Lotus Elise & Rumors Matt on 18 Jul 2005 08:07 am
More spy photos of the new Lotus GT! (updated)
A prototype Lotus GT was spied recently, as shown in this photos. That’s definitely not a Toyota four cylinder motor under the clear glass engine cover; can anyone identify that? As previously reported, this four seater coupe is expected to be powered by a V6 and to be somewhat more expensive and more refined than the Elise. See the rest of this post for more pictures.
EDIT: upon further review and feedback from others, it seems more likely that this is a sports car destined to be sold under the Proton nameplate (Proton owns Lotus). It doesn’t appear to offer enough space for rear seats, it has what appears to be a removable top, and the styling just doesn’t make sense for a Lotus.
4 Responses to “More spy photos of the new Lotus GT! (updated)”
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on 18 Jul 2005 at 2:23 pm 1.mg_dot said …
I wouldn’t rule this out as not being a Lotus as that black tape could be concealing a Lotus sized/shaped badge. An Elise Coupe has be rumoured for years – see http://www.hazelnet.org/lotus/ and look for m120
I’ve used the same photos as you and have not been able to credit them as I received them thru email – do you have any further info?
on 29 Jul 2005 at 1:39 pm 2.Matt said …
I think they came from here:
http://www.drivingitalia.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=33079
But am not 100% certain as the filenames are different.
Yes, a Lotus coupe is almost surely in the works, but I hear rumors of it being a four seater. I don’t think the car in the photos has enough room for two extra seats. Note too the location of the gas filler, it would be protruding into the interior of the vehicle exactly where one of the rear seats would need to be.
on 16 Aug 2005 at 12:34 pm 3.Jalopnik said …
Lotus’s New Europa: Sorting out the Facts
Easy folks, the new Lotus Europa is coming, just not the same one we’ve heard. According to sources at Lotus, a set of spy photos reportedly of the company’s new Europa GT coupe aren’t what they appear to be….
on 16 Aug 2005 at 1:03 pm 4.Matt said …
This has been pretty much confirmed, though contrary to what Jalopnik repots, the car shown in these photos is probably NOT the next US Elise, it will only be sold as a Proton. However, much of the development that has gone into that car (namely, bumpers and headlights) will be leveraged when designing the 2007 Elise.