I was reading on www.leftlanenews.com about a Lotus car not being a lotus. Apparently it is reported to be a all carbon fibre body (could be lotus) but here is where it begins to be is it or is it not. it reg plate idicates a 7.0 engine (roumered to be a Roush, Saleen or even a GM Chevrolet Corvette Z06 V8). The back end does look alot like a lotus esprit but is it and are they increasing the engine size to go with the facelift?. Could be a possiblity or it might just be to fool the general public.

"the company produces very low volumes and has not marketed a car in several years.". That deapens this mystery even more as noble haven't for atleast a year, TVR hasen't for atleast 2 years, doubt it was going to be a MG or Rover coupe, wondering if it maybe a palmer car to follow up the Jaguar X Type 3.0 V6 track car. I am struggling to think of any other british indipendant car makers who haven't made a car for several years.

I was one of the many people who thought it was the 2010 Lotus Esprit but Lotus using a 7.0 V8 seems a little extreme for me. It is apparently a project that involves Lotus Engineering — a Lotus Group subsidiary is helping another indipentant british company develop it but yet it has bein seen in a lotus paint booth & has bein in devolpment for atleast 3 or 4 years.

TVR are out of the question but Radical or Ariel or even Caterham or Westfield or even noble could be the car maker in question. Any other indipentant british car besides noble could be working on it. Any other car makers?

Every time i read about this i get more confused. Am i the only one?

Below is the link
http://www.leftlanenews.com/mystery-lotus-not-a-lotus-at-all.html

Any thoughts & views?

There were pictures of the exact same car posted up a while ago, and it looked like a replacement for the Esprit or something.

A 7.0 V8 sounds quite excessive for something like an Esprit, so I don't know what that is all about..maybe something like the MG ZR (or whatever it was called) that came out a few years back? Probably not a Noble because they recently released their M15 and it might be a TVR, although I'm not sure.

Very mysterious..

I remember that Ultima used Corvette V8 but I don't think they'll do something slower than the GTR but as expensive. This looks like that.

The shape is similar to Noble.

But still - what's wrong with the V8 - the last esprit had V8 too, yes with 3.5l or something near but still a V8. And it was turbocharged. Maybe from Lotus had decided its time for something really powerful?

First thing that spring to mind, a Vector.

Bristol maybe. The shape isn't really their style, but they have been throwing massive engines in small, light cars for a while. Didn't the last Fighter T have a V10 Turbo?

the look resembles the new espirt, but thats against everything chapman would want, and i heard the moto was possibly aston sourced (imagine a 7L V8 vantage....)

it might be a TVR, although I'm not sure.


well seeing as TVR arent around anymore, i doubt its a TVR.
but 7.0 V8 sound good, we could have a new brit supercar maker!!! :) id be happy.

hehe, reading this is funny, anyway new Esprit is most likely to have a V8 powerplant yes, but 7.0l is heavy and is not on the design schedule for the car.

The new 'Project Eagle' has a V6 sourced from (apparently Lexus) Japan, so you have a reliable, sensible powerplant which is refined.

Now Lotus will want to make an impact with the new Esprit and there were early rumours of a 5.0 BMW V8 being used, although the BMW engine will not be used now. 7.0 sounds too excessive for me to be coming from Lotus.

as the article explains, many manufacturers use Lotus for engineering, when I was there 6 months ago there were 2 Nissan/Infiniti G350's on site with UK plates, but the wheelbase was not correct, and the exhausts would suggest a larger engine than standard (and the taped over engine bulge too...) - were Lotus using the body to disguise an early test of one of their cars? unlikely since it has the wrong platform, so one would imagine these cars were part of the Nissan group on the Lotus ste for testing purposes... no-one I asked would reveal what they were or where they came from.

So all in all, a sporty looking car camoflaged up somewhere near Lotus would immediately 'assume' a new Esprit, but easily could be anyones car, and knowing Lotus's test cars, the lights would be off an existing car in the range, and those rear lights are not from the Elise...

However... There are one or two design cues in the so-called mystery car that would suggest new Esprit. The reg plates would have been checked on HPI and if a 7.0 Engine was shown then legally it must have that fitted - although it would not surprise me if the engine used may only be for endurance testing, if the car can cope with torque figures higher than for final engineering then it will be well made.

I get fed the latest info on the project of the Esprit, but the latest at the moment is more "it wont have...." rather than "it has...." so what i've said is only what i've heard filtered down from the factory...!

I thought is was using a Jaguar V8? Anyway, we plainly dont know, this is all sceptical stuff... but, if its a Lotus, is gonna be great fun to drive! :D

My colleague has seen the clay model of the Esprit (he says its amazing!) and I know 2 engines which 1 of them will probably be used, but I am under embargo at the moment as I cannot specify more than what I have already said :(

Thanks for the information SubaruKid37!

I think i found an answer to what it is.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/mystery-lotus-not-a-lotus-at-all.html

http://www.diseno-art.com/images_2/Spectre_R43_purpule.jpg

Their car from 1998

had a 4.6L V8 in it

^^rear quartret looks like saleen S7 !

thats a lotus prototype.... they showed it in evo magazine, as to the motor i have no idea

The mystery car deepens even more.