La Dolce Veloce

The Italian company UK Garage has built one interesting Exige hybrid. Starting out life as an S1 Exige, the chassis was modified to provide a wider track and longer wheel base…so that a turbocharged General Motors 2.8 liter V6 could be installed. Well, that’s just one option. I expect many people will instead opt for the optional V8s (again, from GM), among which the options include the Corvette ZR1′s 638hp supercharged LS9! Yikes. The car also receives a modified front clamshell with styling lifted from the S2 Elise/Exige. (via AutoBlog)

Lotus is celebrating the winning of the British GT3 Team Championship with a limited edition version of the Exige S. Besides wearing the same colors as the race car, it includes just about every upgrade you could imagine – wheels, exhaust, braided brake hoses, sport pack suspension, etc. The cars are being built by Lotus Sport. Not surprisingly, it’s available to UK-based customers only. More info can be found at the Lotus Cars website, or you can view the brochure for the car in EliseInfo’s Gallery. (Via EliseTalk)

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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PistonHeads has a nice article on the new Lotus Circuit Car (official name is not yet announced), the latest in a new breed of track day supercars (such as the Ariel Atom). No new news, but more pictures and some quotes from the designers.

Of particular interest are, first of all, the chassis – the side rails are not cut down at the doors like in the Elise as, well, there ARE no doors in this version. This should improve rigidity. Second, they managed to squeeze the intercooler into the space that would otherwise be occupied by a trunk on a standard Elise.

At last! The first official pictures of the Lotus Circuit Car, a track only special based on the Elise. Weighing a measly 650kg (1433 pounds), the car is powered by either the 190hp Toyota 2ZZGE (found in the Elise 111R), or the 240hp supercharged version of that motor. Surprisingly, the car features ABS and appears to have the same brakes as the 111R, which has received many negative reviews of the brake pedal feel (though the performance of the brakes has always been considered excellent). Suspension changes include Ohlins shocks (which greatly improve the ride of the standard Elise); around 100 cars will be built each year starting in 2006, with prices starting around £25,000 in the UK. Pricing and availability in other markets has not been announced. See the rest of this post for the full press release and more pictures.
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Some would say this comes straight from the horse’s mouth, but since I heard this secondhand (from a very reliable source), we’ll call it a rumor and leave it at that. You know that new Lotus Europa that’s been features on LaDolceVeloce and other car blogs (if not, see these posts: link1, link2, link3)? Well, according to some Lotus employees, those cars are suspension and engine test mules, and are not visually indicative of any real car models to come.

EDIT: Pistonheads has an article discussing this further (link). They speculate that the car in the spy shots is a version of the Elise that will be sold as a Proton (the Malaysian company that owns Lotus).

The toyota-powered Lotus Elise is a fast car, but you’re never lacking for traction. In other words, it can use more power! California-based ForcedFed took on the challenge of designing a turbo system for the Toyota 2ZZGE engine, a task many thought couldn’t be done due to the high compression, high reving nature of that motor. Well, they did it! 275hp, 200 ft-lbs of torque. Read more about it at Motor Trend.