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Lotus builds the final Elise, Exige and Evora

Lotus has closed one of the most important chapters of its history: It has ended production of the Elise after a 25-year run. It also built the final example of the Exige, which was closely related to the Elise, and of the Evora, which was bigger and more comfort-oriented. We knew that this day was right around the corner, Lotus announced Final Edition variants of the Elise and the Exige in February 2021, and the British company confirmed that it's keeping the very last examples of the three models for itself. Shown above, the last Elise is a Sport 240 Final Edition model in yellow. The last Exige is a Cup 430 Final Edition finished in British Racing Green, while the last Evora is a GT430 Sport model that wears Dark Metallic Gray paint. All three cars will join the carmaker's growing collection of heritage models. Lotus built 51,738 examples of the Elise, the Exige, and the Evora combined over the past quarter of a century. While that doesn't sound like much, not when Ford sold over 787,000 units of the F-Series in pandemic-ridden 2020, that figure represents nearly half of the cars Lotus has built since its inception. It's worth noting that this number doesn't include the Elise derivatives made for third-party companies; the original Tesla Roadster was built on an Elise-sourced chassis, and the Opel Speedster was developed and manufactured by Lotus. It sounds like the three nameplates have been consigned to the pantheon of automotive history — at least for now. Lotus isn't standing still, however. Funded by Volvo parent company Geely, it unveiled the Emira, a coupe powered by a mid-mounted engine, earlier in 2021, and it's planning to launch its first crossover in spring 2022. The soft-roader will be the first in a series of mass-produced electric models from the company. Looking much further ahead, Lotus will also release a sedan and an electric sports car developed jointly with Alpine.

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.

Caterham inks US distribution deal with Superformance

Sort of like an automotive big box store, Superformance is rapidly becoming the destination for anyone interested in modern kit cars. Besides the normal spattering of Shelby Cobra replicars, Superformance also offers replicas of the GT40 and Corvette Grand Sport. Now, we can add an altogether different type of DIY car to the company's portfolio - Caterham.
Superformance has just been announced as the new US distributor for Caterham Cars, effectively adding the entire suite of Lotus variants to the company's catalog. While there will be a large variety of models available, according to Caterham the mix will skew toward more powerful offerings. As much as we like the affordable appeal of a Seven 160 or Roadsport, simply having the wildly powerful 620 R or Superlight R500 available in the US is a good thing for enthusiasts.
"In the last two years, Caterham has significantly broadened its reach internationally and signing a new official distributor in the form of Superformance in America is a natural extension of how our brand is expanding, rapidly, across the globe," Caterham Group CEO Graham Macdonald said. Read more in the press release below.