I grew up in a small town in southwestern Oregon back before the muscle car era when anything that had a set of mag wheels or a hole in the muffler was classified as a hot rod. My racing bug started with my buddies and me racing our bikes down hills in something similar to what today is called Mountain Biking. Later on it was go-carts and that eventually led to me lying about my age so I could drive an old beat up “Hobby Stock Class” car in the dirt stock car races. I can remember one of my father’s friends had an old Corvette stored in my dad’s garage. For hours at a time I would set behind the steering wheel making tire screeching sounds as I yanked the shifter around pretending to bark off the gears. I am sure that even with a dead battery I probably wore out the tires on that car without ever leaving the garage. Continue reading →
You’re on the starting line, revs up, ready to launch. The flag drops and you let fly, when suddenly your weekend goes for a giant dump. Check out this wicked start from the Elise Trophy race at Brands Hatch in June.
Car clubs are a wonderful thing. While most people join because of a car, eventually it is the people who make the experience valuable. Call it the power of community.
Simon Pritchard had been having a pretty rough go of things. Firstly, he developed Reiter’s Syndrome, which is a type of arthritis that comes as a result of infection. He’s had lung problems and then a series of mini strokes put him in hospital. The one thing that kept Simon going was his restoration project, a Lotus Esprit. Continue reading →
Never one to mince words, Jonny Lieberman declares the Lotus Elise a Fat Pig! Wait a minute here, what the hell is that boy smoking?
Well, he’s just hi on the power of Se7en! You see, Jonny just had the time of his life traipsing up and down the legendary Tail of the Dragon in an assortment of creations based on the vision of Colin Chapman. The fat pig comment was the way the Elise felt in comparison to bright orange, Miata powered Westfield built by Autopro Motorsports.
Be sure to read the full story over at Jalopnik, where Jonny’s story may even bring a tear to your eye. Now how can I get invited down to Deal’s Gap myself?
