A-B (Aston Martin) | C-G (Chevrolet | Dodge | Ferrari | Ford) | H-L (Honda | Lamborghini | Lotus)
M-N (Mazda | Nissan) | O-R (Pontiac | Porsche) | S-Z (Toyota)
Joint Ventures
Ever since that quote above has long been the philosophy of the man named Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, Lotus is a British brand highly known by their glamorous looks and its association with sporty and sophisticated driving. They are the superlight Pint-Sized Powerhouse sports cars that pack quite a lot of punch. Lotus has long been highly associated in mainly British films and television, but also in rare exceptions overseas, since the brand from Norfork pretty much feels like home.
Your textbook example of a British Fragile Speedster in sports car form.
It all began with one of Colin Chapman's penned masterpieces: The Lotus Seven, which help kickstarted the brand's image back in 1957. Because it's marketed as a street legal car, intended for public roads, its open-wheeled Formula One-esque body would make the Seven well suited for clubman racing.
Following the end of production of the Lotus Seven in 1972, Sussex-based kit car company Caterham bought the manufacturing rights from Lotus, alas... a new breed of super-lightweight sports cars was reborn: the modernized Caterham Seven.
Throughout its period, the Caterham Seven has multiple trim levels and offers various engine types, ranging from Ford Duratec four-cylinders to even motorcycle engines from Honda or Suzuki sports bikes.
Anime and Manga
- 12-year old Souichi Sugano from éX-Driver drives a yellow Japan-spec Caterham, used to chase down and stop malfunctioning Automated Automobiles. Don't mind his age though, an éx-Driver like him can operate a manual vehicle, regardless of age.
- The anime version of Gate Keepers features British racer Jim Skylark, rolling in his personal Cool Car, the Lotus Seven.
- Sena Nakajima from You're Under Arrest! is a 20-year old married woman... a housewife.... and is the owner of the Lotus Super Seven. Justified, she's a sports car entusiast after all and she runs a motorcycle shop with her husband.
- Stanislas "Stan" Borowitz of the French film Cop or Hood is the owner of the Caterham Super Seven
◊. And doesn't it look cool enough? Well... cool enough to deliberately drive and ram inside a house.
- One of the iconic examples of this British icon is Patrick McGoohan's signature role as Number Six in The Prisoner (1967), where the opening sequence has him driving his Lotus Seven S2 around the roads of London. ...even though the car is rarely used outside the intro. Its still a Cool Car nonetheless.
- In Chris Rea's 1991 music video "Auberge", which everything in the video is Deliberately Monochrome, the Caterham 7 can be easily spotted in the background (and the only one colored too, as it is in its blue paint job). And to top it off, the album and single cover itself also entitled Auberge has the Caterham on the front cover.
- Gran Turismo 4 has the Caterham Seven Fireblade, utilizing a motorcycle engine from a Honda superbike.
- The Locust in Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 evidently based on the 60's Lotus Seven, presumably as a Shout-Out of The Prisoner as mentioned above.
- Lotus Sevens in Lotus Challenge. Obviously. What can you expect?
- What happens if you put a Works conversion on a Caterham Superlight R500 in Shift 2: Unleashed? You get a rocket-looking Formula One car.
- Both the Âge Pegase and the Terrazi Starnose in Ridge Racer strongly resemble Caterham Seven models by its looks. Being a special car, it's way too hot to take on events.
- Tails loves Caterham 7/Lotus Super Seven sports cars as his personal favorite Cool Car in Sonic the Hedgehog. And it shows nicely in Sonic Drift as Tails drives this Super Seven-lookalike dubbed the "Whirlwind S7". And it continues to show up in Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed and Team Sonic Racing .
- Test Drive Unlimited offers the Caterham CSR 260, a lightweight sports car that is considered to be some Pint-Sized Powerhouse. The sequel also adds the Superlight R500 as another Palette Swap DLC for the Caterham 7.
The Elan is the name of Lotus's small but sporty coupé and roadster. It was the first to receive the twin-cam engine, months ahead of the very special Cortina.
The first series was made from 1962 to 1975, and it would be the first of the brand to use a steel backbone chassis with a fiberglass body. The car only weighs at about 1,500 lb. (680 kg), ensuring the quality and to also embody Colin Chapman's philosophy of "simplifying, then add lightness". It runs on a Lotus DOHC twin-cam inline-4 engine, with four-wheel brake disks and independent suspension, fitted with rack and pinion steering. Originally introduced as a roadster, the Elan also offered an optional hardtop roof, and even a fixed head coupé version, and a 2+2 fastback called the Elan +2. The Elan decided to take a break in 1975, with about 12,224 units produced.
In 1989, the Elan was finally revived after a 14-year hiatus. Though in its modern iteration, it still retained its construction formula as well as staying true to Colin Chapman's low-weight philosophy.Outside of the United Kingdom, it's referred as the Kia Motech and the Kia Vigato in South Korea and Japan respectively. Differentiating from the previous generation, it now uses a Toyota-supplied 1.6 L engine and transmission, and shifted to a front-wheel drive instead. Problems arose when the front-wheel drive layout would actually be too impractical and unusual for a sports car which resulted in poor sales and pulling the plug off the Elan production with about only 1,000 produced.
The Lotus Elan was widely owned by famous celebrities, past and present, such as Peter Sellers, Paul Newman and even Jay Leno, but also saw a major tragedy when Irish socialite Tara Browne drove his Elan at high speed while under the influence and crashed onto a parked lorry, an incident which took his life, and best known for being referenced in The Beatles song "A Day in the Life".
Anime and Manga
- One of the cars that Ryoji Kaji drives throughout Neon Genesis Evangelion is a 1964 Lotus Elan 1600 convertible. It's an Author Appeal since Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the character designer behind the anime and one of the founders of Gainax actually owns one in Real Life.
- You have this sweet ride in Honey, I Blew Up the Kid where one scene a teen couple in yellow Lotus Elan Type 100 being driven along a Fremont Street. A giant Adam would mess around with the sports car as if it were a toy.
- The world would widely remember Chief Inspector Clouseau of the The Pink Panther film series, as the comically inept French police detective of the film of the same name would drive a yellow Elan S2 S/E to chase down an Amphicar. Clouseau had learned the hard way that the Elan does not float.
- In fact, his portrayer Peter Sellers once owned this.
- Valerie Chrane from The Firechasers would use a red Lotus Elan.
- Emma Peel of The Avengers (1960s) must be really a Lotus Elan convertible aficionado since she drove both a white 1964 and a powder blue 1966, which, like her clothes, emphasized her independence and vitality.
- Elans are everywhere in Department S. You may name several characters who drive this timeless machine, but what signifies it the most is that it would be the new Cool Car of Annabelle Hurst, who effectively replaced her Lancia Fulvia Coupe for this.
- Other than the aforementioned Lotus Seven that barely gets any screen time outside of the opening, this car, the powder blue Elan S3, would be the Cool Car that's driven by Number 6 throughout The Prisoner (1967). It may assume that Number 6 may have the same taste as Emma Peel.
- We mentioned in the description about how the tragic death of Tara Browne after crashing his Elan would be referenced in The Beatles song "A Day in the Life".
- The Elan Sprint has appeared in every single Forza Motorsport game. Horizon on the other hand? Well, not all. This would end up being a Game-Breaking Bug car in Motorsport 2 where the Elan's performance would be widely exploited, allowing players to put in absurdly insane fast times. Fortunately, Turn 10 Studios doesn't tolerate cheaters and revoked the scoreboard of those illegal lap times.
- There's various Elan trims in Gran Turismo 2, until it was singlehandedly replaced by the Elan S1 in 4, the car you win in the "Lotus Classics" one-make race.
- Lotus Challenge hasn't forgotten the history of Colin Chapman when three different Elans from different generations showed up...
- ...and the other Lotus-only game, Lotus Turbo Challenge has the Elan as the car you start off the game.
- That Teeny Racer sports car from the video game version of Toy Story 3 is looesly based on the Lotus Elan.
The Elise and Exige are both small, lightweight, mid-engined sports cars by Lotus. While both share the same body, the difference between the Elise and Exige is the former being a targa-top roadster whereas the latter is a hardcore coupé.
Lotus's image has a philosophy of making cars that "add more lightness", and it shows as these cars have extruded aluminium chassis and fiberglass body parts that contribute to the sports cars' performance, weighing under 1,000 kilos. Initially both models use a lighter inline-4 engine, with the exception of the Series 3 Exige in 2012, exchanging it for a Toyota V6 engine.
There were also similarly derived models based on either the Elise or the Exige, such as the open-wheel 340R, the track oriented speedster called the 2-Eleven and the 3-Eleven and the comfortable variant, the Europa S (which is also a modernised version of the Lotus Europa of The '60s and The '70s), and an almighty American hypercar built from the Lotus Elise/Exige chassis, the 1,244 hp monstrous Hennessey Venom GT.
Both the Elise and Exige alongside the Lotus Evora ceased production in 2021, and all the three were replaced by the brand-new Lotus Emira.
Anime and Manga
- Kakeru Yashio, the specialist of formation in MF Ghost is the driver behind the white Lotus Exige S. Its lightweight but powerful engine is strong enough to pull Kanata's 86 away in the straightaways that even slipstreaming won't help, but somewhat lacks the skills in cornering.
- The obvious Death Race cash-in knockoff Death Racers fully centers about the yellow Lotus Elise.
- Red 2... Helen Mirren. Guns akimbo. Inside Han's blue Lotus Exige doing a donut on a street in London. With the epic opening riff from "Given Up" playing in the background. And can literally drive sideways Under the Truck. Wicked.Victoria: Show me something.
- The Anomaly in Primeval appears in the race circuit full of Lotuses. Elise, Exige, 2-Eleven, you name it.
- "Ayo Technology" by 50 Cent features a hot girl driving a red Lotus Elise at the nightlife of London.
Video Games
- The beautiful looking Roadster in Burnout 2: Point of Impact is likely based on the Elise. Its design would later spawn the Watson R-Turbo Roadster in Burnout Paradise.
- While there is already a Lotus Exige on the list, perhaps this will knock your brain. The scariest hypercar ever known for its absurdly fast and tail-happy vehicle, is the Hennessey Venom GT from Driveclub. It's alluring sounds makes this one deadly speedster.
- Lotus Challenge, as the game is dedicated to nothing but Lotus cars, make the Elise, Exige and other related models feel like home.
- At least one iteration of the Lotus Elise appeared in every Gran Turismo game, since its inception in 2 and up to 6. Also in 2, you have the special Elise GT1.
- The Voltic in Grand Theft Auto V is supposed to be based on the first-gen Tesla Roadster, but since it was built on the Lotus Elise chassis, Rockstar added a lot of Elise influence to its design.
- Being the only British brand in Kaidō Battle 2: Chain Reaction comes along the Lotus Elise and Exige. (with the classic Europa also in the brand's lineup).
- L.A. Rush features Japanese and American sports cars in the roster... until you have the only British brand added as well, with the Elise and Exige being featured, which both are just way too hot to be pimped.
- Some of the notable example of this lightweight British car in Need for Speed:
- Need for Speed II has the Lotus Elise GT1 without the signature spoiler. A very nimble car that sacrifices top speed for handling capabilities, making this the go-to car for technical courses.
- The Series 2 Elise appears as one of the early starter cars in Hot Pursuit 2. And the first ever Ultimate Racer mission has you... deliver the said Elise while cops are chasing your ass.
- While it returned in Most Wanted, this is Neville's Tier 2 Exotic car in Carbon. Along side it has the Europa S as a bonus car, one of the few games to ever feature this rare gem.
- Both the Elise and Exige appear in both Shift games. For the later, the car is awarded for free by completing the Modern C Invitational Event.
- The Run features the S2 Exige Cup 260. In the Wii/3DS version, this yellow sports car is the unnamed Co-Driver's car where she lends it to Matt for the Epic Race. He ditches her car in the middle of nowhere in favor for a powerful Mustang.
- Also, other than the Exige, has one of the legendary hypercars added; the Exige-based Hennessey Venom GT, where its Spyder variant gets added in the Ultimate Speed Pack of Most Wanted (2012). It's even an Infinity+1 Car that it rivals above the Veyron SS and Agera for top speed and acceleration supremacy.
- The same S2 Exige as mentioned above carries over in all of Ghost Games games, starting with the 2015 reboot. Unbound in one of the major updates would give us the Legendary Customs variant, with added monstrous bite. Literally.
- The first two Project Gotham Racing games made use of the S1 Exige, with the S2 Elise, the 340R joining in later on. In 3, where supercars are the emphasis has the carbon-fibre cladded Elise GT1 and in 4 uses the cool-looking Exige GT3.
- Test Drive Unlimited has both the S2 Elise 111R and the Exige 240R. Both considered a Pint-Sized Powerhouse due to its small but sporty performing cars due to is insane acceleration and high handling.
One of Lotus's Long-Runners is this rear mid-engined sports car from 1976 to 2004.
Designed by Italdesign's Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Esprit is one of the few sports cars to use the "Italian wedge" body which was sometimes best described as straight-lined, hard-edge creased, polygonal "folded paper" design, which would later predate the design of the DMC DeLorean.
The first Esprit was launched on October 1975 at the Paris Motor Show as a 1976 model, effectively replacing the Lotus Europa. Since it was the first, it was called the Series 1 (or the S1) Esprit. While it was short lived, the Esprit gets a makeover in 1978 for the Series 2, whereas the Series 3 in 1982-1988 is the first to have a turbocharged variant, thus the aplty named "Turbo Esprit". While majority of its models typically utilize a 2.0 L/2.2 L inline-4 engine, the Series 4 introduced in 1996 has the Esprit V8, hence the name, utilizing a 918 V8 engine with twin turbochargers from Garrett.
The Esprit discontinued in 2004 after 28 years of production, and alongside the Chevrolet Corvette (C5), the Lotus Esprit was the last car to feature retractable pop-up headlights.
Esprits have been an active sports car in motorsports, which saw dominance in The '90s, courtesy of Danish driver Thorkild Thyrring winning the 1993 and 1994 British GT Championship.
Film — Live Action
- A black 1990 Lotus Esprit SE in Basic Instinct that Sharon Stone's character drives is a gorgeous car that met its demise when it crashed into a barricade. The car is dead. The girl? Not really.
- Dr. Barry Nyle of Beyond the Black Rainbow drives a wedge sports car only a step removed from older concept models—a Lotus Esprit that seems to be powered by something... otherworldly. However, it's really the only cool thing about his look or surroundings.
- Batou of the live-action Ghost in the Shell (2017) has a futuristic-looking Cyberpunk-esque Esprit as his personal Cool Car.
- Michael's Cool Car in If Looks Could Kill is the red Lotus Esprit. Once Michael sees it, he stops insisting that he's a high-school student.
- The DB5 isn't the only British car James Bond film, where you have this British beauty from Lotus.
- The Amphibious Automobile Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me, nicknamed "Wet Nellie" by fans. After the film came out, demand grew so much that customers were put on a three-year waiting list.
- A Lotus Esprit Turbo from For Your Eyes Only sadly doesn't last long and Bond has to make do with a Citroën 2CV.
- The Lotus Esprit is pretty much the go-to Cool Car in Pretty Woman. When the film was made, it was cutting-edge: the car so cool and obscure even lovers of cool, obscure cars had only heard rumors. Now it's practically a legend.
- The red Esprit means a lot of business when James Belushi's character uses it at the end of Taking Care of Business.
- While Joe's Porsche 944 is cool enough to be called a Cool Car in Halt and Catch Fire, the final episode has him finally fancying himself a similarly sporty Lotus Esprit, teasing a return to his former self.
- The silver Esprit was driven by one stocky muscular bad guy during a Car Chase in Miami Vice, which was also pulling off a 180.
- The Revival of The Professionals called CI5: The Professionals has Keel in the episode "High Speed" drive a Lotus Esprit as he outruns a small plane.
- In Remington Steele, the title character was chasing some thugs in Cannes when he almost was run down by a red G-Esprit.
- "Lonely Day" by Phantom Planet. Alex Greenwald driving an orange Lotus Esprit around Hollywood... falling from SPACE.
- Marc Anthony drives a black Esprit as he chases his love interest in a blue Camaro in his song "I Need You".
- You can recreate the experience of The Spy Who Loved Me with the Lotus Esprit in the "Submerged" mission of 007 Racing.
- Agent Under Fire has the Wet Nellie as a bonus unlockable car, just by simply getting a gold in Streets of Bucharest.
- The first stage of Chase H.Q. has you catch Ralph, the Idaho Slasher in a white Lotus Esprit, in which Karen just simply calls it a "white British sports car".
- Forza has the Esprit V8 in nearly every game in the franchise. There is also the Esprit Turbo that only appeared in Motorsport 4, plus the James Bond Edition in Horizon 4 where you sadly can't take advantage of its submergibility. Oh, and adding a roll cage blocks half the windscreen so you can only see the bottom half of the road.
- Befitting the London setting, The Getaway: Black Monday features this Esprit V8, which is also used as a police car for high speed chases.
- The Gran Turismo games feature tons of X180 Esprits, with some rare cases like the Esprit GT1 and the S3 Turbo HC in 2 and 4 respectively.
- The Ardent in Grand Theft Auto Online is based on the Esprit.
- The aptly-named Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge puts you in this titular car.
- Lotus Challenge is your obvious example. In fact it brings in all the Esprit generations, plus the GT1 race car in the mix.
- The Esprit in Midnight Club 3 is no slouch of awesomeness. In fact, amongst all the tuners, it has the highest handling, allowing you to maneuver on corners and sticky situations with ease.
- The Lotus Esprit V8 made it one and only appearance in Need for Speed II as one of the C-Class cars. It never show up in its games until in a No Limits update in October 2021.
- The Esprit V8 is a prominent midship sports car in Project Gotham Racing 2 & 3. 4 gives you the Essex Turbo instead.
- Appears as one of the add-on cars of The Duel: Test Drive II. In TD Overdrive, the Esprit V8 serves as the police car in the London map, where as the same car (albeit facelifted) returned in Test Drive Unlimited. Unlimited 2 instead uses the S3 Esprit, used in Classic Racing School Driving Test.
- Another good example of a Lotus Esprit-only Racing Game would be the so-called Turbo Esprit, the game that predated Grand Theft Auto.
In The '60s, the original Europa was established to be a mass producing two-seater sports coupe, with a very reasonable price. Colin Chapman wanted to replace its Lotus Seven with a much more versatile but state-of-the-art sports car while keeping his "Simplify, then add lightness" philosophy.
Unique to this car is is lightweight, minimalistic steel backbone chassis with its plastic body bonded to it for extra rigidity, and its unusual "bread-van" styling where the engine and transmission are placed. While it's a weird sight at its time, it was aerodynamically revolutionary. Under the hood comes a 1.5/1.6L 4-cylinder Renault engine, producing 63 hp. Later, Europas were fitted with the Ford-Lotus DOHC TwinCam engine, which was also used in the Elan in 1962, allowing it to be uprated to 126 hp. This would become the basis for the Europa Twin Can and Europa Special.
While production ceased in 1975 with about 9,200 cars built, the Europa name was revived in 2006, as the Europa S, based on the existing Lotus Elise.
Anime and Manga
- An iconic example from The '70s... Shonen Jump's Circuit no Ōkami (The Circuit Wolf) has this legendary white and red striped modified Lotus Europa driven by The Protagonist, Yuuya Fubuki.
- As one of the three protagonists, this is Lorna Endō's signature Cool Car in éX-Driver, a highly-modified white Lotus Europa, ready to pursue Automated Automobiles out of control.
- Charles Grodin's 1974 film 11 Harrowhouse involves Lady Balding ripping down the country road in her Europa Special, doing controlled 180's and generally showing what that sports car can do albeit driving it on gravel. Very British.
- The '60s British series The Avengers (1960s)note features a red Lotus Europa as one of Tara King's cool cars.
- In one episode of J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai, the episode revolving the eight supercars included the Lotus Europa, as part of the chase against Crime Rider.
- Choro Q ain't afraid of referencing the Circuit no Okami car in its cute Super-Deformed mode.
- Europas were one of the European classics since Gran Turismo 2. And when you perform a racing modification in that nice ol' classy car, it allows you to select a white body with red stripes, straight out of a 70's racing manga called Circuit no Ōkami (The Circuit Wolf). It gets a fully-detailed treatment in 6 and is one of the six cars with the 15th Anniversary Model variation.
- Lotus Challenge offers two different variations of the hearse: the standard S1 and the Europa Special.
- In quite a rare sight, Need for Speed: Carbon features the modern-day, Elise-based Lotus Europa S, considered as an unlockable custom tier 2 exotic machine. You get to try this in one of the Drift challenge series.
- You can take Colin Chapman's "sports hearse" around the streets in Project Gotham Racing 4 as it is one of the lightweight G-class cars.
- The Âge Megere in Ridge Racer is meant to resemble the Europa.
- The Backyard-SP in Racing Lagoon is a lightweight and very aerodynamic sports car based on the classic Europa.
- A Wanderer named SPEED BOX, drives a Lotus Europa, one of the few British cars in a Japanese-setting in Tokyo Xtreme Racer. The Europa itself later returned in Kaido Battle 1 & 2 (TXD Drift), but sadly, it's only exclusive to Japan, because... ...y'know. Writing Around Trademarks
