Lotus celebrates the First Esprit by emulating the Bond Esprit onto an Evora Supercar.

• Unique, one-off Evora Sport 410 created by Lotus Exclusive
• Tribute to one of Lotus’ most famous liveries
• Lotus Sport 410 sales success continues

Representing the state of the supercar art, a one-off Evora Sport 410 has been commissioned through Lotus Exclusive as a tribute to one of its most famous ancestors, the Lotus Esprit S1.

Launched in October 2016, the Evora Sport 410 has wowed motoring press and customers with its combination of effortless pace and intuitive handling. With production limited to just 150 examples a year worldwide, the build schedule is filling up fast.

The benchmark was set by the original Lotus Esprit S1 as seen in the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, which celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year, and Lotus’ in-house personalisation department has crafted a special, one-off Evora Sport 410 in commemoration.

Combining the latest in Lotus engineering with period details, the new pure-bred supercar takes design cues from the iconic Esprit and integrates them into a car with class-leading performance. Packing 410 hp into a car that weighs just 1,280 kg, it sprints from 0-60 mph in just 3.9 secs.

Jean-Marc Gales, CEO, Group Lotus plc said, “So many of us recall the impact of the Lotus Esprit when it hit the big screen in The Spy Who Loved Me, and we wanted to honour that with a special Evora Sport 410. It’s the perfect tribute to such an influential Lotus, but a world away in terms of its abilities and performance. 

Supremely fast and agile, rivals’ cars look overweight and underpowered in comparison. Lotus was founded on the principle of lightweight engineering and, even today, nobody does it better.”

Lotus Exclusive

The work of the in-house personalisation department, Lotus Exclusive, this one-off Evora Sport 410 features many unique design touches. A special, colour-coded bumper modifies the car’s front end, while the one-piece carbon-fibre tailgate is part keyed white to give the illusion of a traditional liftback. In addition to a black coach line, delineating the car’s waist, it sports a bespoke badge script on the B pillar - in the style of the original Esprit’s graphics.

Nods to the Lotus Esprit S1 from The Spy Who Loved Me continue inside, with the insert panels of the carbon-fibre sports seats and door cards trimmed in the popular heritage Tartan, while red contrast stitching complements the Alcantara® dashboard and console finish.

Beneath the personalisation, this unique car retains all the engineering elements that make the Evora Sport 410 so formidable. From the supercharged, 3.5-litre 6-cylinder engine, producing 410 hp at 7000 rpm and 420 Nm of torque at 3500 rpm, to the highly advanced aerodynamics, which deliver up to 64 kg of downforce, it’s designed to deliver both on road and track.

The Evora Sport 410 remains refined on B-roads, but blisteringly fast when needed. The use of hand-made carbon-fibre components has been key in keeping mass to a minimum, with each specifically designed to enhance the car’s performance. Covering the car from nose to tail, they include front splitter, revised front access panel, roof section, tailgate, rear quarter panels, as well as the rear diffuser.

These lightweight carbon components not only reduce the kerb weight of the Evora Sport 410 but also help lower the centre of gravity, allowing for the recalibration of the suspension which, along with re-valved dampers and a reduced ride height, provide better body and roll control - but not at the expense of comfort and composure.

This one-off Evora underlines the work of the increasingly popular Lotus Exclusive service. Combining traditional British craftsmanship with modern design, it inspires buyers to spend time tailoring the character of their Lotus with a comprehensive array of options. Jean-Marc Gales, CEO, Group Lotus plc continued, “Our customers have really embraced the Lotus Exclusive service, with 25% of new cars undergoing some form of personalisation. It is well established that Lotus cars come with benchmark performance as standard.  Now, thanks to the skilled team at Hethel, responsible for hand building all Lotus cars since 1966, you can specify a Lotus that perfectly reflects your personal tastes.”

The Lotus Evora Sport 410 is limited to a global production run of one-hundred and fifty vehicles per year, and is on sale in Europe and rest of world markets now. A Federal version of the Evora Sport 410 for the North American market will arrive this spring.

The Lotus 3-ELeven can humble a car vastly more expensive, and it looks awesome too, watch the vids around the Nurburgring.

• Visceral ride around the infamous Nordschleife circuit
• Never seen footage of most powerful production Lotus
• Experience the car’s test & development laps with two new videos

Marking the anniversary of its landmark lap times when testing at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, two new videos of the Lotus 3-Eleven in full flight have been released, allowing enthusiasts to experience the car’s visceral, white-knuckle ride around the “Green Hell” for themselves.

Offering never-seen-before views, the 60 second videos provide a car’s eye view of the fascinating track, as it’s piloted by Nordschleife expert and professional racer Marc Basseng, during its Nürburgring testing and development programme.

The videos not only show the car’s blistering straight-line speed, but also how fast and composed it is when cornering, thanks it to its advanced aerodynamics. At 150 mph (240 km/h) the Road version produces 150 kg of downforce, while Race version with its twin front canards and adjustable rear wing produces 215 kg.

Since the car’s appearance at the Nürburgring, deliveries of the hypercar-humbling Lotus have begun with the first lucky owners finding out what this road-legal racer is truly capable of. Speaking about the car’s Nordschleife debut, Jean-Marc Gales, Chief Executive Officer, Group Lotus plc said, “The 3-Eleven’s time on the track gave us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate its phenomenal pace. It’s the fastest, most focused production road car to ever leave the Lotus factory, and remains true to our values of intelligent and efficient engineering. However, you don’t need to be a professional racing driver in order to tap its potential, and it will embarrass so-called hypercars with six-figure price tags. It remains the perfect template for how we will approach the design of all Lotus sports cars in the future”

With lightweight carbon composite bodywork as standard, the Lotus 3-Eleven has a dry weight of 890 kg and maximum power of 460 hp (Race version). This provides an enviable power-to-weight ratio of 517 hp per tonne, and the car is capable of sprinting from 0 to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds ahead of a maximum speed of 180 mph (290 km/h). The Road version with a dry weight of 925 kg and a maximum power of 410 hp reaches 60 mph in 3.3 seconds before reaching a top speed of 174 mph (280 km/h).

The videos also show how driver Marc Basseng had to deal with other cars also on the Nordschleife circuit during the evening public sessions. In what was its first turn of a wheel outside of Lotus’ Hethel HQ, Marc was one of three different drivers helping to develop the car – each one with individual areas of expertise and focussing on aerodynamics, engine calibration, chassis tuning and suspension geometry.

The Lotus 3-Eleven is the most powerful road car to wear a Lotus badge and Hethel’s quickest ever road car. It joins the ranks of those rare cars that can reach 60 mph in under three seconds and 100 mph in six seconds. To complement these figures, the Lotus 3-Eleven possesses a purity of the driving experience and the benchmark handling for which all Lotus cars are renowned.

Lotus is back within the M25 and North London for the first time in Six years - Now watch the sales grow.

• Leading London classic car retailer Hexagon now sells the full Lotus range from two locations in the capital  
• New partnership makes Hexagon the only Lotus dealer within the M25 and brings Lotus back to London after a six-year absence
• Announcement re-kindles historic relationship with the famous British sports car brand; Hexagon was a Lotus dealer from 1964 to 1976
• Customers can test drive the full range of new Lotus cars at Hexagon’s East Finchley and South Kensington showrooms

Leading London classic and sports car dealer Hexagon now sells the full range of Lotus models from two central London locations, making it the only Lotus dealer inside the M25.

The new partnership sees Lotus regain a dealership presence in London after an absence of six years. Lotus models will now be sold from Hexagon’s East Finchley and South Kensington sites with both locations stocking all models from Elise to Exige to Evora.

The move rekindles an historic relationship, as Hexagon was a Lotus dealer between 1964 and 1976. It also brings Lotus ‘home’ to north London: Hexagon’s headquarters in Fortis Green, East Finchley - where it will offer Lotus servicing and aftercare - is just a stone’s throw from Lotus’ original base of Hornsey, where Colin Chapman and his team built and sold the first models in the 1950s.

With over 50 years of experience selling the finest road cars from brands such as Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Porsche, Lotus customers can expect the very best in sales, service knowledge and aftercare.

Hexagon chairman, Paul Michaels said: “We can see a very exciting future for Lotus and are delighted to welcome the brand back to Hexagon after nearly 40 years. The Exige S and Evora S are very exciting prospects for our customers, of which we’ve already received a large amount of interest.

“The all-new Evora 400, the fastest of the Lotus sports car line-up of the new millennium, is also one of the most hotly anticipated cars of this year. Reintroducing a brand such as Lotus with its rich heritage to the capital’s car scene is a very exciting prospect – one we’re proud to be a part of.”

Group Lotus plc CEO Jean-Marc Gales said: “We are pleased to welcome Hexagon back to Lotus. This is a perfect partnership for us and the opening of Hexagon Lotus brings to an end a six-year period where we have not had a Lotus dealership in London.

“Hexagon Lotus is perfectly located to provide central London customers with the best opportunity to experience Lotus and I know that Paul Michaels and his team will carry the brand with pride. With such a close connection to Lotus in the past, Hexagon fully understands that Lotus stands for benchmark handling, lightweight, efficiency and a pure driving experience.”

Lotus announces new CEO to take it into a stronger future.

PROTON Holdings Berhad (“PROTON”) today announced the appointment of Jean-Marc Gales as the new Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus plc, effective 1 May 2014. Lotus is a wholly owned subsidiary of PROTON and a member of the DRB-HICOM Group.

Gales, a Luxembourgian, holds a MSc in Management from London's Imperial College, and a MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany.

A known industry player, Gales has held several significant positions with numerous global automotive manufacturers. Prior to his new appointment at Lotus, Gales was Chief Executive Officer of the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (“CLEPA”) since 2012, where he played a key role in turning around the association through various strategic initiatives, including streamlining the working processes and increasing corporate members from 82 to 112. Gales also established a lobbying strategy with the European Parliament and European Commission, and helped define the Industry Research & Innovation Strategy and Roadmap for 2025.

Before joining CLEPA, Gales was the President of Automobiles Citroen and Automobiles Peugeot between 2009 and 2012, where he restructured the entire sales value chain and implemented a new brand strategy for the DS Line and introduced the Citroen DS in major markets around the world. During his tenure there, the Company delivered record retail sales in 2009 and 2010.

Gales' other previous appointments include several senior positions in Daimler AG, General Motors and Volkswagen AG.

Aslam Farikullah, current Chief Operating Officer of Group Lotus plc, remains as Member of the Board of Lotus Cars Limited and will continue to contribute to the growth of the business in the future.

PROTON Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Abdul Harith Abdullah is pleased to welcome Gales to the Group. "This is an exciting time for Lotus, and Jean-Marc's appointment could not have come at a more appropriate time, especially taking into account our plans for Lotus. We believe that with his strong technical and managerial expertise and leadership, Jean-Marc will be able to drive the Lotus transformation plan and further enhance Lotus' business and capabilities.”

Jean-Marc Gales is married and has one daughter.