September 2010

The new Seven
As I wrote before, rumours are that a new Seven will be shown during the Paris Motor Show, based on an aborted Spanish project and the car may even be produced in Spain. The car is supposed to be heavier and more comfort orientated than the original Seven. And this may be the car that the rumours are refering to, the IFR Aspid, a Spanish design:

New in the modelcar section of this website:

Lotus Elan S1 by Ebbro (Spark) in scale 1/43 in white or green

Lotus Racing: looking ahead at the next Grand Prix, Monza
The Italian Grand Prix at Monza marks the last European race of the 2010 FIA Formula One™ World Championship. As the Lotus Racing team heads to Jarno Trulli’s home country, Jarno and a number of key team members take the time to look ahead to what promises to be another exciting race for the Anglo-Malaysian squad.

Race day is the 12th September, which is exactly one year to the day since the team heard that their entry into the 2010 Formula One™ World Championship had been accepted.

Read more here.

New in the classifieds section: Elise S1 50th Anniversary for sale.

1 September 2010

Lotus Racing: Nabil Jeffri becomes youngest F1 test driver
The Imperial War Museum runway at Duxford played host to the youngest ever test driver in Formula One™ history today, with 16 year old Nabil Jeffri seeing his F1™ dream come true as he conducted a day of aero testing for Lotus Racing on the museum’s Cambridgeshire runway. Fairuz Fauzy and Heikki Kovalainen were both on hand to lend their advice to the young Malaysian and Nabil, a key member of the AirAsia ASEAN Driver Development programme, completed the day’s testing, and gave the team valuable pitstop practice throughout a busy day on track for the Anglo – Malaysian squad. Read more here.

August 2010

The August newsletter has been send to al subscribers

Lotus Racing Belgian Grand Prix report.
The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa lived up to all expectations and produced an incident packed race that saw Lotus Racing again finish ahead of their nearest rivals. Heikki Kovalainen recovered from a slow start to finish 16th, and Jarno Trulli crossed the line in 19th, a spin late on dropping him back a few places after he had put in a very strong performance in the constantly changing weather conditions. Read more here.

29 August 2010

After the Belgian Grand Prix; the results of the practice and race in Belgium and the new standings.

New in the modelcar section of this website:

Elite, M250 and Exige slot car bodies made by Totalbodies from clear plastic, HO scale

Europa, an other new livery for the old Matchbox model in scale 1/64

 

28 August 2010

About Paris....
Of course there are already lots of rumours about what to expect at the large Lotus stand at the Paris Motorshow (October 2 to 17, 2010). This is what I have heard, we will soon see what is correct....

Lotus will take four all-new models to Paris, including two (!) hybrids. But it will take 1 to 2 years before these cars will actually be for sale.

Expect from Lotus todays version of the Seven, but it will be more comfortable (air conditioning) and heavier than the original Seven. This car is based on a Spanish concept and may even be built is Spain. The price wil be around the USD 100.000 mark.

Next will be what many have been looking out for, the new Esprit. Expect a turbocharged, mid-engine V8 sportscar that will be heavier than we are used to see from Lotus.

The most important introduction in Paris will be two front engined hybrid cars, a four-door hatchback (like the Porsche Panamera) and a two-door coupe. This coupe could be developped into a convertible later on. Of course these cars will use the modular-hybrid concept chassis that Lotus showed during the Geneva motor show earlier this year.

Spa brings out the best in Lotus Racing
Lotus Racing CEO Riad Asmat and the Malaysian flag brought a touch of luck to the team today at the Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying session as Heikki Kovalainen made it through to his second appearance of the season in Q2, and finished the session 16th. Jarno Trulli just missed out on Q2 after yellow flags at the end of an action packed Q1 forced him to back off, robbing him of the chance of joining his team-mate in the afternoon’s second session. Read more here.

Belgian Gand Prix Friday practice
Lotus Racing took up where they left off at the last race in Hungary, with Friday’s Belgian Grand Prix practice sessions ending up with Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli topping the new team’s time sheets in very mixed conditions on track. Read more here.

Belgian Grand Prix 2010 results, click here

New Lotus Evora Cup/GT4 race car and four Lotus 2-Eleven GT4 race cars take on the Nürburgring. The new Lotus Evora Cup/GT4 makes its racing debut this weekend (28th-29th August 2010) in the hands of Lotus rookie driver Ollie Hancock.

Lotus Motorsport has entered the Lotus Evora Cup/GT4 in the “Invitation” category of the European GT4 Championships as part of a year long development programme prior to a full GT4 championship assault in 2011. The GT4 will also be made available as a customer race car to privateer racing teams. Read more here.
 

27 august 2010

As expected (see my comments from 10 days ago) Lotus has announced the more powerfull Evora S. The 3.5 litre V6 engine is now delivering 350 BHP. The new Evora S comes with a sportpack as standard featuring a ‘sport’ button which allows the driver to control throttle response and activate the exhaust by-pass valve.

Lotus Evora S

And the announcement goes on introducing the IPS (Intelligent Precision Shift) option. A 6 speed automatic gearbox good for a superior automatic driving experience, according to Lotus. This new gearbox will be available with the 280 BHP version of the engine.

IPS option shifter

Both cars will be presented to the public at the comming Paris Autoshow. Read more here.

24 August 2010

Spark has just presented their new Lotus Type 76 model in 1/43, made from resin.

The car was intended to be a more advanced version of the Lotus 72, powered by the Ford Cosworth DFV and featuring modified aerodynamics, a lighter chassis, longer wheelbase and a narrower, lower monocoque. The car had problems with the electronic gearchange, the engine installation and the weight bias was out of sync. The project was abandonned in favour of keeping the Type 72 competitive.

Newsletter - don't worry, it will come. I have some other things that keep me busy so it is later than usual, sorry for that!

22 August 2010

New model from AutoArt; the Lotus Cortina Mk I in scale 1/18 as used by Jim McKeown. This is a 'limited edition' with certificate, 750 pieces will be produced.

17 August 2010

At Lotus the marketing people have found a new way to attract the attention of the press; sending out an e-mail with parts of information 'by mistake'....

Anyhow, we can expect the new Evora S and the new Evora Automatic at the Paris show, so much is clear now. These two cars will be tested at the famous Nordschleife of the Nürnburgring in Germany on 16, 17 and 18 August 2010. So it is likely that some images will pop up these days.

An Autoweek video interview about the new Lotus Exos (T125), see the videopage.

14 August 2010

Modelcar news; AutoArt just announced that will be producing a replica of the the Lotus Cortina MkI that Jim Clark drove to victory at Crystal Palace in 1964.

11 August 2010

The Exos Experience by Lotus. The Exos Experience, initiated and operated by Lotus Motorsport, is an elite club. A club in which the limited number of Lotus 125 owner drivers can refine their driving skills and challenge themselves in Formula 1™ inspired technology combined with expert one-to-one advice from former Grand Prix drivers and trainers. Read more here.

10 August 2010

A Lotus Type 33 model made from crystal! Reed more about it in the comming newsletter or have a look at the Type 33 page in the modelcar section of the website, click here.

8 August 2010

The new Lotus T125 is named Exos. As expected it is a track car. Looking at it, it is based on a Formula One car and underneath the body we will find F1 technology and a Cosworth V8 engine. The car looks like one of the F1 cars as we know them today.

The car has a weight of 650 kg and with the Cosworth GPV8 engine producing 650 BHP this must be the ultimate track day toy. The engine should be good for 4.500 km before a rebuild is needed.

The chassis is a carbon fiber monocoque, carbon ceramic brakes and a carbon fiber pushrod suspension. In the cockpit we see more F1 technology, looking at the steering wheel with a screen ant various buttons to adjust things while driving.

Lotus reveiled that according to plan there will be 25 Exos made next year and the price will be around USD 1.000.000 each. There will also be 5 so called driver events where owners will get to know the car with instructions from wel known Lotus drivers, the names Mika Häkkinen and Jarno Trulli have been mentioned in the rumours circuit...

(I did get some images by e-mail, these look like press images so I hope am not violating any copyrights)

Learn more about the Exos on the video page, please click here. Also the Genealogy Section has been updated, please look here.

7 August 2010

Heikki Kovalainen talks about the next Grand Prix, to be held in Spa after the summer break. Insight from the Lotus Racing driver on his thoughts of this legendary circuit. An official Lotus Racing video. Look here.

6 August 2010

Lotus T125
The word is that tomorrow, at Laguna Seca (as part of the Monterey Car Week) , the “most exclusive and expensive Lotus since the company began in 1952″ will be presented. The Lotus T125 will be a track and race car and may get a name that starts with "E", as usual. It is not clear when the car will be shown in the UK. In fact, for me this came as a surprise as Lotus is announcing news to be presented at the Paris show and of a sudden this new car presentation pops up. Let's wait and see...

Lotus Racing accelerates young driver development plan. Lotus Racing has today confirmed its commitment to embracing young talent with the announcement that Nabil Jeffri, the 16 year old Malaysian karting prodigy currently competing in Formula BMW Pacific with Eurasia Motorsport, will be driving for the fastest new F1™ team at an aero test the team will be running in early September at an undisclosed location in the UK. Read more here.

Lotus Racing was the winning team during the Formula One Golf Challenge last Tuesday! A team of four took on teams from across the grid, including McLaren and Mercedes, and walked away with the two trophies everyone was competing for. Chris Leslie, Dave Freeman, Jon Daly and John Gleeson have did make Lotus Racing proud with their victory.

3 August 2010

New from Vanguards is their Sunbeam Lotus 1/43 model in moonstone, should be available from your modelcar specialist soon! More Sunbeam Lotus models can be seen here.

2 August 2010

Lotus Racing enjoyed an excellent day in the heat of the Hungarian Grand Prix with Heikki Kovalainen finishing 14th and Jarno Trulli just behind in 15th. A very exciting race, full of incidents throughout the grid, saw the Anglo / Malaysian squad firmly consolidate their position at the top of the new team chart, sending the team into the summer break full of confidence for the challenges that lay ahead when the Championship reconvenes in late August. Read more here.

1 August 2010

All practice results for the Hungarian Grand Prix 2010 are now available here and the latest standings can be found here.

A changed layout for the first page of this website, all the news is now also visable on page one. For more easy reading we still have the "news" page