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The latest European Car mag has a short writeup of the Lotus Emas, the production name for the M250 show car at the recent Frankfurt Auto Show.
The specs look exciting:
- 2-seater with removable top;
- same spartan interior as the Elise;
- 2.3 to 3.0L Renault V6 with 220hp, longitudinally mounted in the middle;
- about 1800lbs;
- top speed of 160mph (about the same as the Boxter S).
It will be slotted between the Elise and the Esprit. I'm a true believer in the lighter-is-better concept. At 1800lbs, it will be more fun to drive than anything else on the road except for perhaps the Elise (although US requirements may very well push this up significantly). And since it's designed with the latest construction techniques in mind, it probably won't have parts falling off like the Esprit. Price was going to be about 45K-50K pounds - about US$60K or so. I also hope the US launch dates would not be much behind the European ones.
I think this time round, Lotus is more than determined to have the car in the US market, esp. after observing how much money Porsche has been making in the US market. And they do get the benefit of starting from a clean sheet of paper. Let's hope the price would be more earthly, and that Lotus would not have problems expanding manufacturing capacity to sell to the US market.
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