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| 2015 Lotus Eterne |
2015 Lotus Eterne... The survival plan for Lotus Cars LLC is nothing if not ambitious, and includes cars not normally associated with this venerable sports-car brand, including a potential city car. More shocking, however, is this Eterne, a front-engined “four-door super saloon” in Lotus-speak. It’s one of a half-dozen new cars hastily shaped under the baton of Donato Coco, the new director of design. A native of Italy, Coco joined Lotus a little less than a year ago, after a four-year stint as chief of design at Ferrari. His last project at Maranello was the 458 Italia, and Lotus’s cadre of Paris auto show debuts—among them the Elite, Elise, Esprit, and Elan—exhibits traces of that influence, although there’s a good amount of Toyota/Japanese-style design there, too.
Shown to us six weeks prior to the show as a work-in-progress clay model at Lotus headquarters near Hethel, England, here’s what we know regarding this swoopy, four-seat four-door: Like all recent Lotus cars, as well as the newly announced stuff, the Eterne will draw on the Toyota/Lexus powertrain arsenal for motive force. For the Eterne, that means a turbo- or supercharged (Lotus isn’t clear which) 5.0-liter V-8 rated for 612 hp and 531 lb-ft of torque, mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual.
Although Lotus plans to make extensive use of lightweight materials—carbon fiber and lots of aluminum, including the forged control arms—the basic rear-drive Eterne is still expected to weigh in at just under two tons. Lotus projects 0-to-62-mph jaunts of 4.0 seconds flat—0.3 second quicker than it claims for the two-seat 2015 Elise. Top speed is a claimed 196 mph, and carbon-ceramic brake rotors will be on the options list.
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| 2015 Lotus Eterne |
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| 2015 Lotus Eterne |
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| 2015 Lotus Eterne |
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