La Dolce Veloce

Is this the next Lamborghini? I sure hope not, though Autobild.de seems to think Lamborghini’s rumored four seater coupe will look something like this. When I was a young kid, I like playing with cars, but they weren’t much more than toys to me. At the state fair one year, I saw a poster of a Lamborghini Countach and bought it. For the next ten years, I was completely obsessed by the Countach, my walls covered with Countach posters, my shelves full of plastic Countach models that I assembled and painted myself. While my tastes eventually broadened, the moral of the story is that I feel a company like Lamborghini needs their product to have an effect like that, the product needs to harken back to the early days of the company where it was ground breaking, stunning design. The models they produce these days are nicely designed, but they lack the impact they once had (‘Countach’ is roughly translated as ‘holy cow’, and the car was supposedly named that based on the public’s reaction when the car was unveiled).

Lotus announced the Europa S today, a GT version of the Elise with a larger trunk and easier entry via a lower door sill and higher roof line. It’s powered by the same turbocharged GM Ecotec motor that powered the Open/Vauxhall VX220, which means, you guessed it, it is not currently intended for the US market. Production is set to begin in July 2006; price is about 49000 Euros. 0-60 5.5 seconds. Read the press release, and see more pictures, in the rest of this post.
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I love my Lotus Elise…and I love photography. The product of these hobbies is a twelve month calendar now available for sale through Cafepress featuring thirteen images of my magnetic blue Lotus Elise. The calendar can be purchased for $24.99 by visiting by Cafepress Shop. All proceeds go towards buying goodies for my Elise.