New Lotus Eagle Spotted Again

Golden days for Lotus, after a somewhat turbulent past the company has entered clear waters with stable management and has carved out its niche market with the Europa and Elise models. This year signifies Lotus' 60^th anniversary (Colin Chapman build his first Lotus race car in 1948 although he founded Lotus Engineering in 1952) and Lotus plans to celebrate in style with a brand new car at the British International Motor Show.

Rumours that the new Lotus is bigger than the current Elise have been floating around for a while, and these spy photos from France seal the deal that the rumour is very true indeed.

Project Eagle will be powered by a mid-mounted Toyota 3.5 liter V6 petrol engine and will be rear wheel driven only. By using an out-sourced mass-produced engine Lotus has the advantage of being able to focus solely on matters like chassis, safety and weight-saving. Plus that an off-the-shelf engine is a guarantee to pass strict EU and US emissions regulations for relatively little money.

The Lotus Eagle should be priced around GBP 46,000 to GBP 48,000 and there will be five versions of the 2+2 tourer. For the first time on any Lotus, the Lotus Eagle will have paddle-shifters on select models. The Lotus Eagle will go into production late 2008 with sales expected to start early 2009.