Tuesday 6th February 2018

New range of Lotus 70th anniversary editions

Exige and Elise get a birthday spruce up to mark seven decades of Lotus

---

Apologies, first off. These special edition Lotuses have been known to the world for a couple of days now, but they hadn't yet come onto our news radar. Can we call it fashionably late to the birthday party? Here's what you need to know...

The Exige 70th Edition will be available as either a Sport 350 or Sport 380, with three classic Lotus colours - Empire Green, Essex Blue and Monaco White. Further distinguishing the 70th are additional badges, stickers and stitching, with the adornments conveniently reminding you of the maximum permitted speed for your Lotus in the UK... From what can be seen from these pics they feature ahead of the rear wheels and on the headrests.

Prices haven't yet been announced for the 70th Edition, though just 40 will be made; therefore expect a slight premium over the £57,200 and £67,900 asked for the standard Sport 350 and 380 models respectively.

The Elise has also been given a new birthday get up, celebrating that most iconic Lotus motorsport colour scheme with the GP Edition. Based on a Cup 250, its black and gold livery is continued inside with various nods to the F1 success as well. In case you hadn't heard. This time production seemingly isn't limited but a price is still unconfirmed; a regular Cup 250 currently retails at £46,500.

All jolly marvellous, though it probably won't have escaped your attention that these Lotuses don't boast any new weight saving or performance enhancing measures, as is Hethel tradition. So a secondhand alternative may just suffice, if you can do without the birthday badges... See this Essex Blue Exige Sport 350, a 2017 car but still unused, or this Kawasaki Green Elise Cup 250 - who wants black anyway? Finally, should your Lotus F1 tastes lean more towards 25s than 72s, how about a Cup 250 in a one-off colour combo?

[Source: Lotus, via Twitter]

 

[Over over under steer]

Owned an s'charged Elise Cup Racer. Great car, love Lotus, wish them nothing but success.

But.... Christ there is a special edition every other week at the moment. Not sure how that makes me feel now, but when I was an owner my model (at least to me) felt out of date pretty quickly. Not sure how this is making other new Lotus owners, perhaps I was just a bit wet.