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The Lotus 3-Eleven 430 is the fastest street-legal Lotus built

You're looking at the fastest street-legal Lotus ever built. Weighing in at 2,028 pounds, the new Lotus 3-Eleven 430 can hit 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds and continue all the way to 180 mph. It's a fitting tribute for 40 years of Lotus cars. As expected, the "430" in its name refers to its power output. There's no four-banger screamer in the 3-Eleven 430: The supercharged, Toyota-sourced 3.5-liter, 24-valve V6 produces 430 hp and 324.5 lb-ft. of torque. There's a lightweight carbon-composite body on an extruded-bonded aluminum chassis, and the carbon side panels are partially exposed for that cool carbon look. You also get variable, six-position traction control, with five levels ranging from 1 percent slip to 12 percent slip to off. Lateral acceleration while cornering is a respectable 1.5 g. At the Hethel test track, the new 3-Eleven 430 has reportedly beaten previous Lotus efforts. With a lap time of 1:24, it's 0.8 seconds quicker than an Exige Cup 430, and it also completely obliterates the previous, 2015 3-Eleven by shaving off 2 whole seconds. Only 20 units will be built, so few people will get to experience the 430 at maximum attack. Lotus has priced the 3-Eleven 430 at GBP102,000 on the road in the UK, which corresponds to $142,525. Related Video: Featured Gallery Lotus 3-Eleven 430 Lotus Convertible Performance lotus 3-eleven

Lotus supposedly working up a new Elan, again

Geely's investment in Volvo, and giving Volvo the freedom to do what Volvo knows how to do, propelled the Swedish automaker to another level. This could be the year English automaker Lotus begins the same climb. Late last year, Bloomberg said Geely committed an initial $2 billion to the Lotus renaissance. That number was low, the Financial Times reporting Geely planned to invest billions over the next five years. In May this year, Lotus announced it was hiring 200 new engineers and opening a new engineering center to develop a new range of SUVs, GTs, and sedans that would expand consumer appeal to triple its current annual volume. Sports cars are a vital part of the new mix as well, Autocar citing Lotus insiders for a report that a new Elan convertible sports car has "a strong possibility of being revived in the next few years" as a nameplate.    Lotus made a splash about bringing back the Elan — along with a new Esprit, Eterne, Elise, Elite, and city car — at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. That was a very different Lotus, when Malaysian automaker Proton owned the English outfit and ex-Ferrari marketing honcho Dany Bahar manned the helm. In spite of promises of funding, the team at Hethel lurched through years of corporate drama and dire finances until Geely took over in 2017. The latest Elan whispers sketch a convertible targeting the Porsche 718 Boxster - Lotus in general has Porsche in its sights. The car pictured above is from the first re-animation of the Elan badge, from 1989 to 1995. A coming Elan would sit above the Elise in the lineup, with more space, amenities, and luxury, at the same time as it would focus on being the lightest and most agile in the segment. Before that arrives, however, Lotus needs to finish developing the sports car platform that will help carry the brand's new range for the next decade; The Lotus SUV uses Volvo's SPA architecture that carries the XC90 and XC60. CEO Phil Popham's Vision-80 program — which now seeks to grow annual volume not merely triple but six-fold to 10,000 cars by 2029 — will be centered around the multi-material architecture that replaces the Elise and Evora architectures presently employed. Due in two years, the rivet-bonded "alloy-core" chassis will likely include carbon fiber and other advanced materials.

Lotus confirms new Emira will be its last car powered by gasoline

Lotus is four years into the 10-year Vision80 plan that it announced at its 70th anniversary in 2018, and according to Matt Windle, managing director of Lotus Cars, the brand is "on track" to completely revitalize its line of sports cars as it branches out into profitable new automotive segments. Windle also confirmed the name of Lotus' upcoming new vehicle: "The spirit and passion that gave the world the Elise, Exige and Evora will live on in the next generation of cars – cars like the all-new Lotus Emira." The British company's sports car replacement, previously known as the Type 131, will make its virtual debut on July 6 before being shown in public at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that begins on July 8. Lotus confirmed that the Emira will be offered solely with internal combustion engine options and will not offer hybrid power, and that the powerplant comes from "an exciting new powertrain partnership" with options that are "new to Lotus." The company's Elise, Exige and Evora used four- and six-cylinder engines sourced from Toyota and tuned specifically for high-performance use. The Emira, which will be priced similarly to the Evora, will be the last production Lotus powered by gasoline, and it will be built atop a brand-new "Elemental" platform that relies on the brand's familiar extruded aluminum-intensive chassis. Three more platforms are currently in development, and these four architectures will provide the basis for the company's planned expansion. The next we expect to see in production is the Hypercar architecture that forms the basis of the upcoming Lotus Evija. The electric Evija and its "Extreme" platform will start rolling out of the Hethel headquarters later this year. Lotus' "Evolution" platform is next, and it will underpin "an all-new range of lifestyle vehicles" that "will catapult Lotus into a new era of higher retail volumes and significant revenues." We take that to mean SUVs. This Premium architecture was reportedly designed by Lotus in the UK with collaboration from other brands under the Geely umbrella in China and Sweden and Germany. Finally, Lotus and Alpine have consummated their recently announced partnership and will launch an "E-Sports" platform that will be "will be flexible and modular." We expect a range of electric vehicles on this architecture that could include everything from sports cars and hatchbacks to crossovers and other utility shapes.