Caterham Launches New Company, With Brand-New Models

Back in April, when the owners of Formula 1’sTeam Lotus acquired British sports car maker Caterham, they promised to “have all the ingredients and the launch pad to take Caterham to new exciting horizons with innovative products and greater brand exposure.”True to their word, Caterham's new owners announced on Monday that they are creating a new, standalone engineering business named CTI (Caterham Technology and Innovation).
The newly formed division will undertake the development of a new range of affordable sports cars that promise to remain true to the Seven’s character.
This amounts to an evolution for Caterham, which up until now, was renowned only for the Seven, the building rights of which it acquired from Lotus owner Colin Chapman in 1973. According to the company, CTI will also benefit from technology used in the Team Lotus F1 and Caterham Team AirAsia GP2 motorsport activities.
“The new shareholders are committed to investing in an exciting range of global products over the next 10 years”, said CTI’s CEO Mark Edwards.
The firm has already begun recruiting new staff, with one of the first being Tony Shute who has in his CV the Lotus Elise and will be CTI’s Head of Road Cars.
Caterham Cars’ CEO, Ansar Ali, commented: “Creating a new product range that has the same reputation and appeal as the Seven is the Holy Grail of the business. To meet the challenge, we knew we needed to invest in a new operation that would have the scope, experience and vision to deliver.”
CTI will be based in Norfolk, near Team Lotus’ motorsport operations.

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

IAA 2011: Lotus Exige S with 350HP V6 & Rally-Spec Exige R-GT

Among the many world premieres at the Lotus stand in Frankfurt is the new Exige series and more specifically, the street-legal Exige S, and the competition Exige GT with which the British company plans to make its comeback to the world of rallying.The road-going Exige S somewhat deviates from Lotus' philosophy of making ultra-lightweight sports cars with small displacement engines as it brings in the Evora S' 3.5-liter supercharged V6 that produces 350-ponies.
While the new Exige S boasts an impressive 130HP increase over the previous model, it is also 145kg (310 pounds) heavier at 1,080kg (2,381 lbs).
The Exige S is fitted with high-performance Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires as standard and comes equipped with a Lotus DPM (Dynamic Performance Management) switch that allows the driver to change between three driving modes: Touring, Sport and DPM off.
As an option, Lotus offers the Race Pack that adds a fourth driving mode setting along with a Launch Control and a more hardcore suspension tuning.
Commenting on the Exige S, Group Lotus Chief Executive Officer Dany Bahar said: “Anyone who has ever driven an Exige will tell you that it’s not for the faint-hearted. The new Exige S skips a few rungs on the ladder to give the driver the ultimate Lotus experience. Quite simply you can’t get more Lotus than the Exige S.”
Joining the Exige S is the R-GT competition model that ill participate in the newly formed FIA GT category of the FIA Rally Championship on asphalt in Monte Carlo, Tour de Corse and San Remo.
The R-GT sports the V6 3.5-litre engine as the new road Exige S, but features changes to the gearbox and the restrictors on the engine in order to control the power.
“With the new R-GT rules in rally, it’s a very interesting time for us to return to the sport," said Lotus’ Director of Motorsport Claudio Berro.
"Naturally our approach this time around will be different to when we won the championship three decades ago, but I think our philosophy is definitely the same, we want to compete and ultimately we want to win. Our new rally car, the Exige R-GT is a dream come true for those who are passionate about GT racing – this will be their car,” Berro added.

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Video: Nissan GT-R Pwns Competition in Mega Drag Race with 11 Sports Cars

The latest Nissan GT-R has put another victory under its belt, this time in a drag race against ten of some of the world's most wanted sports cars at an empty airstrip.

The quarter-mile duel was organized by Motor Trend magazine. The eleven cars assembled were worth more than $1.5 million, and featured a combined 82 cylinders delivering over 5,000 horsepower and 4,000 lb-ft of torque.

The $89,950 and 530HP Nissan GT-R passed through the finish line first with a time of 11.2 seconds and an exit speed of 121.8mph (196km/h). It was followed by the $225,325 and 557HP Ferrari 458 Italia (11.3 seconds and 125.6mph or 202km/h) and the $198,600 and 560HP Audi R8 GT (11.5 seconds and 125.1mph or 201km/h).

The other cars that participated in the race were the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Lexus LFA, Corvette Z06, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca, Porsche Cayman R, BMW 1-Series M Coupe and the Lotus Evora S (click on the image on your right to see the results).

Nissan, of course, was quick to issue a somewhatpompous press statement on the GT-R's win:

“We applaud Motor Trend’s editors for pulling off the automotive equivalent of the running of the bulls,” said Brian Carolin, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, Nissan North America.

“Win or lose, it’s great fun and a great video – especially since we won. In all fairness, if we were running for pink slips, we would have had to bring at least two GT-Rs to match the cost of the competitors. We’ll settle for the title of baddest of the bad," he added.

VIDEO

Read more In Cars

2011 Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept

Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept will make its world debut on August 17 during Pebble Beach week, Lotus announced on August 15, 2011.



It comes fully loaded with 420 bhp and a sequential gearbox, forged alloy wheels and Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires.  So the car is plenty fast, and to look the part it also features a racing stripe, and a cool body kit and black roof and wing.



Power comes from a "race-developed engine" that produces more than 420 hp (313 kW / 426 PS). It is connected to a sequential automated-manual transmission, which should ensure the model is slightly faster than the Evora S.



The exterior has been heavily fettled, too, with an aggressive front splitter and U-shaped rear spoiler sprouting from the boot. Wheels are forged alloy items shod in Pirelli P-Zero Corsa rubber.



The interior is said to carry plenty of leather and carbon fiber trims, as well as composite Recaro racing seats.













Press Release



World Premiere of the new Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept



The new Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept will be unveiled to the world for the first time within the Lotus exhibit at the McCall's Motorworks Revival event Wednesday night, August 17, at the Monterey Jet Center.



The Lotus Evora GTE is a race car developed with a single-minded aim to be successful in the new global motorsport GTE category, which includes the world famous Le Mans 24 Hours.



To celebrate this ground breaking car, Lotus has built the race-inspired Evora GTE Road Car Concept. This high-strung Evora elicits over 420 bhp from its race-developed engine, fed through a sequential AMT racing gearbox and put to the pavement through ultra-lightweight forged alloy wheels with center-lock hubs shod with Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires.



The Evora GTE Road Car Concept isn't merely a paint scheme or homage to a race car - this is a serious race car that makes for a very serious road car.



The Evora GTE Road Car Concept will later be shown within the Lotus exhibit on Peter Hay Hill near The Lodge at Pebble Beach Thursday, August 18 through mid-day Saturday, August 20 before being moved onto the Concept Car Lawn for display throughout the remainder of the Concours weekend.

NHTSA Investigates Lotus Elise

The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is investigating oil-cooler leaks on 4,400 Lotus Elise sports cars from the 2005-2006 model years. The safety agency instigated the search after 33 owners complained that their cars’ oil-cooler ruptured, spraying oil on the wheels and /or the engine bay.
According to the document filed on the agency’s web site, one owner allegedly lost control of his car when oil spilled on his front right tire made him spin and veer off the road. Several others reported that they suddenly saw the oil warning light come on and stopped to check the oil level only to find that the sump was empty.
However, the most serious claim is by an owner who says his Elise caught fire because of the oil spilling into the engine bay.
The NHTSA said it is looking into the issue.

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Red Bull Takes the Front Row in Qualifying with Webber in Pole Position

The unpredictable weather conditions made the qualifying of the British Grand Prix something of a gamble, and the teams weather forecasts were expecting rain during the final session. So everyone made sure that they got out quickly in order to set a fast time before it started to rain again.

Once again Sebastian Vettel was the man to beat, setting a provisional pole. But this was not to last as his team mate, Mark Webber, recorded a fastest lap just seconds later beating Vettel by just 0.032 seconds.

Behind the Red Bull-occupied front row were the two Ferraris. Third place went to Fernando Alonso, who was just 0.1 seconds slower than Vettel and fourth to Felipe Massa, with the Scuderia obviously very happy with the progress they have made.

Jenson Button’s McLaren was fifth, but his team mate Lewis Hamilton couldn’t manage anything better than 10th place in his home Grand Prix. The surprise of the day was the performance of Paul di Resta, who in his rookie period brought his Force India to the sixth place of the grid.

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Massa Shines in the Rain

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa set the quickest time in Friday’s afternoon practice session of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix, which takes place this weekend at Silverstone. Just minutes before the beginning of the session, heavy rain started to fall, with all cars staying in the pits for half an hour because of the condition of the track.

However, in the last 20 minutes conditions improved slightly and the teams decided to send their cars out of the pit lane. At first Michael Schumacher, on wet tires, set the fastest time until one minute before the end of the session.

But with the track drying up the rest were able to use intermediate tires and Massa, with 1:49.967, 0.777 seconds ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber.

2011 champion and current points leader Sebastian Vettel was 18th, one spot behind the second Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.

VIDEO

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Lotus Replace Evora with Elan in 2017

Lotus’ most recent new sports car, the Evora, will stay into production until at least 2017, when it will be replaced with the new Elan according to the company’s boss Danny Bahar. This changes the initial plan that called for the Evora to be replaced as early as 2012.

Bahar also told UK magazine Autocar that Lotus is building its own V8 instead of using Toyota’s unit from the Lexus IS-F, as research from the Paris Motor Show floor concerning the new Esprit revealed that customers were unwilling to pay the price for a $100,000+ supercar powered by a Toyota engine.

The new Esprit will be launched, if everything goes according to plan, in 2013. The new engine, according to Wolf Zimmerman who heads the engineering department, is 40% smaller than the Toyota’s, solving packaging problems. Zimmerman also added that it could form the basis for a new four-cylinder unit, being effectively one bank of the V8, to power smaller models in the range such as the new Elise and Exige.

Bahar also confirmed that the Ethos city car will indeed enter production, selling as a Lotus small-volume luxury small car, probably as a pure EV or a hybrid, in Europe and as a more affordable Proton with conventional internal combustion engines in Asia.

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Lotus Exige to Spawn Rally Car?

Here’s something we weren’t expecting; according to a report from CAR Magazine, Lotus will launch a new rally car at the Frankfurt motor show in September. The rally car -not the one pictured here- will be based on the Exige, which is renowned for its road and track capabilities, but we’ve never imagined it near a rally stage.
At least in factory form, since privateers have raced the Elise and Exige in asphalt rallies in the past.
According to Lotus director of motorsport, Claudio Berro, Lotus may indeed build more than the 300 cars that are necessary by FIA rules for the car’s homologation. It will be rear-wheel drive, of course, although it isn’t still clear whether it will race in the WRC or IRC championships.
But the Hethel-based company’s involvement in motorsports doesn’t end here. It already participates with Renault in the Formula 1 championship, and finished 7th in the GT class in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Also it has already stated that it will compete in 2012 or 2013 in the LMP2 class, probably with a car that will use its own-built V8 that is destined for the new Esprit and will be up and running by August.

Read more In Cars