2005 Lotus Elise Base Convertible 2-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

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Recap: 2013 Australian Formula One Grand Prix is all about the rubber [w/spoilers]

A pre-season full of talking points was swapped for a brand-new set of talking points after the running of the opening grand prix of the 2013 Formula One season. The consistency of the regulations from last year to this year and the triplicate dominance of Infiniti Red Bull Racing meant that no one would have been that surprised if the relative order of things remained the same. But teams found so many ways to switch things up that, in typical pre-season fashion, no one was ready to make any bets on in-season performance, and a couple of surprising players suffered the ignominy of getting it really wrong: McLaren knew it was in trouble from the very first test, while Williams drivers applauded their car as the best in years, only to have Pastor Maldonado call it "undriveable" on the very first day of practice in Melbourne.
And then there were those Pirellis, the Italian company talking up the fact that its super soft tires would only go off so quickly that it would force teams to pit at least twice during the race.
Even then, no one could have seen the first round of pit stops beginning on Lap 5.

Lotus Exige V6 Cup takes extreme to the extreme

What separates a road car from a race car? You're looking at it. It's the Lotus Exige V6 Cup, a model based on what is already one of the most hardcore performance machines on the road, albeit upgraded to an even harder-core spec. It's a good 130 pounds lighter than the Exige S (a vehicle which didn't have much flab to trim in the first place) and can hit 60 in under four seconds. With the notably exception of certain versions of the Porsche 911, there aren't a lot of six-cylinder cars that can claim that kind of performance.
In fact, the Exige V6 Cup is so close to race spec that it's already eligible for a number of racing series. Just bolt in the removable FIA-certified roll cage, maybe swap on some slick tires and you're good to go. Then you can drive it home again when you're done, just like in sports car racing's heyday. But don't take our word for it: the team over at XCar took the V6 Cup to the UK's Goodwood circuit to see how it compared to the Exige S it recently drove, and you can view the stirring results in the video below.

Lotus will kill Elise, Exige and Evora to make room for the new Type 131

Lotus ended years of speculation by announcing it will begin rejuvenating its range when it releases a new model in 2021. Known as the Type 131 internally, its arrival will mark the end of the Elise, the Exige and the Evora. Although the three aforementioned models are showing their age, putting them out to pasture at about the same time is a surprising move because they're currently the only cars in the company's lineup. Saying that the Type 131 will have big shoes to fill is an understatement; it will blaze the path that a full family of new cars will follow. Official details about the 131 are few and far between, but an earlier report sketches the outline of a driver-friendly sports car powered by a mid-mounted engine. While it won't stray far from the lightness and the nimbleness that Lotus is famous for, it will be equipped with more tech than even the Evora, which offers a more comprehensive list of features than the track-inspired Exige and the back-to-the-basics Elise. Insiders have claimed that the 131 will be built on a new modular platform, and that it will not use any kind of electrification. Lotus released an image that shows the Evija (an electric, 2,000-horsepower halo car strictly limited to 130 units globally) next to three enigmatic cars hidden by a cover; one is presumably the 131. Another might be the battery-powered model that it's developing jointly with Renault-owned Alpine. As for the third, your guess is as good as ours. We know that the British firm is developing a Volvo-based SUV, but it's not pictured in the lineup. News of a new Lotus model will bring joy to enthusiasts and economists alike. The company is investing over 100 million British pounds (about $136 million) into its Hethel, England, facility, and it will hire about 250 employees to bring the 131 to the market. Most of the recruits will work in engineering and manufacturing. Lotus noted that it hopes to start building prototypes of the Type 131 — an internal designation that will likely not appear on the production model — in 2021. We don't know if deliveries will also begin this year, or if they are scheduled to start a little later. Regardless, it will be worth the wait. Lotus told Autoblog that all of its future cars will be engineered for global markets, and that its intention is to sell the Type 131 in North America. Related video: