1997 Lotus Super Seven on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lotus spotted testing more extreme Elise on the Nordschleife

If we had a nickel for every version of the Elise that Lotus has rolled out over the years, we might actually have enough spare change to buy one ourselves. And we're not even talking about the entire separate models (like the Exige and Europa) that Lotus has based on the Elise's platform or the other automakers' cars (like the Tesla Roadster and Hennessey Venom GT) that have used the same. And now Lotus appears to be testing another one.
Spotted lapping the Nürburgring, what we're looking at here appears to be the track-bound Elise S Cup R, but our intrepid paparazzi by the side of the track tell us it's missing the switches for the battery isolator and fire extinguisher. In their place, this Elise is wearing an even bigger rear wing as part of an altogether rather aggressive aero kit - not to mention a rockin' matte red wrap.
All of these telltales make us think Lotus has something extreme in the works, and we could find out what exactly it is as early as the Paris Motor Show in October, so stay tuned and watch this space.

2015 Monaco F1 Grand Prix race recap [spoilers]

Lewis Hamilton came to Monaco with a new three-year deal with Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a vow to not let anything, including any "mistakes" by teammate Nico Rosberg, stand in the way of his best qualifying effort. Mercedes reportedly made it rain with a 100-million-pound deal, and Hamilton made it rain right back with his first pole position at Monaco. Rosberg did make a mistake but this time it was behind Hamilton, which meant he stuffed-up the qualifying attempts of rival drivers like Sebastian Vettel. So Rosberg starts second, 0.342 behind Hamilton but 0.449 ahead of Vettel in the Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo thinks he should have been third, but a communication error with his engineers left him in the wrong engine setting for his final hot lap, so by the very first corner he'd lost the time he would have needed to get higher than fourth on the grid. The second Infiniti Red Bull Racing of Daniil Kvyat slots in behind him, ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi "Not A Very Happy Day" Raikkonen, who just can't get it going lately. Sergio Perez did for the Sahara Force India what the car can't do on its own, which is grab a top-ten qualifying spot. Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz had qualified eighth but missed a call to the weigh bridge, so he's been slapped into the pit lane. Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus inherits his eighth place, ahead of rookie Max Verstappen in the second Toro Rosso, and Jenson Button in the McLaren. Button only got up there because of two penalties: for Sainz, and Romain Grosjean who had qualified 11th but took a penalty for a gearbox change. Want to know how hard it is to do better on race day than in qualifying at Monaco? Even the never-say-die Fernando Alonso said, "Monte Carlo is a train of cars on Sunday, the race finishes on Saturday afternoon." Well obviously, he didn't take Max Verstappen's seek-and-destroy tactics into account. The young Dutchman had made passing look like a real option in Monaco, getting past Maldonado at St. Devote on Lap 7 after a bit of argy-bargy on Lap 6, then taking advantage of blue flags to slink past teammate Carlos Sainz and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas while hiding in Sebastian Vettel's slipstream. He tried the same move on Romain Grosjean on Lap 65, but Grosjean locked him out. Verstappen lined up the Lotus driver over the following laps, then looked like he slipped to the inside at St.

The Caterham Seven Sprint is a perfect retro-style British roadster

A Caterham Seven oozes retro style. Modern engineering may mean the car no longer shares any parts with its original Lotus counterpart, but one look at the little roadster and it's easy to see the car's heritage. Caterham loves pumping out variants of the Seven, and the 2016 Goodwood Revival seemed like the perfect place to announce the latest version, the throwback Caterham Seven Sprint. Caterham calls the Seven Sprint a design "that was seemingly planned in the mid-1960s but never launched." It's apt then that the company is using it to kick off its "60 Years of the Seven" celebrations. The Seven Sprint is based off the European-only 160 model, meaning it's powered by an 80-hp turbocharged three-cylinder Suzuki engine. While the bonkers Seven 620 R may be the biggest and baddest Caterham available, the bare bones Seven 160 just feels more appropriate here. There are a number of retro styling touches throughout the car. The limited edition Seven Sprint comes wrapped in one of six colors originally offered by Lotus in 1966 and 1967. The Chassis is powder-coated grey, just like the Series 2 Lotus Seven. The cream-colored wheels feature polished hubcaps, while the interior features a wood-trimmed wheel and the interior is trimmed in a wonderful shade of red. The body has been slightly reworked to look more like the original Lotus designed car. Mechanically, not much has changed. Power from the Suzuki three is fed through a five-speed manual. Some of the suspension bits are similar to Colin Chapman's original design, but that's true of the standard 160. The car should be just as much of a riot as any other Caterham, just packed to the gills with style. The Seven Sprint is available only as a fully-complete factory car. It's unknown if any of the 60 produced will make it to the US. Prices in the UK start at GBP27,995, or about $37,000. Related Video: Featured Gallery Caterham Sprint Image Credit: Caterham Cars Design/Style Lotus Automakers Convertible caterham seven