3,160 Miles Perfect Touring Hardtop Storm Titanium Like Exige Evora S Elise Sc on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Last Lotus Elise delivered to the person it was named after

Lotus just made an announcement on its social media channels that the last customer-bound Elise has been built — we'll note that Lotus built the very last Elise for itself — and delivered to its final customer, Elisa Artioli. If you havenÂ’t heard of her before, itÂ’s time for a little Lotus history lesson. Back when the Elise came to fruition and was released in 1996, Romano Artioli was the companyÂ’s chairman. When it came time to finalize a name for the two-seat sports car, Romano looked to his granddaughter, Elisa, for inspiration.  For those who find full-circle stories satisfying, itÂ’s hard to get any better than this one. The Elise youÂ’re looking at here is the final customer-bound Elise in the world, and itÂ’s going to none other than the woman who the car is named after. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. As for the spec of the car itself, this is an Elise Sport 240, and itÂ’s painted in “Championship Gold.” The Sport 240 features a 1.8-liter supercharged four-cylinder thatÂ’s good for 240 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque. Weighing only 2,033 pounds, itÂ’s capable of a 4.1-second 0-60 mph sprint and has a top speed of 147 mph. What a lovely story! WeÂ’ve asked Lotus for more photos and additional information, and weÂ’ll update when we hear back.

Lotus 3-Eleven may be the quickest track weapon you can buy

Germany's Sport Auto magazine routinely takes world-beating supercars around the short circuit at the Hockenheimring: Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis... the works. But the top of the leaderboard has now been claimed by something altogether smaller and less powerful in the form of the new Lotus 3-Eleven. The most extreme expression of the Elise/Exige platform to date, the 3-Eleven is a track-focused machine of the highest caliber. At its heart sits a relatively humble 3.5-liter supercharged V6, tuned to produce 460 horsepower. But with composite body panels and a low curb weight, it rockets to 60 in under 3.0 seconds flat, and more poignantly laps the company's own test track ten seconds ahead of the Evora 400. Now it's clocked a lap around Hockenheim – sometimes host of the German Grand Prix – in just 1:06.2, just edging out the previous record held by a Porsche 918 Spyder. It also bests the Gumpert Apollo, and the similarly track-focused Radical SR3 SL... not to mention everything else Sport Auto has ever taken to the track. What's even more impressive is that the magazine's road test editor Christian Gebhardt completed the lap on stock rubber and on a cold track that didn't get any warmer than 46 degrees Fahrenheit. Just imagine what it'd do on even semi-slicks and a warm track surface. Related Video: 'HYPERCAR-KILLING' LOTUS 3-ELEVEN SETS HOCKENHEIMRING LAP RECORD - Lotus 3-Eleven raises the bar by establishing a new "sport auto" production car lap record around Hockenheimring - Lotus 3-Eleven now heads the lap time list which features exotic hyper cars and track-focused supercars from some of the world's most prestigious manufacturers - Lap record set by "sport auto" magazine's top road tester Christian Gebhardt The Lotus 3-Eleven, the quickest series production car to come from Lotus' Hethel Headquarters, has set the fastest lap time ever recorded by the leading and highly-respected German car magazine, "sport auto". Driven by Christian Gebhardt, a highly accomplished driver and Road Test Editor for "sport auto", the Lotus 3-Eleven lapped the Hockenheimring short Circuit in an incredible 1 minute 06.2 seconds. This time was even more impressive considering that the 3-Eleven was on standard road tyres and the fastest lap was completed in less than perfect weather, where temperatures did not get higher than 8 degrees Celsius. Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus plc said, "Christian set a fabulous lap in less than ideal conditions.

Lotus is giving the electric Evija a V8-inspired soundtrack

Sound is a big part of the Lotus experience, whether it comes from a four- or a six-cylinder engine, so the company doesn't want its first electric car to be completely silent. It enlisted the help of music producer Patrick Patrikios to remix the Type 49 Formula One car's V8 into a series of sounds that will be programmed into the upcoming Evija. Patrikios comes from the music industry, he has notably worked with artists like Sia and Britney Spears, but he welcomed the collaboration with Lotus because he's been a fan of the brand since his father showed him an Esprit when he was a kid. He set out to create a new range of sounds that fits the Evija's character while honoring the carmaker's heritage, a task that's difficult to accomplish. Luckily, Lotus has several sonorous engines on its resume. "There's a purity to that V8, a raw edge and an emotion that stirs something in your soul, just like the best songs," summed up the producer when asked why he chose the eight-cylinder that powered the Type 49 to victory. Lotus Evija and Lotus Type 49 View 3 Photos After recording the Type 49's exhaust note, he began digitally remastering it and realized that slowing it down put it on a frequency similar to the natural driving sound emitted by the Evija. "I adjusted the replay speeds and digital filtering of the Type 49 to generate a soundscape for the Evija – it was a very organic process," he said. You can listen to the sound created by Patrikios in the video above; it's what pedestrians will hear when the Evija speeds by. He also developed the various chimes and tones that will resonate through the cabin, like when the turn signals are activated or when a seatbelt isn't fastened. Lotus previously confirmed that the Evija will influence future cars, and we know additional EVs are in the pipeline, so the sound could spread to other models.