2011 Lotus Evora 2+2 Silver W Yellow Trim, Oyster Interior, Sport Pack on 2040-cars

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Lotus hands Pastor Maldonado a new Evora S in Monaco

Being a Formula One driver has its privileges. First off, you get to drive F1 cars for a living. You get treated like royalty and fly around the world. And if you're lucky, you might get a supercar thrown at you once in a while. It all depends on which team you drive for.
Fernando Alonso, for example, has had countless Ferraris, Maseratis, Abarths and Jeeps thrown his way. Lewis Hamilton was a little disappointed not to get the keys to that rare McLaren F1 LM when he won the championship. But Pastor Maldonado just got his hands on a new Lotus Evora S.
Pastor who now, you ask? Pastor Maldonado. The first Venezuelan driver in F1, Maldonado won the GP2 title in 2010 then made the jump to F1, driving for Williams for the past three seasons, impressively winning the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012. Now he's at Lotus filling Kimi Raikkonen's seat, and took delivery of his white Evora - complete with 3.5-liter supercharged V6 and six-speed sequential gearbox - in Monte Carlo last weekend during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lotus said to be planning new sedan, crossover [w/poll]

Lotus has been in limbo in recent years. After former CEO Dany Bahar revealed his plans to build six new models, its parent company was sold, Bahar was sacked, his plans were canceled and a new CEO was hired in the form of former Peugeot chief Jean-Marc Gales. The industry has been waiting ever since to find out what Gales would do with the storied marque, and now we seem to have some indication.
Reports coming in from Malaysia indicate that Jean-Marc presented to the board of parent company Proton a plan for Lotus to build a new sedan and crossover. Though details are scarce, and may seem downright blasphemous for an automaker that built is reputation on lightweight sports cars, it would not be the first time that the House that Colin Built has toyed with either idea.
The company presented the APX crossover concept at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show, and the Eterne sedan concept as part of Bahar's far-reaching plans at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. The new plans may use these concepts as starting points or could go another direction entirely.

Lotus renames Russell Carr its head of design

There's been a changing of the guard at Lotus recently. The legendary British sports car manufacturer fired its controversial chief executive Dany Bahar and replaced him recently with Jean-Marc Gales. And now it's named a new chief designer. Or rather, renamed its old one to the post.
That designer is the appropriately named Russell Carr, who had previously held the post until Bahar brought in his former compatriot Donato Coco (with whom he had previously served at Ferrari) and charged him with designing a series of ambitious but ill-fated concept cars that debuted at the 2010 Paris Motor Show and were subsequently axed on Bahar's way out. Now Coco has been shown the door as well, effective at the end of this month. In his place, Carr - who has been with Lotus since 1990 - has been given back his old job after having been demoted to playing second fiddle to Coco for five years.
Although both Gales and Coco both served in senior positions at PSA Peugeot Citroën, Gales didn't join the French automaker until 2009 - the same year that Coco joined Lotus, five years after having left PSA to work at Ferrari.