Paris news from Lotus, Audi, Citroen, Ford and Nissan ...

[Wouter Melissen]

In our Paris Motor Show report we were not very positive of Lotus' bold new plans for the future. The tone and the and scope of the announcements detracted considerably from the specifics of the five cars on display in the French capital. Each one alone would have been enough to stir plenty of interest, so introducing all five at once was a little much.
Now back to the cars. The most anticipated of the five was the Esprit, which will make its return to the Lotus line-up in 2012 after a ten-year hiatus. The new range topping model will be powered by a Toyota sourced hybrid V8 engine that is good for 620 bhp. In addition to the Elite already revealed a week before the show, Lotus also showed new incarnations of the Elan and Elise, and the four-door Eterne.
One of the stars of the Audi display was this e-tron Spyder Concept. It is a lot more than a roadster version of the e-tron studies shown earlier. The compact machine features a hybrid drivetrain consisting of a hugely powerful, mid-mounted twin-turbo diesel V6 and two electric motors in the front wheels. With torque in abundance, the e-tron Spyder should be very, very quick.
With new rules arriving in 2011, it was no surprise to see brand new World Rally Cars in Paris. On the weekend that lead driver Sebastien Loeb won his seventh consecutive driver's championship, Citroen launched his new ride; the DS3 WRC. Complying with the S2000 based regulations, it uses a direct injection, turbocharged 1600 cc, which produces in excess of 300 bhp. Its biggest rival will most likely be the Ford Fiesta RS WRC. The Ford may have a slight advantage as it has already been run as a S2000 car for an entire season.

Enjoy the links:

2010 Audi e-tron Spyder Concept - Images, Specifications and Information

2011 Citron DS3 WRC - Images, Specifications and Information

2011 Ford Fiesta RS WRC - Images, Specifications and Information

2015 Lotus Eterne - Images, Specifications and Information

2015 Lotus Elise - Images, Specifications and Information

2013 Lotus Elan - Images, Specifications and Information

2012 Lotus Esprit - Images, Specifications and Information

2010 Nissan Townpod Concept - Images, Specifications and Information

[DesmoRob]

Lotus had kind of lost my attention with their Elise and City car, but the new Esprit and Elan definitely won it back pretty quick . Now for the wait...

[Niko_Fx]

That Esprit looks sick! I can't wait to see more of it!

[Roentgen]

I love the new Elise. Though I do miss the current styling.

[DesmoRob]

I love the new Elise. Though I do miss the current styling.

It was such a pretty and simple little thing. I'll have to see the new car in the flesh before I can say the same. For now it just looks awkward to me.

[Cobrafan427]

I hate everything they've done from the uniqueness (or lack thereof) to the naming. I hate the fact that every one of those cars looks nearly identical to each other (Esprit, Elan, Elise) except each one is a diff. size. I hate the fact that every single one of them has nearly the exact same lines as the 458 (which isn't a bad thing for most companies but NOT Lotus). I hate the fact that they've finally built a supercar and ruined it w/ the name Elite. I hate that the Elan is now faster than the Elise. And I hate that they didn't name the Eterne the Carlton just to stick to the theme of recycling names.