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Former CEO Bahar files $10.6M suit against Lotus

File this one under "not surprising in the least." Fired Lotus CEO Dany Bahar is reportedly suing his former employers for some $10.6 million, claiming that the automaker and its Malaysian owner, DRB, broke the law when they dismissed him. According to a report by Bloomberg Businessweek, DRB and Lotus will defend themselves in court rather than settling, including filing a countersuit against the former top executive.
Bahar, 40, was canned on June 7, about two weeks after Lotus suspended him pending an investigation into his conduct. The report cites a Kuala Lumpur stock exchange filing as its source of the information; the filing also indicates that DRB has decided against selling Lotus, despite continuing losses.

Lotus slated to stop selling Evora in US

It's been three years now since Lotus stopped selling the Elise and Exige in North America, leaving the Evora as its only model available Stateside. But according to the latest from Car and Driver, even that model is on its way out.
The problem reportedly comes down to air bags. Lotus was granted a temporary exemption from fitting the latest-generation smart airbags to the Evora, but that exemption is set to expire at the end of the year. And once it does, Lotus apparently has no intention of developing and fitting the proper equipment to allow it to continue selling the Evora in the United States.
Once the Evora is gone from our market, Lotus will be reduced to selling only track-bound versions of the Elise and Exige in the US, so the prospect of actually buying a new Lotus and driving off the dealer lot will vanish into thin air.

Lotus opens the 2013 Formula One season with the launch of the E21 [w/video]

Lotus has broken the seal on the 2013 Formula One season, launching the E21 car at its factory in Enstone. With the regulations this year quite similar to those of last year, there are no dramatic changes in form compared to the E20. After some teams lobbied to be able to cover the stepped nose with a "vanity panel," Lotus retained the configuration, the team's technical director saying that the panel would add more weight and didn't make sense to put on the car unless it also added performance.
Beyond that, the E21 is said to be an comprehensive advance in its details - the suspension gets a new layout, the Coanda exhaust and the passive double DRS system are evolutions from last year, the front wing is "a continuation of concepts" from 2009.
After securing fourth in the Constructor's Championship last year, this is the chassis that drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean will use to try and move the team up a place, which would mean beating one of the big three teams over the course of the season. The quietly and impressively consistent Räikkönen managed third in the Driver's Championship, and we're sure he wouldn't mind a move up in the standings, either.