Paris Show: Lotus wants to Take on Aston Martin Rapide with New Eterne Sports Saloon

In an attempt to enter the 4-door coupe market, Lotus brought a sedan - you read that right - to the Paris Motor Show. The Eterne is the new Lotus 4-door (other Loti saloons include the 377HP twin-turbocharged Lotus Carlton / Omega of the early 1990s, and they sure are cool); it uses a Lotus-tuned new bad boy engine borrowed from Lexus.

This means that sitting under the hood is a high-output forced-induction 5.0-liter V8. As with the Esprit and Elite, the Eterne will offer optional hybrid power and KERS.

An added bonus is available AWD. The Eterne provides seating for four passengers in an 1,800-kilo package that will cost approximately £120,000 [~ US$190,500 at today's exchange rates] before options.

Clearly Lotus sees a market for a prestigious high-performance 4-door with hybrid power, because Dany Bahar plainly states, "We truly believe that there is a market for the Eterne. There is nothing else like it out there both in terms of design, capacity and performance. The biggest difference between the Eterne and it's class competitors is that it's not an evolution of an existing two-door model, it's a deliberate and considered stand-alone creation. It's the ultimate four door sports car."

Hey, who am I to argue with capitalism? For that money, though, I'd just buy a Fisker Karma and go on a nasty vacation.

By Phil Alex

__________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

2015 Lotus Elise Appears in Paris - With Live Pictures and Video

The new Lotus Elise jumps into entirely new styling territory, not so much evolving from the current model but fully reinventing itself as a baby Esprit. The only similarities are the mid-engine layout driving the rear wheels and 2-seats around corners.

Below, Lotus has been kind enough to provide a nicely-designed chart for your convenience instead of spreading all the car's stats across a 15,000-word press release.

The new baby Lotus will get a standard 6-speed manual (with an optional 7-speed DCT) and be powered by a Toyota 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine putting out 320-horsepower.

If the Elise is putting out that kind of go for a £35,000 [around US$55,500] base price, this is looking to be a bargain basement killer. To make that 320 ponies extra green, it will also offer mild hybrid tech and an optional start/stop system when it comes out in Spring 2015.

By Phil Alex

_________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

Bentley Silver Wings Design Study for a Bugatti Veyron Rival

At the 1999 Geneva Motorshow, Volkswagen Group-owned British carmaker Bentley showed a W16 powered supercar concept called the Hunaudières. It was a sleek, cab-forward design finished in British Racing Green and with more chrome than Ludacris' Escalade.

Like so many concept cars, the Hunaudières never made it past being a one-off and Bentley consigned itself once more to making cars for wealthy Brits and Paris Hilton.

Now, two industrial design students from China's Tainjin Academy of Fine Arts, Shawn Wood and Guohua Cheng, have resurrected the Hunaudières in the form of a design study called the Bentley Silver [Filver in one pic, but we guess that was a mistake] Wings.

It's the usual hodgepodge of design elements from Aston Martin, Zonda, Saleen and Bentley of course, but it still has a certain charm about it.

I especially like the Eurofighter-esque foreplanes where the wing mirrors should be and the wheel arches / side profile that emulates the Bentley Speed 8 Le Mans car. It's not a hideous design by any means, just...more of the same.

Mr. Wood and Mr. Cheng have recently graduated and are looking for work; Subaru: you may want to take note.

By Tristan Hankins

Source: Carbodydesign